The Last Days of Las Vegas

by Roy Hayes

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615281613
• ISBN13: 9780615281612
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Solothurnli
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Last Days of Las Vegas

There was much to love about The Last Days of Las Vegas. Tops on my list are the characters. I especially enjoyed Morris Berman and his interplay with Remly, and Alan Singleton was a refreshingly different character. The dialog was also outstanding. Every conversation had just the right tone, and I was left with the impression that Hayes spent lots of time polishing every word. Also, I love a complex story, and Last Days was certainly that. I also appreciated the wealth of detail that left me with the impression that Hayes is a man of many interests and that he'd done far more research to prepare for this book than I had any right to expect. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter added a lot, by the way. But the complexity and wealth of detail also forced me to read the book much more slowly than my standard novel speed. I didn't start to really enjoy the book until I slowed down. After thinking about all the things I liked in Last Days of Vegas, I placed this book several cuts above most, despite the fact that Hayes made me work so hard. I never read the previews of an author's next book, like that chapter at the end of Last Days. I like to savor a book for awhile, and not get distracted by a totally different story as soon as I finish a book. For me, the best compliment I can give an author is to say I'm looking forward to their next book, and that's a decision I make long before the end of a book, which was certainly the case here!

Last Days of Las Vegas

This is the second of two novels by Roy Hayes. It is sophisticated and a great read. I strongly suggest that you read his first, "The Hungarian Game" prior to reading this second very entertaining spy thriller.

The Last Days of Las Vegas

When Charles Remly, a retired intelligence operative living in Las Vegas, foils an attempt on his life by an ex-Kremlin enforcer, he's thrust back unwillingly into the world of espionage and black-ops. Remly enlists the help of four other disgruntled ex-operatives, like himself eased out or fired from "the Firm" for not following the party line: Remly's former Field Officer, vegetating in Santa Barbara; a regime-change specialist in a walker; a gay beauty salon owner; and an electronics wizard. Together this motley group of middle-aged has-beens investigates what seems at first glance to be a money-laundering scheme and turns out to be a plan for the nuclear annihilation of Las Vegas. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Ashor dur-Shamshi, a former general in the Iraqi army, is plotting his return to power from exile, a plan financed by the 19 billion dollars Ashor has siphoned off while acting as Saddam's bagman. From his suite in Lisbon, Ashor orchestrates a suicide attack on a Kuwaiti hotel, the murder of a Russian billionaire, arms shipments throughout the third world, and civil unrest in Iraq - all preludes to the of staging a "terrorist" attack that destroys Las Vegas and brings him to power in Baghdad as the American government jettisons the goal of democracy in Iraq in favor of a strongman who can ensure stability. With its high-tech gadgetry and intertwining subplots, The Last Days of Las Vegas will inevitably be compared to the military thrillers of Tom Clancy. Like Clancy, Hayes succeeds in keeping all his balls in the air as the action shifts around the globe, but Hayes' very human protagonists are far more believable than Clancy's cardboard cutouts and his memorable secondary characters merit an applause of their own. The Last Days of Las Vegas is a first class spy thriller that will have readers turning pages (or clicking mice in the case of electronic versions) as fast as they can.

The Last Days of Las Vegas

Whew. Quite the book. I enjoyed it greatly. It was current in so many ways that I enjoyed, but I don't think that will restrict it. I fear that in 10 years, most of these unfortunate international situations will still be with us. I love Hayes's wry sense of humor and the phrases he coins, which I move into my everyday speech. The book has such scope and such breadth that I fear some who are used to the everyday adventure novels might have difficulty staying the course. Those people who read Clive Cussler won't be nearly as pleased with this as those of us who read Le Carré. In some ways, this will be the book that people will remember and identify with Hayes . . . he should be very proud of it. On a personal note to Roy Hayes: Please don't make us wait so long for the next novel.

Wonderful!!

I loved this book. I was a big fan, in the 70s, of Hungarian Game, which seemed like a truly American voice to match -- and better -- Deighton and Le Carre, and, for that matter, the Adam Hall guy, whatever his name eventualy settled on. I could never figure out what happened to Hayes, and was VERY pleased to see his name on a new book. Well, turned out better than I could have hoped. This is not the Remly of thirty years ago; this Remly is smarter, listens better, is not quite so flip. He also is middle aged. The story has all the requisite features -- plenty of suspense, imminent disaster of the most horrible type, geographical shifts, and so on. But it is the characters, and their relationship to the passage of time, that is the engrossing center of the novel's worth. Hayes is just really, really smart in the way he describes a person's relation to the lifespan, the way age colors perception, the way physical changes are a background noise to the other things in life. I don't know of another book that has the subtlety of this one about what it is like to be a boomer getting on. I could go on. Do read it, really. It is a compelling story, a clear portrait of early 21st century America, and all. But the best part is Remly, himself, grown up.