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The Kings of Vegas: Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman Reveal the True Stories Behind Summer’s Hottest Thriller
Mobsters. Casino dynasties. Legendary card counters. Bestselling authors Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman tell Spark Hamptons how growing up in old Las Vegas inspired one of this summer’s most talked-about novels—a glamorous, high-stakes page-turner where family drama, romance, organized crime and the battle for a casino empire collide.
On a picture-perfect summer afternoon overlooking the Atlantic, Tony Award-winning producer Daryl Roth and Nancy Marks welcomed guests to Marks’ East Hampton home to celebrate two of the season’s standout books: The Kings of Vegas, the new novel by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman, and Ruthie Rogers’ Table 4 at the River Cafe. Katie Couric, Barbara Guggenheim, and other guests gathered for an afternoon of books, conversation, and lunch while taking in the ocean views. [See event photos here.}
Already earning rave reviews, the novel has also caught Hollywood’s attention. According to Mack, six studios bid on the project, which is now in development as a streaming television series.
Mack is a third-generation Las Vegan whose grandfather opened one of the family’s first casinos during the Prohibition era. Growing up in a multigenerational casino family gave her a front-row seat to a side of old Las Vegas few people ever saw, providing the inspiration for many of the people, places and unforgettable moments woven throughout The Kings of Vegas.
Spark Hamptons spoke with Mack and Jennifer Kaufman — a longtime writing team — about the remarkable people and experiences that inspired The Kings of Vegas and why audiences are gravitating to their novel.
You describe yourself as a “casino kid.” What was it really like growing up in old Las Vegas?
Karen Mack: I always tell people being a casino kid was a lot like growing up in the family of a firefighter or police officer. We all knew each other, and we practically lived at the casinos.
The characters in the book are based on real people. Our next-door neighbor was a guy named Icepick Willie. I thought that was a normal name. I went to school with Dave “The Man” Berman’s daughter, and I assumed “The Man” was just his middle name.
When you’re a kid, you don’t realize your world is unusual. You try to grow up in a place and lead a normal life in a city that’s not all normal.
It’s glamorous, and it’s dangerous, and it’s unlike any city on Earth. I think that’s what makes it unique — that kind of upbringing.
How much of the novel comes from your own family history?
Karen Mack: Quite a bit.
I’m a third-generation Nevadan. My grandfather fled Los Angeles during Prohibition after his whiskey still exploded. He moved to Nevada while Boulder Dam was being built and eventually opened our family’s first casino around 1929 or 1930. He called it the Jackpot — which, coincidentally, is also the name of the casino in our novel.
The book is fiction, but many of the people, places and stories were inspired by my childhood and the extraordinary characters I grew up around. Like when I was 12, my girlfriend was a math genius and she knew how to count cards. We’d go to the casino and she would whisper to me, “He should hit now. He should not.” So we used that kind of prodigy in the character of Josie, the Queen Scam It.
How does it work with two authors? How do you write together?
Karen Mack: We write together in the same room, which is unusual. We sit side by side, each with our own computer.
This is our fourth book. When we first started, Jennifer came from journalism and I came from screenwriting, so I naturally wrote more of the dialogue while she focused more on description. Over the years, that’s completely changed. Now we both write everything.
We read every chapter out loud to each other. If one of us stumbles over a sentence, we know it isn’t right. We rewrite it, read it again and keep editing until it works.
Our first book really came out of a conversation. We sent it out, four publishers started bidding on it, and we’ve been writing together ever since.
What made you decide to set this novel in Las Vegas?
Karen Mack: Jennifer kept telling me my stories about growing up in Las Vegas were too good not to use.
For years we worked on other projects, but she kept insisting we had to write this book because the stories were unlike anything she’d ever heard.
This is the first time we’ve really drawn on my own background, and it ended up being the most fun book we’ve written.
Do people you know from Vegas recognize themselves in the book?
Karen Mack: Oh, absolutely.
Friends from Las Vegas are constantly calling to ask, “Is this character me?”
The truth is they’re composites of a lot of people I knew growing up. We drew from lots of different people and stories.
What do you think Hollywood gets wrong about Las Vegas?
Karen Mack: Most movies tell the story from the outside looking in. Living there was a completely different experience.
Yes, there was glamour. There was organized crime. There was certainly misogyny.
My father was president of a casino, and men would walk up to him — right in front of me — and ask, “Can you get me some girls?” as casually as if they were asking for directions.
But for those of us who lived there, it was also simply home.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about old Las Vegas?
Karen Mack: That it wasn’t a real community.
When I was growing up, Las Vegas was still a small town. Before the corporations arrived, most casinos were family-owned businesses passed from one generation to the next.
Everybody knew everybody.
It wasn’t unusual to pick up the phone, hear a click and know the FBI was listening. My friends and I used to joke about it. We’d purposely mention fake meetings in Pahrump just to send the agents driving an hour in the wrong direction.
Looking back, it sounds unbelievable — but that really was everyday life.
What did you take away from Vegas, in terms of life lessons, that helped you as an adult?
Karen Mack: I loved some of the mob sayings, like, “You’re either at the table, or you’re on the menu.”
It was a small town, but there was no segregation. People moved in and out of different social groups.
I was so surprised when I moved to Los Angeles and found there were country clubs that didn’t take Jews. We never had that in Vegas. It was a society where they welcomed people. They didn’t care about their background, and a lot of people who came through had very interesting, different backgrounds.
How has Las Vegas changed since you were growing up there?
Karen Mack: It’s completely different.
The biggest change came when family-owned casinos gradually gave way to large corporations. Once that happened, everything became more structured, more regulated and much more driven by the bottom line.
The larger-than-life personalities I grew up around largely disappeared, although there are still a few.
Steve Wynn really ushered in the era of the mega-resorts, and that transformed the city forever.
Was it difficult to leave Las Vegas?
Karen Mack: Very.
The only colleges I applied to were UCLA and USC because I didn’t want to be too far from home.
When I first moved to Los Angeles, it felt enormous compared to Las Vegas. I actually dropped out of UCLA after my first year and moved back home for a while when my father was running the Riviera.
Eventually I returned to UCLA, went to law school and later worked in the entertainment industry. But I’ve always stayed connected to Las Vegas. My mother, sister, nieces and nephews still live there, and until recently I was visiting almost every month.
What do you think a reader of this book will be most surprised by?
Jennifer Kaufman: I’d say Josie’s personality changing from being a sort of deer in the headlights to becoming just as manipulative and dangerous as her enemies. She pushes boundaries. The “what happens next” factor is her changing personality.
The biggest comment we got was that this book is a page-turner and, “I finished this book in two days.” I think almost every review called it a page-turner.
It was fun to write. We tried to keep up the tension and the thriller aspect of it. And, of course, it’s a sexy thriller, so we tried to get the slow burn of the romance.
What kind of audience is gravitating to the book?
Karen Mack: We’ve got a lot of women in their 30s who are the same age as Josie. Also, guys who like crime novels are liking it, too.
What’s next for the two of you?
Karen Mack: We’re doing a new book, and we’re setting it in Las Vegas because we’re having such a good time.
It’s a love story with thriller aspects to it. We may or may not follow some of the characters. We’re still deciding.
Sounds fun. Anything you want to add?
Karen Mack: I’ll tell you one more story.
About four or five years ago, I called my mother in Vegas, and during the call I heard the doorbell ring. So I said, “What’s going on?”
She goes, “I just have to get the door. It’s Elton.”
I said, “What do you mean it’s Elton?”
She goes, “Oh, you know he has a residency in Vegas. He doesn’t like playing tennis at the hotel because people look at him.”
My mom had a tennis court with a little tennis pavilion. She said, “I give him lemonade. They’re such nice boys.”
I said, “Mom, how long has this been going on?”
She said, “Oh, about three months.”
I said, “You didn’t even bother telling me you’ve got Elton John there?”
Just another day in Vegas…
Yes. Another Las Vegas story.
The Kings of Vegas by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman is available now wherever books are sold.
