Las Vegas Books

Loaded with helpful info for planning a family trip. Maps, phone numbers, drive times, etc.

If it had pictures I would have given it a 5.

I really liked the book, and the only reason I gave it 4 stars is because a good part of the book talks about hotel accomadations and booking flights, etc. and I had already done that by the time I bought the book. So half of the book was of no use to me, but the book had good recommendations.

This book really helped us decide what to do in Las Vegas. We do not gamble so we wanted "other" things to do. What we found is Las Vegas is not "family" friendly and you have to take your children into the gaming areas of most casinos to see the attractions. The book did offer suggestions that we did find helpful. Like how to avoid certain crowds and what shows are appropriate for kids. Much better than some of the other books out there.

This is an incredibly detailed book that has a huge amount of information on what to do, see, and avoid in Vegas if you are traveling with children. The section on which restaurants and buffets to eat at for families that are on a budget is more than worth the price of this book. This book, along with "The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas" by Bob Sehlinger will make planning your trip to Vegas fun and informative. Both are highly recommended!!

I highly recommend this book to anyone headed for Las Vegas with the kids in tow. It paints a very complete picture of the city and answers questions you'd never even think to ask.

This book was published just as we were planning a trip that includes a stop in Las Vegas. Our three kids (ages 10, 8, 6) love to travel, but we have learned that you can never do enough research when it comes to planning a trip with kids.

Having been to Vegas more than a few times without the kids, we have a pretty good feel for the place. Even so, a vacation with the kids along needs to be a very different type of trip, so we still found ourselves with many questions. Happily, this book answers them all!

Very specific information on everything from hotels, restaurants, and attractions (including which places are NOT kid-friendly). Also includes info on side trips, shopping, etc. Everything is broken down into price categories (from very expensive to inexpensive and everything between). Definitely written by someone who understands that kids are not just miniature adults.

I only wish I could get hold of such complete information for all our destinations!

Mr. Wilkerson makes a very strong case for his father's role in "creating" modern Las Vegas. As this distinction is popularly credited to the gangster, Bugsy Siegal, in both print and the movies, it is refreshing to see the record corrected in these engaging and compelling pages.

Whatta story! If Mr. Wilkerson only had control of his addiction there is no telling what he could have accomplished. This is a talented man who had half the world by the tail, but couldn't get that 2nd half. He was able to accomplish a lot and was the creator of modern casinos in Las Vegas. This is a short story, but filled with interesting information. Highly recommended.

One man's chronic gambling habit became the foundation for modern Las Vegas: The Man Who Invented Las Vegas documents his rags-to-riches story and his impact on building the casinos and hotels of Las Vegas. Black and white photos pepper an examination of publisher Wilkerson's life and investments in the Las Vegas image in a fascinating blend of local history and biography.

This is a top notch read. It is hard to find books of this caliber about the mob. The research is scholarly but still accessible. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the birth of Las Vegas and the gritty details of Hollywood history in general.

Bought this for a colleague moving to NV. Good photos showing the diversity of the state; from arid desert to garish casino lights to pristine alpine meadows.

The photography is top-notch and covers the desert, cities, and old buildings from the early mining days. Where the book fails is its treatment of the high mountain scenery. Where are the photos of the alpine regions high up on the many lofty peaks? They are not there.

This book is the most lovely pictoral tribute to the Great State of Nevada that I have ever seen. It exemplifies the rich physical and social geography as well as the cultural, institutional and entrepenurial spirit that this state holds so dear. Truly beautiful.

This is a beautiful book.

However, Jon Christensen' s essay 'Basin and Range' really caught my attention. It turns out that this region is quite special, rich in unique species and lessons about evolution. Christensen compares the 'Great Basin sky islands' with the more famous islands of the Galapagos.

This book is the perfect combination of big color photographs and four well-written essays. The Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company of Portland did a fine job.

"Nevada" has been sitting on my coffee table for about a year now - and it's served well. I've come home many days after being enmeshed in our modern world for 10 or more hours and been reminded of the expansiveness and beauty of the natural world that's only a 4 hour drive away from me. This is a well-written and beautifully photographed book. I have to admit that I'm fascinated with Nevada. With the great otherness and open space that is the Silver State.

I learned quite a bit and was entertained by the essays that divide the sections of photos with chapters including: "The Meaning of Nevada", "People and the Land", Basin and Range", and "Prospect and Chance." There is good history here about Nevada's people and it's geography, helped by quotes from the likes of John Muir, Mark Twain and authors of other Nevada oriented books as well as regular folks who like their home state.

However the real draw is in the photos. Scenic, evocative, large, well footnoted, just plain beautiful. I really felt like this is a book crafted by people with a love and appreciation of the place that is Nevada. As though they wanted to share their passion and knowledge with me. I also like the simplicity of the look and feel of the book. There's a frankness and openness that's reminiscent of the state of Nevada itself.

Enjoy!

Thanks so much for sending the book so quickly. I know my friend will really enjoy it.

As a child I remember growing up in Las Vegas, knowing the real truth behind som eof the more notorious figures in town. I remember finding a copy of Green Felt and was enthralled by the truth as I knew it. I grew up in the casino business and some of the people mentioned in the book were like family (remember until recently Las Vegas was truly a small town). If only someone would produce this into a "A" movie. With the interest in "mobs" and "gangsters" I feel the public would love it, if done right. Of course as with the movie Casino, the political leaders would dismiss its authenticity and publicly deny anything ever happened. I highly recommend this book to those interested in how the casino industry gre in Las Vegas, its roots, its founders and how it got where its at today ......

While the book is old and dated, the story is extremely well written and keeps the intensity level up there right up to the final pages. While today's Vegas is nothing like the Vegas of old, the book provides a fascinating look into an otherwise secret world. A good read.

I liked reading "Green Felt Jungle". I enjoy visiting Las Vegas,
and even though the town is a different place now than it was
at the time described by the book, it still helps to know
some history. One of the fascinating chapters describes the
entry into town of Mr. Benny Binion, and his feud with an
adversary named Herb Noble. Not all gang warfare involved the
Mafia, I guess. I have no idea how true to life the book is. I
can't call myself streetwise, or a tough guy, by any stretch of
the imagination, but it sounds real. One thing I agree with.
However bad the Mafia and other gangsters might have been (and I
have no doubt that they were mostly slimy psychos), Las Vegas
was probably a more interesting place, in some ways, before
the corporations took over completely.

This book was great. It steps through the things that happened in Vegas and the truth about the events and people that made this great town.

This short book was good, but not great. To be a great book, a real "page turner," it perhaps would have been helpful to make it a little thicker and told in a storytelling style. As a reader, I felt as though I was being barraged with a bewildering array of people and place names that I was expected to consider familiar.

This book might be interesting to someone interested in Mormonism and/or Las Vegas, but is probably best for a member of the LDS church who has a personal acquaintance with modern Las Vegas already.

One last thing, it is WAY overpriced.

This is a nicely written journalistic account of Mormons and Mormonism in Las Vegas. The author does a fine job showing how the LDS church has managed to secure considerable political power, even in Sin City. (Think what kind of power they must wield in Salt Lake!) Along the way, readers are introduced to the mind set of modern Mormonism, and the methods that the Mormon political machine employs to get its way. A nice, breezy read. You'll have fun with this one.

"Saints in Babylon" shatters the stereotype that all Mormons think alike. In Las Vegas, anyway, it appears that the church exerts a lot of influence through its members. But the members themselves don't always see eye to eye -- especially when it comes to politics. This book has me taking a second look at Las Vegas and the Mormon religion in a whole new light. It explains a split personality of the city that most people never see. Bravo!

Saints In Babylon: Mormons And Las Vegas by Kenneth Ward is a truly riveting account of the Mormon community that thrives in the heartland of America's legalized gambling. This is the true story of how a ethically strict, theological-based temperant and anti-gambling oriented Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints established itself and then found ways to earn revenue off of gambling and the self-indulgent pleasures that Las Vegas commercializes and markets to everyone and anyone with the money to play makes for amazing and riveting reading. Saints In Babylon is a unique contribution to the study of contemporary Mormon history.

Saints in Babylon is not just for Mormons or about Mormons. Ward's account of the influence and conflicts associated with the Mormon history in Vegas could just as easily be about any community of faith dealing with Sin City! Truthfully written, and filled with research and documentation, Saints in Babylon is really about the power of worldy influences over anyone struggling with the demands of moral living.

As a Catholic, I found Ward's historic look at Mormons in Las Vegas to be a riviting and informative story of the battle (won or lost) for the moral high ground in a city filled with overwhelming temptations and financial attractions. Mormon, Catholic, Prostetant or Jew, this is about, "Does the end justify the means?" Can money derived by sinful means be rationalized as a necessary evil, when those monies are used for good purposes?"

I read the book straight through. This is a great book!!

In the tradition Indiana Jones and the X-files, Archer takes us on a grand adventure exploring Mayan ruins and "Area 51." My only complaint would be that the characters seem a little one dimensional at first but they do evolve as the book continues. Overall this is a great first novel. This book is a fun, quick read and suitable for most ages.

In Tractrix, the first novel in the Seeds of Civilization series, R.J. Archer develops a story set in modern times, with the added premise that highly developed civilizations were on Earth many thousands of years ago (ala Graham Hancock et al). His story develops as a scientific mystery, with the just-forming NWIDI team (like yet unlike Clive Cussler's NUMA team) racing and researching to solve the mystery of black spheres with Mayan (or older) writings on them, an adventure which takes them through Mayan/Olmec ruins and Area51 (or is it?). Modern Mayans are dying as they bring these spheres from their homeland to Nevada, and the NWIDI team tries to discover what motivates them to bring them, how they are getting them there and what is killing them, while keeping various government agencies close (but not too close).

The Clive Cussler parallels continue with Frank Morton, the main hero of the book, who is more educated that Dirk Pitt but also has a military background. Frank recruits ancient scholars, researchers and his former military buddy to help him chase down this mystery.

Mr. Archer's writing is meticulously detailed, reminding me with his descriptions of engineers I know, how they work and the actions they take. His characterizations are well done.

I look forward to reading Tsubute, the 2nd novel in the series. Highly recommended for Clive Cussler fans, those interested in ancient civilizations or anyone looking for an entertaining read with likeable characters.

Aerospace engineer Frank Morton's world is on a collision course with the universe and little does he know what turn of events are going to shape the rest of his life. A recent widower, Frank unexpectedly wins an 86 million dollar lottery jackpot. Almost simultaneously an old Viet Nam buddy shows up with a mysterious black sphere inscribed with hieroglyphics that seem very Mayan in origin. More than intrigued, Frank convinces his buddy and two other friends, an anthropologist and a newspaper researcher, to help him investigate this mysterious Mayan sphere. Purpose and exact origin are the two things Frank wants to pinpoint, because once the sphere comes into his possession his world is suddenly turned upside down and inside out.

Frank and his friends' investigation takes them on a journey from Seattle to a secret military installation in Nevada with the trail leading to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. But their travels are not as secretive as they hope; government agents are watching and waiting. They also draw the attention of Mexican Federales and an ancient Maya priest. Black spheres and dead bodies start popping up. Frank and his team have stumbled across a three thousand year old secret that suggests links between shamans of Mesoamerica and a race of alien explorers.

R. J. Archer has crafted a fine first novel with Tractrix. If you like Clive Cussler's writing you will certainly love R. J. Archer's mesh of historical facts and culture with theories and speculations that have intrigued man for several decades. This is only the first book in the installment to THE SEEDS OF CIVILIZATION series. This is a great first effort. Keep watch for the next book, it's sure to be a page turner as well.

When I picked up this book, I thought the story line sounded interesting. I never dreamed I'd be glued to the book until I finished it. The mystery drove me through page after page as I tried to figure it all out. The action... the angst... the ending! All I can say is, "Where's the sequel, Mr. Archer?"

Tractrix sends readers on an engaging joyride through a labyrinth of riddles involving the ancient Maya, a secret U.S. military installation in the Nevada desert, and space aliens from centuries past. When Frank Morton hits an $86-million Powerball jackpot, he sets out to solve some of the world's most
perplexing mysteries and soon finds himself confronted with far more questions than answers. What is the origin--and purpose--of 20 baffling black spheres inscribed with glyphs? Can the U.S. government agents be trusted? Is there a connection between the human race and entities from another space and time? Tractrix
is a fast-paced yarn, based on intriguing historical perspective, and it's sure to keep you guessing and wondering right up until its surprising conclusion.

The character development and writing in this novel is outstanding. Dallas and Deck are unlikable individuals with limited, selfish personalities. As portrayed, they are also very understandable and they too suffer, hence they are almost sympathetic. Logan and Keris, are very likeable, complex people.

I thought the interplay between Logan and Dallas as he plays blackjack in the first chapter was remarkable, almost a tour de force. As an example of the type of writing Legendre is capable of, I offer this: " Sometimes it happened like this. Sometimes she accidentally bit into the kernel of an emotion with some trivial comment and she needed an extra minute to absorb its flavor". Later Keris, in explaining her one night stand with someone like Deck talks of biting into a piece of chocolate, only to find goo inside.

Aspects of the plot bothered me. The fact is that economics as a science, like all science, is value neutral (its practitioners are something else). I would recommend the "Underground Economist" as an exceptional book, which among other things shows how economic principles can be applied to fight global warming and pollution efficiently - no new paradigm is needed. I also found the win streak that benefits Dallas at the end, and the subsequent scene in which she gets half the money (including half the man's original stake), contrived.

Legendre is particularly acute in his description of urban life in the modern desert southwest. Las Vegas has been characterized many times but seldom better; Legendre strips Vegas down to its bleak essence, a Disneyland of nihilism and insincerity. Of course if you actually like Las Vegas you might not agree with Legendre, but then if you like Vegas this may not be the book for you on several different levels.

His description of life in the Valley of the Sun, as metropolitan Phoenix is called by the Chamber of Commerce in something of an understatement, particularly in summertime, is brilliantly accurate. The glare, the heat, the trackless urban sprawl, the shimmering asphalt subtly influence the characters and the action of the novel until the reader feels a sudden need for sunglasses and air conditioning without really knowing why.

Anyone who has lived in or passed through these two desert cities will appreciate Legendre's clear-eyed vision and spare prose.

Reviewed by Cathy Yanda for Reader Views (07/06)


In Thomas Legendre's first novel, The Burning, is satisfying yet predictable. Logan, a newly graduated economist joins two semi-friends for a long weekend in Las Vegas. Trying to avoid his friends and get out of going to a strip joint, he plays blackjack and immediately falls for the dealer, Dallas Cole and ends up going home with her..."You're not really going to sleep on the couch. You know that, right?"...He felt a smile rise to his face. "Fair warning," she said. "I'm trouble." He shrugged. "Who isn't?" If he only knew the extent to which she would become trouble, he might have crashed on the floor of the hotel room with his friends.

Months later after their first meeting, two lonely people, Dallas and Logan are married and move to Arizona where Logan has a job as a professor at Arizona State. While Logan's career is floundering, the school taking a different approach to economics than he would prefer, Dallas, resents every moment her husband is working, and decides to make slot machines and video poker her best friends and runs up a large amounts of debt gambling and buying a new car that they cannot afford.

In walks Keris, the beautiful and accomplished colleague, Logan begins to have doubts about his marriage..."Here she was, sheathed in sweat, wearing a spandex bodysuit with her hair coiled and clipped at the back of her head. This was yoga class. It was Tuesday afternoon and Keris was supposed to be holding office hours right now but a teacher should be allowed to play hooky ever once in a while, correct?...Even the most rigid schedule should be able to accommodate some quantum movement here and there."

In the end, there are affairs, lessons in economics, un-wed pregnancy, gambling, sex, careers that get in the way of life and more. Legendre spins a good first novel that will be enjoyed by many looking for something less run of the mill.

His friends Deck and Prentis persuade economist Logan Smith to join them for some fun in Las Vegas. Needing to escape the world of academia having just completed his graduate degree, Logan agrees. At a casino, Logan meets blackjack dealer Dallas Cole. He falls for her while she needs male attention and protection.

Logan becomes an economics professor at Arizona State University while his new wife Dallas feels out of place in the Tempe area especially in the academia setting. Meanwhile as their relationship turns shaky, Logan works on a neo-Marxist economic theory, which begins to look promising and could shake up the world order. However, he has problems; at home his spouse's clinging needs are driving him crazy; at the university his proposals including an advanced course are being rejected without a second thought; and finally there is this supportive female peer who turns on his body, mind and soul.

This is a terrific character study that star protagonists, especially Logan, who seem as human as they wish and yearn for something they do not have; the grass even in the desert is greener on the other side. Interestingly the macro economic theories are obviously complex yet easy to understand as Thomas Legendre does not dumb down but instead brings up his audience. Fans of a powerful intelligent drama will enjoy THE BURNING for something more in life.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Geri Edens for Reader Views (7/06)

The first thing to note about "Dealer Wins" by Jon Konrath is that it is not a travel guide. Instead, it should be considered more of a diary or journal of a mad scientist/cynical New Yorker type and his trips to Sin City over a span of nine years. An author of four other books, this is the first Jon Konrath piece I have read. If you love Woody Allen and the whiny New York mindset, you will love reading about Jon's journeys from the city that never sleeps to the city full of sin. While commercials may boast about what happens here stays here, Jon is more than willing to tell the reader all of the details of his journeys to Las Vegas.

Konrath opens the book by telling the reader about catching the bug and why he loves Las Vegas. This mystery prevails as the reader admits he isn't always sure himself why he keeps going back. Ultimately it's the way that Las Vegas does things on a grand scale. Everything is larger than life in Vegas, big hotels, big signs, big food and big value for your big bucks. For New Yorkers with minimal square feet lofts this must seem like heaven yet Jon tends to focus on the negative and the bad aspects of his journeys.

The chapters consist of the numerous trips he has made such as the one on his thirtieth birthday. The author has chosen to routinely return to Vegas over the years around the time of his birthday, January 20th. The author gives extreme detail into his life and goes to great lengths to share his day to day and play by play happenings. He includes everything from the tiniest of details in preparing for his trips the night before to waking up, weather, traffic and an intimate look at his life. Some readers may find this interesting and be able to relate to the author while others may find the details tedious. One thing is for sure, New York is painfully cold in January making Vegas all the more attractive, yet again the author finds ways to make the pluses into minuses.

A note of warning to the reader, the author is a fan of the expletive and drops the F-bomb and numerous other profanities quite often so this book is not for the easily offended. Jon clearly states that this is NOT a how to book about Vegas. He does give general background and historical information about the city including movies that have been shot there, area attractions and several shows he attended. He also gives some general do's and don'ts such as do pack light, do tip, do get bottled water, do go downtown, do talk to cabbies, do read hotel magazines, don't bring your kids, don't use casino ATM's, don't arrive on Saturdays and don't lose all your money.

The author doesn't seem to have a particularly good time yet he continues to go back and was inspired to write a book about his travels. He tends to frequent restaurants like Subway, McDonald's, Denny's and TGI Fridays so how much fun can you really have at these run of the mill restaurants that you can go to in any town? He doesn't seem to be in to gambling or shopping or the nightlife to include the well advertised almost nude shows. And as for the title "Dealer Wins", without doing any real gambling or understanding the ins and outs of how casinos can trick you out of the money you do bring, I am left to wonder what the title really means.

Having been to Vegas numerous times myself and loving all the tackiness and cheesiness, I find myself wanting to read a different book. What I found most disconcerting is that nothing in the 150 pages can truly be coined, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," which seems disappointing given the author is a single man. I would suspect that a single man can stir up a lot more trouble than the author does in this story. If you are looking for a sarcastic, tongue in cheek look at one man's pitiful, oftentimes disappointing travels, then this is the book for you. If you are hoping to read an exciting, juicy look behind the scenes and tips on where to go and what to see then this is definitely not the book for you.

I read a lot of travel books, and I've always wanted to write one, but couldn't get National Geographic to foot the bill for a giant safari or photo expedition through Southeast Asia or whatever else. But I do a little travel, and most of the time, I'll write down a report of what happens, so I don't have to repeat the same email fifty times when I send out the photos to my friends.

I go to Las Vegas a lot. I don't gamble much, but I like the city because it's a place of excesses and also the kind of place where the average working Joe can visit without a lot of money and enjoy that excess. So after a half-dozen of these trip reports showed up on my hard drive, along with hundreds of digital photos, I decided to wrap them all together, write some new essays and articles, and make this book.

I'm no Hunter S. Thompson, but I do love the doctor's work, and tried to weave together a lot of the practical travel stuff with a deeper look at the underbelly of the city, plus my own mental state, in a way that would hopefully be interesting to you even if you don't like Las Vegas. You don't need to be a huge poker fan or a frequent visitor to enjoy the stories and pictures here. But if you have sampled the insanity in your own travels to the desert city, that's good too.

Anyway, I hope you check out the book and enjoy what I've put together. Thanks!

This has got to be one of the most thoroughly researched and ENTERTAINING travel books I have ever read. It has all the stuff you want to know - where to take your friends for a bachelorette party, the more "cultural" aspects of the city, and the low-down on the cheap hotels. It's also an engrossing read with enough personal anecdotes to keep the chapters from droning on like a Foder's or Time Out Guide.

Recently, I took my car to be washed and have the oil changed at an "Auto Spa." The car had been insisting that it needed an oil change all week, chiming at me while displaying the message "CHANGE OIL" on the dash. The odometer had rolled past the magic 15,000 mile threshold a week or two ago. I remember driving along and seeing the 14,999 and almost driving onto a sidewalk while waiting for the three zeroes to appear. We're all hardwired to anticipate these moments, as if they have significance.

I figured the oil change and wash would take a while (it did), so I brought along my friend Jon Konrath's new non-fiction book "Dealer Wins." While the bird crap was being cleansed from my plastic car and the tar-thick oil drained, I read the chapter about how Jon decided to spend his 30th birthday in Las Vegas. He was expecting something big to happen, a defining moment. Or maybe "expecting" is too strong a word. "Hoping"?

At the beginning of his stay, while waiting in line at registration, he spotted an ex-girlfriend with her new husband, also waiting in line. He willed himself invisible. He stayed in a lousy hotel casino and played cards. He saw George Carlin from a front-row seat. He rented a hot car.

Later, he ponders fate. Do you make your own? Or do things just happen? The odometer of his life had turned over and he didn't feel like anything had changed.

Later, Jon buys some land in Colorado and drives out to the middle of nowhere to see it, then decides he'd rather be in Vegas. Another chapter finds him getting wasted and waking up in his trashed hotel room with a busted kneecap and a sink filled with vomit.

Want to know what it's like staying at Circus Circus? The pyramid-shaped Luxor? Jon's been to both, and many other hotels from the strip to the seedy downtown.

All the chapters are illustrated with photos--some touristy, others not.

This is one of those books in which no one is who he or she pretends to be, or is called. It takes place in the Fifties when Las Vegas is just starting to transform the desert into a gambling oasis. It is full of corruption with the gangsters and their molls and social corruption by those who want to be somebody but aren't. In 1956, the Hoover Dam has been built and Las Vegas is starting to sprout. Palm Springs, a favorite of Frank Sinatra, had sprung up in the Thirties with the speed of a movie set. "The wide main street was glittering and clean, with plenty of parking and branches of the ritziest New York and L. A. stores on either side. The houses are painted bright blue in a 'too perfect neighbornood.'

Forty-five miles across the Nevada desert, a bomb is detonated to vaporize by atomic testing a whole block of houses built just for that purpose. There are a series of periodic nuclear blasts; all of this happened in a blink. It is said that Oppenheimer had remarked at Los Alamos, "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds." He began the research at the University of Chicago where the atom blaster was perfected.

After the big bang at Bikini Atoll where the bomb named 'Gilda' with a full size picture of Rita Hayworth painted on it like the cover of this book, (Dolly Parton had her picture painted on a naval ship just this past year.) the government decided that the Nevada desert would be the perfect testing environment where no one would get hurt. The Senate Atomic Energy Sub-Committee decided who got the contracts to build the houses and hospital needed for the experiments.

This was the time Senator Joe Kefauver of Tennessee and his committee were investigating organized crime in America. Of course, Las Vegas had sprung up, but as yet the reputation had not reached Washington. The women in their jaded worldliness and the men with apocalytic hollowness drove some pretty wild cars, Porche, lavender Cadillac with gold trim, an old Bentley, and the 'faux' architect a Studebaker. I had a brother-in-law who collected old Studebakers until the parts could no longer be found to keep them running.

The girl who grows up to be immoral could quote Poe, though she had no idea who he was, the one about "Annabel Lee." That's about the only redeeming factor this book has, the literary references and the history and rumors of the Anti-Communist Reign of Joe McCarthy. Hoffa was even in this one. That's before he vanished off the face of the earth. Maybe one of those bomb experiments out in the desert misfired and took him up in a red mushroom coffin to the sky.

In Raymond Chandler's "Red Wind," we learn that during a Santa Ana wind "anything can happen." Richard Rayner has taken Chandler at his word and given us The Devil's Wind, a fast paced explosion of noir set in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the desert in between during a couple of weeks in 1956. The narrator of the story is architect Maurice Valentine. Mallory Walker, the requisite mystery woman, enters the story during the first sentence. Walker sweeps Valentine into an affair which takes them to Las Vegas where we encounter mobsters-in-love, corrupt politicians, jazz musicians, and the first of two atomic tests. Before the second atomic test, identities proliferate, relationships are revealed, deals are made, people die, souls are searched, and, despite the blowing sand and dust, things become progressively clearer. I enjoyed the story immensely and only had issues with one historical inaccuracy [I-15 and I-10 didn't exist yet] and one geographical inaccuracy [Amboy Crater is a volcano, not a meteor crater]. The Devil's Wind is ripe for screen treatment [although I don't want to see it done unless it's done well]. Once you pick up The Devil's Wind, you won't want to put it down!

In 1956 California, highly regarded Los Angeles architect Maurice Valentine feels he rid himself of his past culminated when he changed identity from Maurizio Viglioni after coming home from World War II battle fatigued. Instead, he Anglicized his name, married a wealthy senator's daughter, and has connection is politics and with the mob. Maurice is going places perhaps in DC.

At a party, the womanizing Maurice meets self-claimed heiress Mallory Walker, who seduces him; for the first time in years he wants more. However, he is stunned when, Mallory fires a shot at him. Not long afterward, she is found dead in what appears to be a car accident. However, Maurice knows how sly and deadly his connections are; he wonders if Mallory was murdered and begins making inquiries though he knows that is a mistake. He has to know why she wanted him dead. Soon he will find a strange twist involving an obsessed actress and soon to be someone else's wife Beth Dyer, who sends him seeking Vegas mobster Paul Mantinelli at a gala celebrating the latest atomic bomb test.

The story line is action-packed, very graphic (the scene with the bomb exploding nearby is brilliant), and contains strong characters. The twists and turns will initially shock the audience, but quickly make sense as no one is quite like they seem; just ask Viglioni in his Valentine persona. Richard Rayner provides a wonderful historical (makes me feel ancient to say the 1950s in a historical context) Noir that pays homage to the Barbara Stanwick femme fatale movies.

Harriet Klausner

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of "The Devil's Wind" by Richard Rayner.
The world of architecture brings in an environment that is different from most other novels and gives us a look at the lives of some interesting people. Throw in a dash of 1950's Las Vegas history and a story full of twists and turns and you have the basis for a good film-noir mystery.
I can't wait to see the movie!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was veru interesting. THe drug trips scared me but allowed me to see what goes on in the real world. I felt that the literary merit was slim to none. The book is fun of description but does not really have a plot line other than just getting high and all that jazz. The author certainly has some problems and can teach what happens when you get too strung out on drugs.

That so many people have tried to justify, make sense of and interpret Thompson's pseudo-fiction in literal terms only indicates how many asinine, clueless people have read this magnificently absurd book. All that's required when reading HST's drug-addled interpretation of his misadventures with Acosta is to simply ingest, and to set your inhibitive sense of reality aside while doing so.

In his correspondence, literature and journalism, HST ably explains how he rode the crest, slope and break of the most exciting, disheveled period in the history of American culture. His written discourse is invaluable for obtaining a clear understanding of a muddled and dynamic era, where dysfunction of many varieties constituted the norm and both the freedom afforded by a permissive society and its' technological advances were exploited for enormous personal gain. In a time when America is descending into a sanitized quagmire of mediocrity and sedation, we could only hope for so much.

There I was, wandering the various warehouse-like isles of my neighborhood bookstore hopelessly staring at the shelves of books I read in the past. Stumbling across the Hunter S. Thompson books was probably the best thing that happened to me all week. As everyone else does from time to time, I took a gamble and bought "Fear & Loathing: In Las Vegas" having heard nothing about the book, or Hunter S. Thompson prior to my purchase.

The description on the back of the book entranced me, with visions of drug-drunken anarchy. A description that upon reading, sounded so crazy and out of control that I figured the book was probably trash. The description, as great as it was, however, didn't even do justice to the book.

Have you ever dreamed about going on the road and doing just about every drug imaginable over a period of a week or two, and raising absolute hell in the city of Las Vegas? Driving around in a large red convertable, picking up hitch-hikers and scaring them worse than they scared you? And don't forget the fact that during this dream ("The American Dream" as Hunter S. Thompson describes it) you have an equally Drugged, spontaneous, crazy and armed attourney to smooth things out for you and keep you out of trouble?

This book has more action than you are prepared for, and there is never a slow or dull moment from start to finish, And will leave you back in the isles of the book store, or in this case back in front of the monitor shopping for more of Hunter S. Thompson's books. This was the first one I purchased, and ended up buying the rest of his books.

(Warning: This book contains Sex, Drugs, Rock'N'Roll, Adult situations, Explicit Language and just about anything else you could imagine on an interstate drug frenzy)

The previous reviewer is what one may call a "gotard."
He feels that fear and loathing is only about drugs. He is simple minded, and can't see what is really occuring in one of the finest American novels of the later half of the 20th century. Fear and loathing in las vegas is about the search for the long lost American Dream. It is story about two men set out to find the American Dream, and they use drugs and excess as means for getting there.