Nevada Books

If I could only purchase one book on Vegas, this would be the one I'd choose. It was much more helpful then Las Vegas for Dummies and Fodor's Vegas.

I have found this book to be full of great information! I look forward to utilizing it while we are in Vegas to do things that we normally wouldn't know about or would be less likely to find. Sometimes it's hard to remember where you read about something but I'm excited about checking out some of things I've found while reading the guide.

Good book, although I felt some of the reviews were not accurate. Some things you just need to do to experience all that Vegas has to offer. Definitely recommended to find about about the places you have yet to discover.

Despite having been to Vegas a dozen times over the past ten years, it had been three years since my last trip. Knowing how much changes, I bought this guide to help sort out what was different for better or worse.

For the most part, its packed with solid advice. The narration takes a very skeptical voice, which is exactly what a place like Vegas needs. Its great to see hyper-advertised shows and hotels laid bare, such as with the very balanced review of Danny Gans and the honest perceptions of The Palms. Its also good to see off strip non-gaming destinations get some print, even all the way out to an Area 51 guide! Everything that's worth seeing gets mentioned.

However, that same skeptical narration is also too self aware. Rather than accepting that a person who has paid money for a guide book of Vegas probably has some idea of what they're getting into, the narration belabors the obvious to the point of mocking the reader for drinking the Vegas Kool-Aid. Stating that the décor is "giggle inducing" or that certain shows are simply so overrated that they're unreviewable is about as cynical as reminding us that Mickey Mouse is really just a guy in a suit, so be sure to look with scorn on children lining up to see him. I don't think anyone is going to select a hotel because of a plaster sphinx, but that's part of why you pick Vegas over Atlantic City or Orlando. Above all, a guide book should respect the reader's decision to go to a destination and perhaps future editions will remember that.

The guide spends copious amounts of text describing how things used to be. While the reflections of a veteran casino dealer are interesting, the discourse continues in the hotel reviews. Many of the hotels seem to be judged relative to how they were in the past; not against comparable properties as they are today. Its useful when used to accentuate something that has changed recently, but extraneous when belaboring how things were decades ago. New properties raise the bar, older properties lose their luster. We got it.

Another frustration is the lack of relative comparison between hotels. While the star ratings are accurate, the reasons why you would stay at one property over another with the same rating aren't spelled out very well. Since a wide range of price and quality are available, the nuances are what make an informed decision. With a lot of that glossed over, it would be easy to select a hotel that you weren't happy with because of a detail you felt misinformed about, say pool size or the general demographics the hotel is trying to attract.

Its easy to get disillusioned with Vegas and focus on what's different today as opposed to what makes a trip to Vegas different than a trip anywhere else. If anything, that's what this guide suffers from. Its like that one member of your family that finds fault with everything while you're on vacation; you wish they would just appreciate the fact that you're there and not somewhere else.

I bought Frommer's Las Vegas 2008 even though last year I'd previously purchased and read the 2007 edition. This years is a good update that builds off of last years work. There is updated information- after all everything changes constantly in Vegas. Having never been there I wanted to make sure I was getting the absolute best deal for when I and my friends go.

The hotel I was interested in wasn't even worth mentioning, room wise, last year. but now it's considered one of the best rooms on the strip and I'm greedily content with the good deal I'm getting. Last years book covered the $$$$ hotels a little too much, glorifying them when most of us that are buying the book can't afford to spend $500 per night to stay in them a few days. This year's, I'm happy to say, covers the rooms the rest of us can temporarily call home.

It can't cover every single restaurant and bar, but it does give a decent break down from the ultra trendy and expensive to Crispy Kreme's. Also there is a little more mention of the various hotels spa's, though it's still pretty skimpy and that's one of the areas I wanted more on. But this really is a good over view. Now I just can't wait to go!

This book was graphic at times and sick and sad, all at the same time. How a father could do what he did to his son is way beyond me. What they both did to a 10 yr. old girl is beyond even my imagination. It was hard to read this book for me. I am glad that I only have about 10 more pages to go.

This book, is like other reviewers have said, horrifying. It deviates so far from the norm that it shows what happens when human beings have been degraded to the level of ignorant animals.

Thomas Soria Sr, is a complete and total monster, who comes from a family of violent criminals. He shows us what happens when a father ignores everything society has taught him and degrades himself to the level of a dumb, immoral animal. The things he did were beyond humane, and so incredibly perverse that I have to claim that he is the worst criminal that I've ever read about, including books like "Cellar Of Horror" which details the exploits of the cannabalistic Gary Heidnik and "Suffer the little children" the story of Jesse Cummings, the polygamist who put his two wives through Hell every single day and ended up raping and murdering his eleven year old niece and his sister.

The situation goes beyond ludicrous. It includes sodomy, father-son incest, and Thomas Soria Sr. even goes so far as to eat his son TJ's feces and then force his son to do the same. He eventually goes so far that he kidnaps a 9 year old girl, rapes her and murders her, leaving his son to dispose of the body.

I found no sympathy for him, but felt a flicker of pity for his son TJ, whose life has been so far beyond the norm for so long that he didn't know any better.

This book is very disturbing, but it's also so incredibly gross that it's difficult to read.

All I can say is that it makes me angry that that repulsive bastard was able to cheat justice by committing suicide before he could be executed. I completely agree with the death penalty this time, because this guy is beyond help and needed to be put out of his misery.

I don't know what else to say except "buyer beware". This book is very graphic and it will probably make you very angry.

This book was very good, but it was also very disturbing. I personally didn't mind it much, but if you don't like violence and gore, I wouldn't recommend this book to you. However, if you think you can handle it, it is a great book and it would be worth your while to read it.

The story itself was an interesting one and thats the only reason I continued to read the book. Many times I would read a passage and have to stop to make sure I wasn't reading a 7th grader's "current events" paper. There is way too much repetition in the book, almost word for word describing the actual events of the murder. WE GOT IT THE FIRST TIME! Also, in my humble opinion, I believe that there were alot of "fillers" being used. I mean, come on, there is no reason to write 2 chapters about Soria Sr's Uncle's crimes. Touch base on it, but don't dwell on it.
Bottom line is, it's a good story to write/read about, its just too bad it's grade school writing.

This story is truly heartbreaking, and if you can't take explicit details, don't read it. Although the book does not linger too long on the actual crimes, it is very explicit. This is a story of a man who sexually abused his son from a very early age. The man had come from a family of psychos -- his mother was brutally raped and murdered by another relative. As a teenager and young man, the son obtained young girls for his father's sexual pleasure, including his own girl friends. This young man, who worked with children in an after school program, had become acquainted with kids in the neighborhood and lured one of their friends into his apartment where the father sexually tortured her and then murdered her. The book tells of the frantic search for the little girl -- to the point where her mother was just a room away but did not know it. The investigative story is very interesting, including the tip by a passer-by that put the investigation into high gear. This story made me cry several times, and it made me sick to my stomach to think that a man could be so cruel to his own son and to innocent children. It will make you afraid to let your kids play outside.

I was enthralled by this book from the very first sentence. The writing is so beautiful that, even though the vast majority of the action takes place in the mind and there are many purely descriptive passages,the story seemed full of action.
I appreciated the water imagery, which was consistent throughout, lending a unity to the narrative. Kitchen is not the first to use this potent imagery ( "Those are pearls that were his eyes"; "I should have been a pair of ragged claws . . .") but that's because water is so elemental to everyone.
I must confess that, like Molly, I am a 50-plus married woman with a passion for music, so I found lots to relate to in the book. Unlike Molly, however, I do not enjoy the works of Edna O'Brien.
One quibble: I thought the portrait of the husband as a deracinated, disaffected Jewish academic was more than a little trite.

I would have rated one star if it were an option. If you can finish this book, chalk it up to boredom...that's the only reason I finished it. If you can finish this book and tell a good friend that you enjoyed it, I don't even know what to say. If you suggest this book to a good friend, you're just plain mean. Every single time I began to read this book, I fell asleep within thirty minutes. I was sure something was going to happen any time. It never did. The lack of dialog may have been the main reason it didn't grab my attention, but seriously...the most uninteresting book i've read in a very long time.

The House on Eccles Road pulls off a small miracle. It's the story of one anniversary day in a troubled long term marriage--a day filled with recognizable "petty offenses" by the couple against one another, and with the possibility of reconciliation. It's realistic. It's also written in a fluid internal style, ranging from character to character, and centering on one woman's longings. It's colored by sadness and memory but brilliantly intense about the present. It's a passionate, lyrical book. And for those who can recognize this, it plays off amazingly against James Joyce's mammoth Ulysses, answering that mammoth mythic masterpiece with a woman's point of view, a woman's feelings, a woman's truth. It is a moving book, maybe unforgettable.

This book surprised me- it slows you down. The entire book takes place in one day. How two married people can so easily live within their own heads and rarely intersect at good conversation. I found the writing beautiful and very true to life. a simple snapshot. a magnifying glass into the mind.

This book came as a gift from my college-age son. A "story" it is not, verging more on the poetry of daily life. It is succinct, well edited, and the writing is exquisitely crafted to give life to the personal voices of Molly and those family members and others who touch into her life. The 51-year-old Molly is close to my age - her thoughts, insecurities, and relationships feel so authentic. This is a book to share and savor with your women friends. I find myself looking to see what else is available from Judith Kitchen.

We are new the Las Vegas and being from the northwest this book has been very helpful.

I devoured this book. I'll soon be gardening in the upper desert (cold desert)of Northern Nevada. Gardening books for that particular region have been hard to come by. This book covers all regions of Nevada. It is short on photographs, but it is well-organized and simple to follow. I'm so glad I found this gardener's bible.

I just finished reading this book and found it to be an excellent source for desert gardeners. The authors are long time desert gardeners themselves and it shows. The book is easy to use, easy to understand, well-written, and quite comprehensive. A great deal of plant material is covered here.
The sections on growing lawns under hot, desert type conditions are especially good, and are obviously the result of many years of hands-on, practical experience.
Much gardening reading material is not of much use for people living in areas like Las Vegas, Nevada, but this material certainly is.
If I had but one gripe about the book, it is that it does not cover allergies caused by landscape plants very well. But then, not many gardening books do.

I recently moved from the central coast of California to Northern Nevada. Being an avid gardener, I was concerned as to what type of gardening I was going to be able to enjoy in my new home. I purchased this book prior to moving and was totally frustrated. This book leads you to believe that nothing grows in northern Nevada. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and found an abundance of plants to choose from. Some of the plants that were suppose to be forbidden for my area were growing heartily! The author's are from the Las Vegas area and really don't know much about gardening in the northern part of the state.

This is one of the most comprehensive books that covers all the geographical areas of Nevada. It has a wonderful cross section of plants suitable for the cold climates as well as the desert of Southern Nevada.

The authors are both respected professionals in this field, and you can trust what they say. Unlike other volumes that have more pictures than text, this one gives information that is usable.

This would be the best gifts you could give to someone that wants to enjoy getting thier hands dirty and their yards beautiful.

A must buy for any ghost town enthusiast!

This volume and the companion volume for southern Nevada make great guides for the 4WD explorer. The maps, which are very detailed (I only wish a foldout complete map were included) indicate every mining camp, settlement, even cemetary, as well as rating the roads as trails, 4WD necessary, or better. The maps also refer the reader to Paher's more detailed book on the ghost towns themselves, including appropriate page numbers. The maps are the heart of the book.

The photos, which besides the maps make up the balance of the book, are excellent but in many cases dated. In fact, there are numerous notes that this or that building or artifact is no longer in existence. This is useful, if sad, since the reader is likely an explorer of these sites as well, and will not want to waste time on driving to some remote site where everything of note has been looted or removed. Still, more current photos, or then-and-now photos, would have been desirable.

Regarding the text, there is very little - readers interested in the stories behind the towns need to get Paher's larger volume on the same subject.

This volume only cover the northern part of the state. If you want the Las Vegas area, check out volume two. The maps and photos are good.

This excellent book of maps is an addendum volume to Stanley Paher's superb NEVADA GHOST TOWNS AND MINING CAMPS, one of the best (and best selling) books on the state. It covers the northern part of the state (a second volume deals with southern Nevada and Death Valley). The maps are incredibly detailed and include all the ghost towns/mining camps in Paher's book and then some. In addition to the maps, many photographs of many of the sites are included, though most of them look no more recent than the 1950s (so visitors today should expect to see much less physical evidence than shown in the photos). This book is essential for anyone who plans to go "ghost hunting" in person, though I recommed getting Paher's book too.

Two slim volumes. Maps. Some photographs. Adequate, but not much more. For neophytes.

Add another $20 to the purchase price and buy his 1970 hardcover edition, which is incredible.

I almost bought this book but was fortunate enough to find a copy at my local public library. (I heartily recommend that alternative to buying the book if you have a choice.) I started reading it with great anticipation, but was disappointed off the bat by all the filler material on Bob Stupak's father, Chester. Yeah, sure, the old man was a great influence on his son, but two paragraphs would have sufficed! Next, I kept expecting to read interesting anecdotes about Vegas World, one of the funkiest gambling joints the world will ever know--the very epitome of cheesy. However, the stories just aren't there, and it is a major shortcoming. Finally, even the manner in which the author addresses the great plunge the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino took after it opened in 1996 makes that event--the repercussions of which are still felt today in Las Vegas--seem anticlimactic and irrelevant.

In short, the tower, which Stupak originally conceived as a cash cow, turned out to be his biggest folly and the instrument of his demise. That is the real story of Bob Stupak, but you won't get it in this jumbled, incoherent tome.

Most interesting...biography of Bob Stupak. Easy read. If you wonder where did the idea of the Stratosphere come from... this has the answers. Bob Stupak is a fascinating gentleman, this tells his story. I just returned from a visit to Vegas and went to the top of Stratosphere, road the High Roller Roller Coaster and took the Big Shot...came across this book while in Vegas and couldn't put it down. Gives background of several casinos and the personalities involved with them... recommend it.

Stupak is a figure who inspires strong (and usually negative) reactions in those interested in Las Vegas. Smith, however, delivers what seems to be an even-handed discussion of the man, and what he's done for Las Vegas, both good and bad. A quick and fascinating read.

stories of these types of guys are fascinating. His first hour ever in Vegas and he blows 12,000 bucks, on marker. Proceeded to go right back to the airport and flew home to Pittsburg. But he fell in love with the place. He didnt go back as a gambler, but to get where the real money is, with intentions on becoming a casino owner. After more than 7 years(most of them in Australia - you'll have to read it) he had acguired a substantial grubstake and headed off to Vegas. He runs an ad in the paper looking investment opportunities. Although the ad did not directly produce investment results, it did provide him with some very important connections. He buys a vacant lot far off the strip, gets licensed, builds a casino, adds a hotel and self-promotes his ass off. To fill in the blanks and know the rest, you gotta read it yourself. He even had ties, loosely at best, to Anthony Spiltro, the real life mobster the Joe Pesci character was based on in Casino. I love this one.

Great book. Being a regular Las Vegas visitor I have always been intrigued by the incredible Stratosphere Tower and Casino, and wanted to learn a bit more about Bob Stupak, the Stratosphere creator and infamous Vegas personality. What a fascinating life Stupak has had. Everything from his motorcycle racing days, to his early struggles of trying to succeed in the cutthroat Vegas gaming industry. Here is a man with an 8th grade education that overcame staggering odds to become one of the most successful independent operators in the city. He survived a heavy handed Nevada Gaming Control Board, as well as a motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. There is a lesson in this book for all of us. The key word is DETERMINATION! I hope one day my travels in Vegas will give me the opportunity to meet Mr. Stupak, who no matter what you think of him, has left a lasting impression on the Las Vegas skyline that will be a reminder of him for years to come.

In this book Smith wrote a much better story than the hatchet job he did on casino mogul Steve Wynn. Hey John how about a book on one of the true gentleman gaming legends in Vegas, none other than Jackie Gaughan? If written in the even handed manner of your Stupak book, I'll be the first buyer in line!!

If you have an open and inquisitive mind, no matter what your political outlook, you will enjoy this exploration of western America and our relationship with this unique landscape. Solnit weaves discussions about the settlement of the west by Euro-Americans, native American rights, nuclear testing, and other critical issues, with ruminations about H.D. Thoreau, John Muir, country music, landscape painters, and other intriguing topics. This is an excellent book about an important subject that will delight you if you let it.

Solnit's juxtaposition of the insidious nuclear poisoning of Nevada to the making of Yosemite National Park (that she shows has been "loved to death" since it was first discovered by whites more than 150 years ago)makes this book a must for all environmentalists. Solnit deals directly with themes of conquest and redemption in historic efforts to both tame and use these lands. Readers gain specific understanding about two places that are, after all, national icons. However, the deeper themes so well-developed in this book are being played out no less dramtically all across the country.

If people would really read the TRUE history of Yosemite Indians they would find something interesting. First the Miwoks in the area were friends and workers for James Savage and Charles Webber, the founder of Stockton. The Miwoks had a working relationship with both white men and they dug gold for them. The real Indians of Yosemite were Mono Paiutes who tried to fight off the invasion, and not Miwoks. They were allied with the white invaders and they called James Savage "White father". I am a descendent of the original Indians of Yosemite and there is a problem. The defintion "Some of them are killers" for Yosemite was fabricated in 1978 and is not the original meaning of Yosemite. The real meaning was "The Killers" or "The Grizzlies" because the Miwoks were afraid of the Ahwahnees. It was Chief Bautista and Russio, who were helping the Mariposa Battalion, who coined that term "Yosemite" for the Indians in Yosemite Valley which they were afraid to enter. It is because the Miwoks were once enemies of Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahnees. 30 years Yosemite National Park Service hired a person named Craig Bates who was married to a Miwok woman and had a 1/2 Miwok son who created that new defintion. So it is increble that ONE person changed the meaning and defintion of one of the most important and well known parks in the whold world...and no one noticed. The Miwoks were actually the scouts and guides for James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion, but you would not know it because the information was controlled by the "Indian expert" at Yosemite, which causes wrong information to be written...like the actual defintion of Yosemite. For the real story read Lafayette H. Bunnell's Discovery of the Yosemite to find out the truth.

This book is classic eco paganistic 1/2 truths and full tripe. Solnit carries on a dreamy and irresponsible massive 'feel good' opinion piece about the handfull of people harmed by our successfull development of our deffensive nuclear weapons. The author fails to note that our development and limited use of our weapons saved millions of lives.
If you are currently a eco pagan, here is more for your religion. If you want a full account of the history of our deffensive development of nuecs, don't waste your time reading this novel. However, if you want further insight into the basis that drives our planet's new pagan eco religion, then this book will help you to understanding their factualy fictionist journey into politics.

Wow, take a moment to read the other reviews of this book.

I picked this book up off a bargain table, and months later happened to take it with me when I was visiting Yosemite without knowing 1/2 the book was about Yosemite. That was kind of a thrill.

Solnit's historical and writing skills, her ability to build a world stage of activity and its interconnectedness with her narrative are extraordinary.

As a landscape artist and photographer, I find this book to be a great resource. Understanding the history of Yosemite is frankly consciousness shifting.

As the other reviewer says, nuclear weapons are our oyster.

Indians, big bangs, Central Park, Fremont and the Heart of Darkness. How about that.

Red Shuttleworth is a true poetic genius. His true to life poems relate to my life. He portray's the simple things in life with a somewhat cynical attitude. His poems are entertaining and depict absurd realities of family and true life situations, and I'm sure anyone from a similar upbringing would agree.

Unlike any other voice of his generation, this cowboy poet-playwright philosopher is an amazing wordsmith. His stance is as hard as his words, & his use of unexpected humor is always jarring & endearing. A major-league writer & a pure pleasure to read.

Red Shuttleworth's poems transports us to a place not yet computerized, not yet virtualized. Red's westscapes--from Nebraska to British Columbia to Nevada--are actual, accessible places, where the past pales into the present, storybook legends of gunslingers juxtaposed between forever and now. Many of the historical poems--researched in diaries, letters, and interviews--detail the twilight years of outlaws who outlived the Wild West only to be pensioned on the small change of their own myths: Cole Younger on the county fair circuit; Frank James selling pebbles from Jessie's grave, Bat Materson hocking guns to cover bets; Wyatt Earp broke on a deathbed in Hollywood. The incongruous reckonings of these men are not bittersweet but rather the last acts in lives fully lived. The robberies were just pranks, wonderful whoop-de-doo in the rollicking whirligig of youth. Some poems make connections between the outlaws of yesteryear with the outlaw country-western singers of today. Waylon and Willie are nothing less than a new breed of gunslinger, grit-mythic honky tonk heroes--spontaneous, excessive, existential, ever-young. Red's own heartland is found in the anecdotal narratives describing the western places he's lived. They are lyric explorations of domesticity, lingering idylls of "mending barbwire" and "spraying thistles" on a Sunday afternoon--a pastoral place where the closet neighbors are coyotes, where his son bronc-rides sheep, and his daughters call to screech owls. This is a settled place full of romantic possibilities, a good place to raise and family and romance a wife, an Americana "drunk with dusk," a land where "every wrinkle deepens," and the truest thing you know "whistles out of the Dakotas." Red's voice is western spare and idiosyncratic. His love poems to his wife Kate remind us how the best pleasures come from everyday epiphanies--"a mended jacket, framed snapshots of my girls, a bottle of Power's Irish whiskey." The grit-myths of Western Settings showcase thirty years of publications in journals and chapbooks, giving us a glimpses of a life lived for the moments to be had.

Banal and boring; he may be a cowboy... but he isn't a poet.

Red Shuttleworth's poems transports us to a place not yet computerized, not yet virtualized. Red's westscapes--from Nebraska to British Columbia to Nevada--are actual, accessible places, where the past pales into the present, storybook legends of gunslingers juxtaposed between forever and now. Many of the historical poems--researched in diaries, letters, and interviews--detail the twilight years of outlaws who outlived the Wild West only to be pensioned on the small change of their own myths: Cole Younger on the county fair circuit; Frank James selling pebbles from Jessie's grave, Bat Materson hocking guns to cover bets; Wyatt Earp broke on a deathbed in Hollywood. The incongruous reckonings of these men are not bittersweet but rather the last acts in lives fully lived. The robberies were just pranks, wonderful whoop-de-doo in the rollicking whirligig of youth. Some poems make connections between the outlaws of yesteryear with the outlaw country-western singers of today. Waylon and Willie are nothing less than a new breed of gunslinger, grit-mythic honky tonk heroes--spontaneous, excessive, existential, ever-young. Red's own heartland is found in the anecdotal narratives describing the western places he's lived. They are lyric explorations of domesticity, lingering idylls of "mending barbwire" and "spraying thistles" on a Sunday afternoon--a pastoral place where the closet neighbors are coyotes, where his son bronc-rides sheep, and his daughters call to screech owls. This is a settled place full of romantic possibilities, a good place to raise and family and romance a wife, an Americana "drunk with dusk," a land where "every wrinkle deepens," and the truest thing you know "whistles out of the Dakotas." Red's voice is western spare and idiosyncratic. His love poems to his wife Kate remind us how the best pleasures come from everyday epiphanies--"a mended jacket, framed snapshots of my girls, a bottle of Power's Irish whiskey." The grit-myths of Western Settings showcase thirty years of publications in journals and chapbooks, giving us a glimpses of a life lived for the moments to be had.

Bombs in the Backyard focuses primarily on atomic bomb testing with most of its focus on the [[Wikipedia:Nevada Test Site]]. Its strengths lie in detailing how said testing, specifically radiation, affected not only the health of military personnel, but those downwind of the atomic blasts (including livestock). The second half of the book focuses on how the government, specifically Pentagon and the [[Wikipedia:Atomic Energy Commission]] failed to provide various forms of protection and information to those affected by the testing, and how the courts and federal government mostly fail to compensate the victims of atomic testing. The book was originally penned in the late 1980's.

Outstanding. Any person who believes the governments lies about Yucca Mountain and that nuclear waste can be transported safely across the United States, should read this book.

Thoughtful, well-researched, scholoarly perspective without the emotional hysterics common in most histories of nuclear testing. Excellent legislative history of laws leading to compensation for victims of radioactivity due to atmospheric testing. Highly recommended for the serious student of nuclear policy.

An uneven book that tries to cover a wide range of issues and topics, but does so in most cases only superficially. Some topics seem to be well researched, while others seem to have been thrown together on the fly. There's very little new in this book, which is of interest only for its perspective, which is not vehemently anti-testing.

Don't waste your time on this one. It lacks the forensic psychological profiling necessary for an interesting true crime book. If you're looking for more than just sleaze, read any of Ann Rule's books.

I beg to differ with the reader from Scottsdale, AZ. I found King's book to be a real page-turner, as are all of King's books, from beginning to end. I particularly liked the historical aspects of the book, from background about Las Vegas and Nevada to background on the Binion family history. King doesn't pad his books with filler--instead he tells a story the way a story should be told. If you like romance and/or Gone With the Wind type stuff, or descriptions of city streets that take up eight pages or so every time a descriptive passage presents itself, then you should stick with the so-called and self-proclaimed "Queen of True Crime." If you're after hard-hitting true crime that really moves, page after page, then you'll like this book and just about anything else this guy has written.

Gary's book is outstanding! It is an accurate depiction of the investigation into the murder of Ted Binion. "An Early Grave" will hold your attention from start to finish. I was the lead detective in the case and had a hard time putting down the book. Gary King is a brilliant writer!

I have read all the synopis, i watched the whole trial, and the specials on TV about the murder it is great! GARY C. King is my very favorite true crime author! I got married in vegas and have been in Binion Horseshoe Casino many times! this book has it all flaky characters, greed, fame, ambition, adultry, infidelity, drugs, mafia! I ordered 10 books i want all my family and friends to read this one! Happy reading!