“Restless City is a fascinating book on two different levels. This is a great crime noir story, reminiscent of the style of crime writers of days gone by. But it also is captivating for the reader to experience the diverse writing styles of seven different authors in one tale.”
– Sharon Galligar Chance
Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Book Nook
“Having lived in Vegas, and being familiar with the area, I was pleased by how instantly this story took me back to the glitz and glamour, the muck and filth that make up Sin City. There’s no where else like it in the world, and these seven diverse authors capture the mystery of Las Vegas beautifully in Restless City.”
– Sharon Galligar Chance
Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Book Nook
“It’s a fast detective story with the interesting background that it was written not by one writer but a collaboration of seven … These guys are insiders, they know their town.”
– Linda Linguvic
Amazon.com
“In a way, it is Las Vegas itself that is the main character in this book. But it does include a private eye, a hard-edged guy named Brady who has given up liquor but has not given up his curiosity … This is a rather fun escapist book. And it must have been fun for the seven writers to write.”
– Linda Linguvic
Amazon.com
“At first I was a little daunted by the prospect of taking someone else’s characters and trying to bring them to life, but after I got started, I found it very freeing. When I am working on my own material, there is a huge investment of myself going on, via imagination and emotions, and with Restless City, it was like being handed a cast of characters and let loose from my usual conventions. I suppose what I am saying is that my own characters (particularly in the novel I just finished) are definitely, in some way, extensions of myself. But with Restless City, putting on the hat (so to speak) of private eye “Daniel Brady” was like casting all that aside and being given license to inhabit someone else’s imagination for a while.”
— Constance Ford, contributing author to Restless City
“It was an interesting project because while we tend to think of writing as a solitary activity, truly, it is always a community effort. A book does not get into print on the basis of the efforts of one person, sitting for hours alone at his or her computer. A piece of writing passes through many hands (and minds) before it enters the world as a concrete object. This project–Restless City–clearly put that paradoxical concept into tangible form.”
— Constance Ford
“In school I often got into trouble for failing to work well with others, so I wasn’t optimistic that I could cooperate on a story with six writers. Collaborating on a writing project was pretty new for me. But it was intriguing to participate in a collective creative writing project. And I think the story works.”
— John L. Smith, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist and author of Sharks in the Desert, Bluegrass Days & Neon Nights, Of Rats and Men and others.
“Restless City forced me to step up my game. For me, chapter three was a great opportunity because I got to delve into back story. John Irsfeld gave me a lot to work with. In turn, I finished my chapter with an old-fashioned cliffhanger for the next author. I hope the readers have as much fun as I did.”
— Brian Rouff, author of Dice Angel and Money Shot and contributing author to Restless City
Words of praise for the authors and editor of Restless City:
H. Lee Barnes
“Barnes is a knowledgeable about Nevada history and gaming operations as he is about the little virtue and great vice in the human heart. … the gloom may eclipse the bright lights of Vegas, but Barnes’s engaging voice and quirky plotting keep the reader turning pages.”
- Publisher’s Weekly, On the Lucky Western Literature Series, University of Nevada Press, 2003
John Irsfeld
“Rats Alley is more than a crime novel. It exposes the human condition in all its glorious tragedy. Through his characters, Irsfeld even manages to extract humor but the overwhelming message that comes through is one of fate: we are meant to experience everything given to us regardless of what we think we should be given.”
—Chad Jones, Sagebrush
Brian Rouff
“Dice Angel is pure excitement. Pure intrigue. Pure heart-racing adrenaline-rush. I guess that makes it pure Las Vegas.”
- Andy Bellin, Author Poker Nation
John L. Smith
“With Dan the Man, one of Las Vegas’ greatest raconteurs, sharing stories with the most astute observer of all things Vegas, readers are in for a rare treat. Bluegrass Days goes on the top shelf of my library.”
- Jack Sheehan, Author Skin City: Uncovering the Las Vegas Sex Industry
Geoff Schumacher
“Now, however, the impressively researched and highly readable Sun, Sin & Suburbia captures the intangible nature of the dynamic, ever-changing city. Schumacher combines skills from his 16 years of work as a reporter, editor and columnist in Las Vegas with a scholar’s perspective and historian’s sensibility that are so often lacing in books by journalists, justifying subtitle’s adjective “essential.”
- Sally Denton, Los Angles Times Book Review