Whatever happens in Vegas, makes for good reading. Although I have little love for the city itself and no love for gambling, that entire world — and it is its own world — fascinates me. Offhand, I can think of John Goodger’s THE DRUPERMAN TAPES, of the short-story collections DEAD MAN’S HAND and MURDER IN VEGAS. And now, for the most part, Jon Land’s THE SEVEN SINS: THE TYRANT ASCENDING, the start of a new crime series.

At its center is Michael Tiranno, the young, flamboyant owner of The Seven Sins, the grandest casino/hotel on the Vegas strip, with rooms themed to cater to each immoral act. If you can commit it, it can be fulfilled. No expense was spared in the site’s creation, including an underwater casino submerged in a pool of great white sharks. Yes, great white sharks.

Paradise threatens to tumble when four terrorists arrive in town and drive four separate cars packed with explosives to four separate casinos, one of which is Tiranno’s territory. An issue of timing prevents The Seven Sins from being annihilated, unlike the others, but it’s heavily damaged and Las Vegas naturally becomes a ghost down. Stocks plummet immediately and Tiranno’s liquidity is questioned.

With his lavish lifestyle at stake, Tiranno — having amassed his fortune on coffee beans — decides to fight back at the terrorists, by flying over to the Middle East and hunting down the guy who made the call. Now, it should be noted that all this happens in the book’s first third, and I was totally with it throughout this time, enjoying the over-the-top ride. But the grip slips a bit when Tiranno becomes a virtually one-man army, able to do by himself (okay, and his bodyguard) what an entire military force cannot do in real life. The suspension of disbelief is stretched too thin.

Thankfully, the act of vengeance solves nothing, and only uncovers a larger, more insidious plot that forces Tiranno to face a past he left behind and protect something very dear to him. Taken under the wing of a suspected mob leader when his parents were murdered when he was a boy growing up in Italy, Michael experienced a falling out with his surrogate father and was told he would be killed if he ever were to return.

While I see the need for the constant flashbacks that slowly progress through time toward the here and now, they are not as compelling as the present-day efforts to save Sin City. Those scenes — fraught with action and suspense — are what drive THE SEVEN SINS to a deserved slot on your late-summer reading list. Especially when pirates are involved.

Like the town itself, SINS is purposely showy and gaudy, with chewy dialogue and situations more high-stakes than those on the casino floor. It reminded me of an episode of NBC’s LAS VEGAS — and that’s not a bad thing — with its initial multiple storylines, each exciting and swathed with a sheen of high-gloss, high-dollar paint.

If Land is able to proceed with Tiranno’s adventures — and that is the plan — I hope they remain largely confined to that neon jungle in the middle of the Nevada desert. This starter is not without its flaws — nothing unusual for something so epic in scope — but odds are good that thriller fans will walk away pleased. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.