Before veteran detective Salazar can retire, he's determined to solve a recent spate of murders of Las Vegas's homeless. On Halloween he encounters a pair of conjoined twins wading in Lake Mead and is sure he has apprehended the killers. Their names: water, strikingly handsome, and Fire, disfigured and sharp-tongued - members of a side-show on the outskirts of Las Vegas called the Carnival of Lost Souls. When they can't explain the container of blood found near their car, Salazar enlists the help of Dr. Sunil Singh, a South African transplant who specializes in the study of psychopaths. Dr. Singh is conducting a series of shadowy experiments on violent behavior for a local institute. Over the course of three days, as Sunil tries to crack the twins, the implications of his study grow darker and it becomes clear that he has his own demons to reckon with. Fire and Water, whose deformity is the result of their mother's exposure to radiation from the U.S. government's nuclear testing in the Nevada desert, have their own revenge in mind. Suspenseful until its final pages, The Secret History of Las Vegas is Chris Abani's most accomplished work to date, with his trademark visionary prose and striking compassion for the innver lives of outsiders. -- Jacket flap.