2026: BOTM: July - "Winner's Curse" by L.A. Starks > Likes and Comments

Our July Book of the Month is with L.A. Starks and her thriller Winner's Curse.

This energy technothriller takes readers to the dramatic world of the oil and gas sector.

Goodreads Information:
Published: 20 Aug 2024
Kindle Edition: 294 pages
Paperback: 308 pages
Virtual Voice Audiobook

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Synopsis of Winner's Curse:

Winner’s Curse is a pulse-pounding new thriller that will hurl you through the eye-opening and unexpectedly dramatic world of the energy sector. While taking you from the desolate, windswept plains of West Texas to the salons of Hungary, Starks expertly infuses her insider knowledge of this trillion-dollar industry into a thriller that seamlessly blends action/adventure, conspiracy, and techno/science fiction thriller sub-genres.

Just chosen to lead the drilling division of TriCoast Energy, protagonist Lynn Dayton is determined to prove herself capable but finds herself facing more than just the usual water-cooler backstabbing.

Undercutting her at every turn is former TriCoast Executive, Henry Vandervoost, who blames her for his humiliating fall from power. Ruthlessly competing with Lynn for control of Bradshaw Energy, his own playboy son’s company that has revolutionary energy technology, Vandervoost enlists the help of attractive young chemist Hannah Bosko to assist him in taking over the company.

Lynn must battle Vandervoost and international power players who conspire to eliminate her and her colleagues, foil conspiracies to sabotage natural gas plants, and complete a merger that will ensure that the technology remains in the hands of those who will use it to benefit the world.

Winner’s Curse is an action/adventure thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Winner's Curse
A few details from the author, L. A. Starks

The series: The Lynn Dayton thriller series features up-by-her-bootstraps engineer Lynn Dayton who must find and stop sabotage in the trillion-dollar energy businesses in which secretive conflicts threaten thousands of lives across the globe.

Fun fact: Working more than a decade for well-known energy companies and consultants in engineering, marketing, and finance, from refineries to corporate offices, prepared L. A. Starks to write global energy thrillers.

Another fun fact: “Winner’s Curse” refers to the likelihood, first observed for offshore oil leasing auctions by some of Starks’ co-workers, that the winning bidders have probably overestimated the value of the lease they have won. Essentially, they have paid far too dearly.