Beneath the Neon

The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Jews and Christians. The sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels, and relics of the revolution. A slave trade thrived in underground chambers along Portland, Oregon's waterfront. Ukrainian Jews found refuge from the Nazis in a system of caves. And thousands of street people have lived in the subway tunnels of New York City. 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 and editor Matthew O'Brien explored the black-and-grey underworld of the Las Vegas flood-control system for four years. This book chronicles O'Brien's adventures in subterranean Las Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a raging flood. He parties with naked crackheads. He learns how to make meth, that art is most beautiful where it is least expected, that in many ways, he prefers underground Las Vegas to aboveground Las Vegas, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.