What do readers think of The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani? Write your own review.

Splendid!
Was my thought when I finished the last hauntingly suspenseful page of this intensely intimate novel exploring the human soul seeking redemption, revenge and acceptance to the question what do we owe to others and ourselves for their roles in our lives.
While I have read other Abani’s novels in the past, I was not quite sure what to expect as this book seemed it would a departure from his other work. So I was pleasantly surprised when discovering this was much more than a standard mystery story and what initially looks like separate storylines (serial killer, atomic testing, apartheid) effortlessly intertwine around your emotions as you are folded into the characters world. As one of the character states – “There is always blame, he said. There has to be, what is life without it?”
The lyrically assured prose is both beautiful and bold in a bracingly unexpected manner as the tightly-plotted storyline deals with people who are often voiceless until they disturb the tranquility of our charmed lives.