Book Review: "The Princess of Las Vegas" by Chris Bohjalian

robertmcgrath

June 2

The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian

As is obvious from the cover, the "Princess" is Diana, and Las Vegas is where Princess Diana look-alike Crissy does her goopy and sentimental (my words) "tribute" show, impersonating Diana.

This concept is kind of creepy to me, but it's Vegas, so it's just another show. Right?

Unfortunately, no. Crissy and her look-alike sister Betsy get mixed up with some old-style Vegas action. Absurdly old style, except with cryptocurrency tossed in. (If you hadn't noticed before, this story with help you see why a lot of people cringe and run away from cryptocurrency / fintech / 'the future of money' stuff—a lot of it is mafia-think dressed in techno-babble.)

It's an awful mess. Crissy, and then her sister and Betsy's newly adopted daughter Marisa get sucked into some kind of crazy stuff. Is it just Vegas crazy? Or just crypto crazy? Or is this mob stuff? And what is the far-right Congresswoman up to, in all this?

Who, if anyone, can they trust?

Whew! Can we please just go back to Vermont, now?

I have to say I admire that way that most of the violence is off stage. We know there are horrible things happening, even to the narrators themselves as they tell the story. But we aren't given explicit renderings.

Thank goodness for that.

That doesn't mean it isn't a tense story. Far from it. In fact, this story was too tense for my tastes. It took me forever to finish, because at the end I could only read a few pages at a time before I had to put it down. Not really my cup of tea.

But I did finish it, and overall it was worth the struggle to get there.