Inside Out by Gerald Zipper

Inside Out is a fast-moving story filled with surprises, biting humor, and the manipulations of a breakaway member in a fabulously oil-rich royal Middle Eastern family.  In this noveau politique, Lawrence Dallek, a freelance writer, is sent on assignment to Las Vegas to study the locality. Exactly who hired him and to what end is not immediately clear but the pay is more than adequate. In Las Vegas he is introduced to “Jimmy,” an Arab prince well spoken in English who can pontificate on Moslem teachings as easily as he can lay out plans to buy out American casinos. The U.S. State Department assigns a young woman to protect him from being assassinated while on U.S. soil. Caught between the rival factions of Moslems who disapprove of the proposed investment in vice and local toughs who don’t want to give up the mob stronghold on Las Vegas, Lawrence Dallek is kidnapped in Las Vegas, marooned in a pleasure boat on Lake Meade, swimming through frigid waters, facing a good bashing from the local mob anxious to maintain their hold against the raging tide of Arab wealth.  He unwittingly finds himself becoming their “front man.” A campaign of ferocious resistance follows from both the Wahabist members of the royal family and an existing power structure in Las Vegas desperate to preserve their exclusive turf.

PRICE: $14.95 US