not my favorite Bohjalian (that honor still goes to last year’s THE LIONESS), but a solid entry from the author. The book is not quite a satire, not quite a crime thriller, and I wish it had leaned more into one of those genres rather than ride the middle. Ultimately, a little all over the place, though I was into the sister storyline and the strange world of celebrity doppelgangers.

This was fun on audio, but didn’t wow me. I liked the premise but found myself bored in the middle for a while. But I did enjoy the characters, and the environment,

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. What an exciting and intriguing read! I loved the Las Vegas setting. The storyline was good and the characters were very well done.

What would it be like to be a performer in Vegas? What would lead a person to be chose that life? This novel mixed some suspense with history, and contemporary events to make it a good blend. It was a little weird to read about the pandemic and the profound impact it had on society as a whole, but just as a passing commentary on the time. I loved living in this little piece of Vegas for a while, even if it was risky.

Chris Bohjalian has yet another exciting, fast paced mystery with a modern gangster theme story under his belt. The Princess Of Las Vegas combines a Princess Diana impersonator with a new type of criminal set in the somewhat shady city of Las Vegas. It also has a bit of humor and dead bodies. But the main characters are a woman impersonator, her sister and her sister's new adopted teenage daughter. What on earth could go wrong?

Crissy Dowling works at the Buckingham Palace Casino in Las Vegas as a Princess Diana impersonator. She has been able to transform herself and her image into the late great Princess Di. Her show is a sell out every night. She is why people come to the Buckingham. But Crissy's life growing up was not healthy. She still has some emotional and physical scars which she understands and uses to portray Diana. She's a pro at not eating and medicating herself. Hidden to most everybody. But now, she is alone as her boyfriend has decided to go back to his wife. And to make matters worse, one of the owners of the Casino has decided to kill himself throwing the whole organization into chaos.

Now, for some reason she is being asked to get in touch with a woman coming for her ex-boyfriend's senate position. No reason as to why, but her job seems to be on the line if she chooses to ignore the request.

Meanwhile, in a state very far away, Vermont, her sister Betsy who was a social worker with whom Crissy has been pretty much estranged from since their mother's death, has fallen in love with a cryptocurrency fanatic who has a scheme to make them millions. She has also decided to adopt a teenager named Marissa and move across the country to none other than Las Vegas where her boyfriend says they will make a killing. And by the way Betsy, looks just like Crissy who looks just like Princess Diana. That's all I'm saying.

That's when all their lives begin to intertwine and take dramatic turns in which more people will die the real mystery will be why? What is going on. Then Crissy discovers her home, Buckingham Palace is being sold and if she doesn't cooperate, she won't have a job and possibly her life. Soon Betsy and Marissa discover what happens in Vegas may just land them staying in Vegas...as corpses.

In The Princess Of Las Vegas, we seem to have it all! Murder, suicide, fake identities, high tech plots, fraud and one very curious teenager.

Thank you #NetGalley #Doubleday #ChrisBohjalian #ThePrincessOfLasVegas for the advanced copy.

I prefer Bohjalian's literary novels, like Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands. The cryptocurrency/underworld, almost political thriller feel to this one is not for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I purchased a copy for my library.

The Princess of Las Vegas is another well done book by this author. This book is about a Princess Diana impersonator, her estranged sister, and how they find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of money and murder. The plot and idea for this book was amazing and I liked the setting of the book as well. This book was well written and I look forward to reading more books by this author. I enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery or thriller. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for this ARC read in exchange of my honest review of The Princess of Las Vegas.

This is my second Chris Bohjalian read with my first being The Lioness. I expected something closer to that book, but it appears Bohjalian is a varied writer.

Synopsis: A Princess Diana impersonator and her estranged sister find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of money and murder in this twisting tale of organized crime, cryptocurrency, and family secrets on the Las Vegas strip.

My thoughts: I loved the setting: the seedy side of the glamorous Las Vegas. It read like a step back in time to a mob tv show, but modernized with cryptocurrency. The book focuses on Crissy, the spitting image of the late Princess Diana, who has created a Vegas musical cabaret based on the Diana's life, her estranged sister Betsy, Betsy's daughter Marisa and Betsy's shady new boyfriend. And then there were 4 corpses....

This is slow-burn thriller. I enjoyed the Princess Diana facts and history intersperced throughout the book. The novel focuses heavily on cryptocurrency and politics, so fans of those two elements will enjoy that. For me, I got a bit lost. The relationship between Crissy and Betsy is explored throughout the novel, and we learn the reasons why they are estranged. The book rotates the story from the perspective of each sister.

For me, this book wasnt the big hit of the Lioness. perhaps, I am just the wrong audience and someone else would enjoy it better.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for sharing Chris Bohjalian's latest suspenseful thriller.

Bestselling author Chris Bohjalian has done it again in his novel, The Princess of Las Vegas, where Crissy Dowling, who stars in a show as Princess Diana at a second-rate casino, The Buckingham Palace, off the strip in Las Vegas Both of the owners of the casino are murdered, and her estranged sister comes to live in Las Vegas with her rich boyfriend who apparently has ties to organized crime. Crissy knows that her job is threatened when a crypto-currency company connected to her sister’s boyfriend, buys the casino and a new boyfriend of Crissy’s is also murdered.

One of Bohjalian trademarks is that when he writes a novel, he does enough research to make the setting real. In this novel, he introduces readers to behind the scenes of Las Vegas entertainment. It is very believable, and the scenarios ring true. The prose is well-written, albeit a bit wordy, and the story is easy to follow. This is one where the reader knows who the bad guys are, and hope that the protagonist discovers it before she is killed.

The author does an excellent job of developing the characters. Crissy lives a shallow life in her own world, and is happy with it. The sub-characters are also believable and there are sub-plots that are woven in the main plot.

While this isn’t a fast read, it is a good read. The dénouement is at the very end, so readers will be on the edge throughout the novel as the suspense builds. This is another winner from Chris Bohjalian, and readers will definitely enjoy this novel.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

The premise was interesting, but the writing just doesn't work for me. I think this author just isn't for me, I have tried another book before and I felt the same way. The ending was predictable.

I'm a huge fan of Diana and I was really intrigued by this story, but ultimately it kind of fell flat for me. The characters were not likeable for the most part and I just didn't really care what happened to them

I love The Flight Attendant so much but admittedly I only saw the show. Maybe I like the concepts more than the writing because I wasn’t really into this.

"The Princess of Las Vegas" by Chris Bohjalian introduces readers to Crissy Dowling, a woman who lives a meticulously crafted life as a Princess, performing cabaret inspired by Princess Diana in a dated casino. Crissy's facade of glamour and eccentricity hides a troubled reality—her reliance on Adderall and Valium, a failed relationship, and a career based on resembling a dead woman. When her sister arrives with unexpected company and the casino owner is murdered, Crissy's world unravels. Bohjalian weaves a riveting narrative of identity, obsession, and high-stakes intrigue, immersing readers in a thrilling tale of Las Vegas's underbelly. "The Princess of Las Vegas" is an original and addictive thriller that showcases Bohjalian's storytelling prowess.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian was a fun read. This story follows Crissy who is a Princess Diana impersonator-and although she feels like she has her life together more or less, under the facade, she is a mess. Her boyfriend has gone back to his wife and she relies on a daily concoction of pills, and adding to the mess is the arrival of her sister Betsy. Bohjalian is a talented writer, with a flare for writing all kinds of fiction. I have been reading his books for years and the range of his subject matter is impressive, His writing flows and the pages fly by. Highly recommended.

This wasn’t my favorite Chris Bohjalian book mostly because the organized crime element does not really interest me and I am also not a fan of Las Vegas. With that said, the writing was solid and this will definitely appeal to a wide audience.

Chrissy Dowling is an award-winning impersonator of the legendary Princess Diana and she has a coveted residency even if it is at a second-rate casino off the strip in Las Vegas. The problem is she loves being Diana a little too much, escaping the trauma of her early life growing up in Vermont by escaping from reality by taking on Diana's persona and cadence even if she is not on stage and using diazepam and Adderall to be either on or off - her shallow but peaceful life trundling from cabana to stage to bed and back to her poolside cabana in the morning is starting to crash down around her. One of the bosses of her casino commits suicide (or does he?), her younger sister who looks just like her is moving to town and has adopted a daughter and there are crypto bros sniffing around to buy the casino which could endanger her whole setup.
Her younger sister Betsy also gets her chapters and she is uprooting her whole life burned out working in social work through the pandemic she is ready for a dramatic shift, from Vermont to Vegas, from social work to cryptocurrency and from being alone to being the mom to one of her former charges.
These two sisters are estranged but now they need to find a way to work together and trust each other again.
They need to overcome their traumatic past if they want to help Marisa, the teenager Betsy has adopted, but soon they find themselves in over their heads. With lots of twists and turns, an intriguing plot and fleshed out characters, fabulous Mafia types included, this book definitely kept me reading.
Many thanks to the publisher @doubledaybooks for granting me an earc of this novel via @NetGalley. My review is voluntary and opinions are my own. I loved it so much I bought an actual hardcover copy! I went to the launch event in Burlington Vermont and it was fantastic seeing @chrisbohjalian describe his inspirations and his research work.

The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian has an interesting premise- a Diana impersonator gets caught up in a murder plot in Las Vegas. I enjoyed the idea of this book, but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. Parts of it were very slow and others seemed to move along too quickly. There was also a large cast of characters that at times got to be a lot to remember.

Gail Pennington Special to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Same old same old isn’t something you get from Chris Bohjalian. No ruts for this author of 20-plus novels, each unlike the others, all leading somewhere he hasn’t taken us before.

Bohjalian has plunged us into the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown (“Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands”) and sent us on an ill-fated safari in 1960s Africa (“The Lioness”). We have followed along anxiously as a young woman battled persecution in early America (“Hour of the Witch”) and as an air hostess got caught up in murder (“The Flight Attendant,” adapted by HBO).

But common factors in Bohjalian’s books are the women — flawed, quirky and tough to the core — who take the lead in his stories. In “The Princess of Las Vegas,” out March 19, we get two: look-alike sisters who could hardly be more different.

Crissy Dowling, slim and blond and bulimic, is the royalty of the title, a Princess Diana impersonator with a one-woman show at a shabby Vegas hotel-casino called the Buckingham Palace. She is popular and successful, with just a tiny drug habit, but the palace is crumbling around her, with a rumored hostile takeover looming.

Enter Betsy, Crissy’s estranged sister, who surprises her with the less-than-welcome news that she is moving to Las Vegas with her boyfriend, a cryptocurrency mogul of sorts, and her daughter, Marisa, 13 and newly adopted from troubled foster care. Crissy and Betsy butt heads even before Betsy gets a makeover that leaves her looking eerily like Crissy, and thus Diana.

Crissy, Betsy and Marisa (who is a delight) all move the story along, in separate chapters, and things soon go from bad to much worse for everyone. Men around Crissy keep dying by “suicide,” while Betsy, who is far too naïve for Las Vegas, or even her native Vermont, eventually discovers that she’s being manipulated, and that she has put her daughter at risk.

Bohjalian nails the seedy atmosphere of Las Vegas off the Strip, where performers eke out a living impersonating the famous or once famous. At a party for casino investors, Betsy (as Crissy, as Diana) mingles with “Michael Jackson,” “Frank Sinatra” and “a group someone had to tell her was a Herman’s Hermits cover band.”

“Many of the guests were musicians as well as singers, and they’d take any gig they could get, even if it meant playing the piano in a hotel lobby while the arriving hordes in their flip-flops and cargo pants” paid no attention.

But the most riveting part of “The Princess of Las Vegas” doesn’t actually further the plot; it’s a digression in which Crissy vividly recalls the night in 2017 when a shooter with a militia’s worth of weapons leaned out of a upper-floor hotel window killed 58 people at a music festival in Las Vegas. “The next morning,” she recalls, “the area gun stores were packed.”

A major player in the novel is a mysterious company called Futurium, dealing in crypto and fintech (i.e. financial technology) and the corruption of politicians. Maybe you will find that angle fascinating. If not, that’s what skimming is for.

The action piles up at the end of “The Princess of Las Vegas,” and the resolution is very quick and neat, almost an afterthought. But you’re likely to be left thinking, as I was, “Wow, this will be great on HBO.” I wonder who’ll play Marisa?

I really like Chris Bohjalian's writing and this was no exception. Chrissy is a Princess Diana impersonator in Las Vegas. She actually has her own show where she performs as Diana, only she has allowed the Diana persona to take over the rest of her life. Her childhood was rough and she doesn't get along with her sister, Betsy.

Which means... enter Betsy! Betsy is dating a jerk (although she doesn't see it, obviously) and has just adopted a 13-year-old girl. So Betsy, the jerk and the girl all move to Las Vegas. Turns out the jerk is involved in some shady business. Betsy and Chrissy look alike... enough alike that they can be mistaken for each other. It is clear how this is going to go down, but even though it seems predictable, it was so well done that I just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen.

If you like constant descriptions of cryptocurrency and Princess Diana, then this is the book for you. For me, this was way too over-the-top to the point that it became very dull. I was extremely uninterested in the whole plot and had to slog my way through to finish.