Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas

By: Matthew O'Brien

Narrated by: Alan Carlson

The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Christians. When surveyed in the early 1800s, the sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels, and relics of the revolution. And thousands of people lived in the subway and train tunnels of New York City in the 1980s and '90s.

What secrets do the Las Vegas storm drains keep? What discoveries wait in the dark? What's beneath the neon?

Armed with a flashlight, tape recorder, and expandable baton, Las Vegas CityLife writer-editor Matthew O'Brien explored the Las Vegas flood-control system for more than four years.

Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas chronicles O'Brien's adventures in subterranean Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a flood. He parties with naked crack-heads. He learns how to make meth, that art is most beautiful where it's least expected, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.

©2017 Huntington Press (P)2018 TalkingBook

Really enjoyed this

Great premise! So fascinating to hear stories of what actually happens underneath the city of Las Vegas. Definitely check this one out!

A new reality

investigation, journalist, homelessness, hopelessness, las-vegas, nonfiction

Matt goes into the flood control drains beneath the surface of Las Vegas in 2004, originally to follow the trail of a convicted deranged murderer. It became something more for him as he met the men who lived down there, some of them for several years. Each chapter is the result of interviews and experiences in a particular drain. The descriptions of sights, sounds, and impressions are as clear as if drawn with more than pen and ink. Well done!
Alan Carlson narrates as convincingly as if he was the writer, and that's a very good thing.

Amazing

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. I typically don't listen to non fiction because life is boring. This wasn't boring. It was so good it almost makes me want to do something with my life.

The Las Vegas Undercarriage

This is a non-fiction work about the storm drains of Las Vegas. Storm drains are not sewers. Storm drains carry off excess rain water and if ever a town needed storm drains it’s Las Vegas. Surrounded by mountains and resting in a geological bowl made mostly of sand, rain water has nowhere to go. Hence, the storm drains.

Now you know they are there the next time you’re wandering down the Strip realize there’s a whole other world going on beneath your feet in those very same storm drains. If you think a book about the storm drains of Las Vegas would be dull, you couldn’t be more wrong. This book is engrossing from start to finish and it is engagingly narrated by Alan Carlson.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. You’ll find yourself amazed by the Las Vegas storm drains and those who call it home.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Fascinating! Urban exploration in the city of sin

What a truly fascinating narrative. The author sets about over a period of years the exploration of a variety of storm drains underneath the city of Las Vegas. Having never been there and only having been exposed to the Hollywood and literary fiction of the city I had absolutely no idea about the vast underground of drains that Vegas is built upon. The author gives a detailed narrative of his explorations, the people he met, the lives they lead before, now and hope to live in the future. Without a doubt his comparisons to other locals will lead you to do a google search and discover a whole new set of things to learn and read about. I’m always hesitant to try something by and author/narrator I am not familiar with in case I get stuck with a lemon. This was no lemon. This is a gritty and entertaining glimpse into a world I never new existed. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher