This short story collection revolves around crime: gangsters, wannabe gangsters (in over their heads), security, sheriffs. Most take place in the Coachella Valley in the blazing sun and heat and the Salton Sea stink.

Goldberg is not all about crime though. This book is not filled with gratuitous violence. His characters struggle with regret and grief, with aging and moving on. Many of the stories are linked. Several are heartbreaking. This book would make for a great book group discussion.

I liked all of these stories. My favorites were Goon Number Four and those featuring Tania.

Short stories that are tough, gritty and hardcore. Stories of gangsters, cons, gamblers, murderers et. al. Each story does well as a well rounded standalone. If you like stories about the underground life in Vegas, California, Arizona this is a good read for you of true gangster stories.

I've been waiting with bated eyes (is there such a thing?) for this story collection from Tod Goldberg who knocked it out of the park with his novel Gangsterland in which a mob hitman is transformed into a Las Vegas youth rabbi. The followup novel, Gangsternation carries forward the thoughtful and hilarious narrative. The Low Desert returns to that dry and challenging world with some linking of stories via recurrence of characters and a mood of bleakness leavened with humor and absurdity. In these stories the Goldberg is being compared to Elmore Leonard, an apt observation but only a starting point for this exciting and consistently excellent writer.

The Low Desert by Tod Goldberg is a superb read with well-defined characters and plotline. Definitely a page turner and well worth a read!

Aptly titled, Goldberg's The Low Desert takes us to the empty world out past Palm Springs, a world of lonely roads, forgotten buildings, abandoned lives, and dead inland seas. It's the edge of the universe, a place where bitter wounded folks come to lay down and rot away. There's not much out here, but abandoned dreams, epitomized by the developments that were started and never finished around the Salton Sea, an inland riviera where nothing lives. It's a place where you go when you're at the end of your rope. Reno, Vegas, Hollywood, are the past, better left behind to trailer parks, cheap motels, burned out hustlers looking for a last place to survive. Goldberg offers us a dozen crime stories set for the most part in this wasteland. Some characters reappear again. Some names crisscross the stories. Hard, tough, bittter, and just what that doctor ordered.

The Low Desert by Tod Goldberg is a collection of noir short stories that are both standalone tales and interconnected segments. Because the stories all take place within a certain kind of world in a general area there is crossover with some characters appearing briefly in other character's stories and even reappearing on their own at different times in their lives.

Every so often a reader will come upon a book that makes them think, "Wow! How have I not heard of this author before?" The Low Desert is that kind of book, Tod Goldberg is that writer. I don't know why I've never read anything he's written before but I fully intend to correct that situation as soon as possible .

Deep, thoughtful, often brooding. Tales of people who are living life the best way they can as opposed to living their best lives. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good tale that doesn't necessarily come all wrapped up in a bow with a pretty ending.

Contains adult language and violence.

***I received a free digital copy of this title from NetGalley.

this was a great read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed going on this journey. The characters felt like real people and the storyline was great.