My Week at the Blue Angel Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas

A rendezvous with a strip-club owner who starts a church based on the writings of Thomas Paine. A savage journey into the heart of Hunter S. Thompson's Las Vegas with the Good Doctor as guide. A Lord-of-the-Rings-like adventure into the city's underground flood channels. A seven-day stay at a seedy motel on East Fremont street. The stories in My Week at the Blue Angel aren't about Steve Wynn or Cirque du Soleil, and they aren't set in Caesar's Palace or a picture-perfect 2000-seat showroom. They're about prostitutes, ex-cons, and the homeless, set under Caesar's Palace and in trailer parks and weekly motels. In this creative non-fiction collection, Matthew O'Brien and veteran photographer Bill Hughes show a side of the city rarely seen; a side of Las Vegas many are curious about but few ever explore.

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.

Bill Hughes is an award-winning photojournalist who moved from Dallas to Las Vegas in 1992 and worked for the alternative weekly newspaper CityLife until 2009. His work has also appeared in publications including the L.A. Times and newspapers in the Village Voice media chain.