Plenty of girls have trouble relating to their parents. Few have to turn to a dictionary for help. Ruby Tuesday Sweet keeps a battered webster's by her side -- but when her dad tunes in to eight baseball games at a time on his wall of TVs, his talk of parlays and chalks and spreads keeps Ruby mystified. Then the Dodgers win the World Series, Ruby Tuesday's dad wins a bet, and his bookie is murdered. Ruby finds herself on the run to Las Vegas with her long-lost rock-and-roll mom in a race against the thugs who want Mr. Sweet's winning ticket.

A rare breakthrough novel, Ruby Tuesday is the story of a gambling father, a card-shark grandmother, and a family of women inhabiting a Vegas casino. At the center of it all is the girl who never noticed they were different.