Book excerpt: David Atlas is a middle-aged partner in a Florida law firm who suddenly finds himself with a free weekend after his wife Elaine books a short Caribbean cruise with a girlfriend. After choosing to ignore several legitimate reasons to stay home, David books a four-day escape to Las Vegas. Immediately after David hears he is about to receive a presidential appointment to the SEC, he embarks on a trip to Sin City that turns out to be nothing like what he anticipated. When he steps into a cab with a driver who refuses to talk and offers him a drink with more ingredients than alcohol, Davids intuition tells him something is wrongand hes right. As the cab driver pulls into a convenience store parking lot, David is jumped by two men, and a hood is slipped over his head. Suddenly, David is immersed in a chain of events that prove too difficult for him to navigate by himself. As David travels through the bowels of Las Vegas, he realizes he is a playernot at the blackjack table as he had originally planned, but as an unwilling but active participant in an evolving saga that will soon overtake his entire life.