Where the Money is: A Novel of Las Vegas

Though backdropped by a colorful setting-the low-rent side of contemporary Las Vegas-this sketchy thriller makes little of its formulaic plot and skeletal characters. Protagonist Terry Lasky, a former assistant U.S. attorney, now gets by on his meager winnings as a poker shill at Bob's Beer and Guns. After $3 million in mob money is stolen from an armored car, the lone surviving hijacker interrupts Lasky's game and whispers something into his ear before being gunned down. Now Terry is the only link to the hidden money, and the mob, some crooked cops, inept feds and a motley group of opportunistic bystanders will go to great lengths to obtain his cooperation. Even Terry's ex-wife, the celebrity mayor of Madison, Wis., flies in for a piece of the action. Goldman, coauthor of L.A. Secret Police, resolves his tale somewhat arbitrarily, leaving several plot elements dangling. Though he invests his narrative with a gritty authenticity, his characterizations and limning of much of the story's action are too cursory to provide the sort of layered, absorbing read that most crime fans crave. (Nov.)