Beneath the Neon Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas

The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Christians. When surveyed in the early 1800s, the sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels and relics of the revolution. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a slave trade thrived in underground chambers along Portland, Oregon's waterfront. And thousands of street people lived in the subway and train tunnels of New York City in the 1980s and '90s.What secrets do the Las Vegas storm drains keep? What discoveries wait in the dark? What's beneath the neon?Armed with a flashlight, a tape recorder and an expandable baton, Las Vegas CityLife writer-editor Matthew O'Brien explored the Las Vegas flood-control system for more than four years.Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas 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's least expected, that in many ways, he prefers underground Las Vegas to aboveground Vegas, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.

Matthew O’Brien is an author and journalist who’s lived in Las Vegas since 1997.

His first book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, chronicles his adventures in the city’s underground flood channels, which he explored for more than four years with a flashlight, tape recorder, and expandable baton for protection.

My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas is his second book.

Danny Mollohan moved to Las Vegas in 2000 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional photographer. With $300 in his pocket and a Lieca M3 in hand, he made his mark working for several weekly newspapers, showing in local galleries, moonlighting in nightclubs, and roaming the countryside.