Political thriller, historical drama, crime and coverup, love and hate, disaster and redemption--Sally Denton's fast-paced, beautifully written account of the Mountain Meadow Massacre has it all. For a century-and-a-half, the worst atrocity of its kind in American annals went so little or marginally written about that it was one of our history's dirty secrets. But now Denton, a nationally-honored author and investigative journalist, gives it the definitive book it deserves--an achievement all the more impressive because of the courage and wisdom it took in a woman who is herself a descendant of Mormon pioneers. Terrorism and religious fanaticism hardly began with Islamic radicals September 11, 2001. It's as American as apple pie and massacre in a lovely Utah meadow. No history is more relevant to understanding our world, our America. Don't miss this one!

This book is terrific. Not only it is great history, it is wonderfully written. Denton has tackled a great stain upon the history of the Mormon church--the massacre of more than 100 members of a wagon train headed west in 1857. She traces the history of the Mormon church to help explain both how its members could and would be nervous about outsiders, and how its leaders then tried to cover up a case of cold-blooded murder. When you are done reading it--and you will finish it; it is impossible to put down--you will have a better understanding of how this church became important and how and why it remains so mysterious to so many.

This book tells the detailed story of how a handful of Lexington socialites organized a crime ring that became a (maybe *the*) major smuggler of cocaine and other drugs into the Eastern United States. Complete with cover-up and contract murders, the author pieces together an intricate story that, before it's over, includes state and federal government officials as well as organized-crime syndicates from all over the country. Also recounted in the book is the life of Ralph Ross, the Kentucky State Policeman and electronic-surveillance expert, whose single-minded perseverance finally brought about the end of the smuggling ring.

It's informative as well as it is entertaining, and I recommend it to all true-crime fans, mafia buffs, conspiracy theorists, and Kentuckians.

This story and the author Sally Denton reminds me of my favorite author's (Thomas Thompson) treatment of bizarre, fascinating true stories of immense complication made clear by the author.

Mayhem by the truckload, double-crossing by the numbers, and a large cast of evil characters make this a can't-put-down book. I can remember two "good guys" that lasted through the story from beginning to end, but a humorless good read by a talented author is beckoning to you in The Bluegrass Conspiracy.

I read this book a few years back and found it fascinating. I decided to pick it up again two nights ago, and just finished my second reading. It's even better on the second go-round. Fans of true-crime/organized crime tales will find this book enthralling. I just hope I get to meet Ralph Ross sometime -- what a dedicated public servant!

The Money and the Power begins as an intriguingly detailed history of Las Vegas, digging deep into mobster mythology to present a "true" history in a field steeped in mythos. The underlying theme is that the peculiar set of circumstances that allowed legalized gambling in Nevada have allowed the corruption the entire (presumably previously uncorrupt?) country.

This is an interesting argument, and at first the authors do a good job of marshalling impressive battalions of detail into a compelling narrative. Soon, however, the prose turns oddly purple, and each chapter end seem culled from gothic melodrama.

Readers of James Ellroy will recognize the basic scenario from his American Tabloid/Cold Six Thousand series, but it plays better as hard-boiled fiction than curiously naive history. One can agree with many of the authors' historical points without concuring with their increasingly strident and unsupported conclusions.

When the corporations finally take the casinos over from the mob, we're told they are in fact no different from their murderous predecessors. The proof: they routine lobby congress for legislation favorable to legalized gambling, and because the casino business is very profitable, they routinely get what they want.

This dastardly turn of events has surely never happened in this country before...

The first half of this book can be recommended as an impressively researched and well-written chronicle of Vegas' early days. But the later portions, long on hysteria and short on clear analysis, are tough going.

This is a complete history of Vegas from the slant of the author. While there is plenty of information, that's part of the problem. Sometimes there is just too much information. With research this voluminous, the authors had to make some decisions about what areas to cover. Generally, they focused on bankers, journalists, politicians and gangsters. An inordinate amount of time was spent tying the gangsters to the CIA and plots to kill Castro. But is that really part of Las Vegas history or national politics? You should also be forewarned that the number of pages allocated over the past 20 years appeared to be much lower than coverage from '45 to '70.

Overall, I became somewhat bored although I did learn quite a bit. The FBI agent Yablonsky trying to work in an environment where many times he was considered an enemy was particularly interesting. Also, the journalist who wrote about Steve Wynn but not is effectively muzzled by Wynn's legal action shows where the true power is in Vegas.

Sometimes too much information detracts and for me that was the case here. I enjoyed the book "Casino" more which focused just on the gangsters move to Vegas as well as their eventual demise.

This is an absolute must-read for anyone the least bit interested in the real history of Las Vegas. Denton and Morris brilliantly strip away the glitter and the neon and reveal a most provocative skein that inextricably links the Mafia, FBI, CIA, drug runners, politicians, Wall Street, Hollywood, and the weak and the powerful to a once-secret history. In the wonderful tradition of Peter Dale Scott and Alan A. Block, Sally Denton and Roger Morris give us a glorious dish of real, hard-boiled history. An instant modern classic.