- Conjoined twins.
- A prostitute named Asia.
- Apartheid.
- The Venetian.
- Cows.
"Only in a novel by the audacious Chris Abani can these “characters” share a common history. And in A Secret History of Las Vegas, they do. A master storyteller, Abani deftly weaves together the grotesque and the beautiful, the sacred and the profane to deliver an expertly-wrought thriller that is unlike anything you’ve ever read. When veteran Las Vegas detective Salazar arrests conjoined twins Fire and Water on suspicion of murder, he solicits the help of Dr. Sunil Singh, whose work on psychopaths might prove useful in understanding the motivations of Salazar’s unlikely prisoners. But while the garish lights of Vegas often manage to obscure theodious and the obscene, in A Secret History of Las Vegas, Abani manages to coax them into view. Drink in this story. Then, in true Vegas fashion, relish the hangover."
Publisher Penguin Books
Publication Date 2014-01-07
Section New Titles - Paperback / Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Emily P.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780143124955
A gritty, riveting, and wholly original murder mystery from PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author Chris Abani
Before he can retire, Las Vegas detective Salazar is determined to solve a recent spate of murders. When he encounters a pair of conjoined twins with a container of blood near their car, he’s sure he has apprehended the killers, and enlists the help of Dr. Sunil Singh, a South African transplant who specializes in the study of psychopaths. As Sunil tries to crack the twins, the implications of his research grow darker. Haunted by his betrayal of loved ones back home during apartheid, he seeks solace in the love of Asia, a prostitute with hopes of escaping that life. But Sunil’s own troubled past is fast on his heels in the form of a would-be assassin.
Suspenseful through the last page, The Secret History of Las Vegas is Chris Abani’s most accomplished work to date, with his trademark visionary prose and a striking compassion for the inner lives of outsiders.
