Joey's Place

BAD FOR BUSINESS Las Vegas. 1970. Motor courts, motels, and open desert share the Strip with resorts like the Dunes, Sands, and Desert Inn. The resorts take care of their own problems and the law picks up the pieces. If they can find them. Then the co-owner of the most exclusive casino in town is discovered in a parking lot with two slugs in his head. Bad for business. The case should go to the Sheriff's elite team of investigators, but outcast Detective Heber Parkins - the department's "trash man" - mysteriously gets the assignment, drawing him into a deadly struggle for control of the city's future. "Joey's Place takes us to those times ... [when] our town was almost crime free under the aegis of the then Mob. ...We went from an era of shallow graves just over the state lines in California and Arizona that contained the remains of those who dared threaten our town's pseudo-tranquility during the skimming days, to downright murder on our streets. Joey's Place takes us inside the minds of our then police officers who may have been as sickened as I was at Las Vegas' transition from a safe town for all, into a burgeoning city with all its attendant sins exposed."-Steve Miller, former Las Vegas concert promoter, club owner and City Councilman. ..".author John W. Nelson has captured the flavor of old Las Vegas, when the Rat Pack ruled the Strip, the money flowed fast and free, and cheaters soon found themselves hustled out the back doors of casinos...on a one way ride into the desert. Add greed, betrayal and a maverick cop who refuses to take the easy path into the mixture, stir it all together with Nelson's storytelling ability, and you're in for one hell of a ride!"-Nick Russell, author of Big Lake Burning and other "Big Lake" novels. ..".a flowing, gritty, page-turning tale of the dark side of Sin City set in the 70s. In addition to a full load of crime, intrigue, paranoia, double dealing mafia characters, crooked cops, and wild women, there's plenty of violence here, but it's not gratuitous. Detective Heber Parkins, ...permanent resident of the cop dog house...never kills a soul who didn't need it. Complete with slick, upbeat dialogue and a thousand clever turns of phrase, Joey's Place is an intriguing, fascinating yarn both believable and entertaining..."-Gary Clifton, author of Burn Sugar Burn and numerous short stories. "Joey's Place has everything a great detective novel should...a compelling detective, a killer plot and non-stop suspense. With impeccable timing, Nelson serves up a powerful tale of an outcast detective vs., one of the most manipulative villains in the history of crime writing."-A.J. Pompano, author of Sand Bar: A Mike St. Martin Mystery. "JW Nelson's Joey's Place reads like a labor of love-Vegas style-with the weight of the world spinning round and round on a roulette wheel stacked with bullets. I couldn't put it down."-Robert Ellis, L.A. Times best-selling author of City of Fire, The Lost Witness, The Dead Room, Murder Season and Access to Power. "Nelson's debut novel is a crackling detective drama featuring corrupt cops, crooked casino bosses, and a murder that leaves a bloody footprint up and down the sizzling Strip. It's a tough-talking tale that dramatically revisits the world of 1970s Las Vegas when the glitz and glamour have gone and Sin City really earned its notorious nickname!"-John Meyer, author of Bulls, Bands and London and Bullets, Butterflies and Italy.