The Secret History of Las Vegas

Starred review from November 25, 2013
Lambent prose lifts this offbeat crime novel from PEN/Hemingway Award–winner Abani (The Virgin of Flames), who effortlessly captures the essence of Sin City: “Here in Vegas the glamour beguiled and blinded all but those truly intent on seeing, and in this way the tinsel of it mocked the obsessive hope of those who flocked there.” Two years after “dead homeless men had begun appearing in dumps of ten,” the body dumps resume. Las Vegas PD’s Detective Salazar gets a promising, if bizarre lead, when a park ranger discovers conjoined twins, who call themselves Fire and Water, near the scene of the abandoned corpses. Fire is just a body fragment consisting of a head, two arms, and a toe sticking out of his brother’s torso. More important than the complicated mystery’s resolution is the author’s haunting examination of human cruelty, including scenes of experimentation that are almost too painful to read. Agent: Ellen S. Levine, Trident Media Group.

April 1, 2014

Abani's (Song for Night) outlandish mystery features a bizarre set of characters that include conjoined twins, a retiring Las Vegas homicide detective, a handful of prostitutes, two expat South African apartheid survivors, and a carnival of "downwinders," variously challenged from exposure to n-test radiation. One of the apartheid survivors, Dr. Sunil Singh, is recruited by LVPD detective Salazar to profile the twins as suspects in multiple murders. However, Singh's own research killed the homeless whose bodies were dumped near Lake Mead, and he's just there to cover his tracks! Every conversation seems to require multiple uses of the f-word. Why? Must be that's how folks in Vegas talk, or maybe it's just punctuation for Abani's new detective-noir narrative. Sunil Malhotra gives outstanding voice to this grotesque, disjointed, and disgusting yet interesting work. VERDICT Recommended but may have limited appeal to general adult listeners. ["Safe bet: this will be the oddest mystery of 2014," read the review of the Penguin hc, LJ 1/14.]--Cliff Glaviano, formerly with Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

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