Tahoe Basin Blues: a novel

Labor Day Weekend in Lake Tahoe! The Summer-ending celebration is in full swing. The Blue Angels cavort high in the bright sunny sky as the Hell's Angels cavort on the earth below. Music echoes across the gleaming lake from the South Shore to the North Shore. Tourists pack the white sandy beaches and the 'locals' hike down to the hidden nude beach. The party is on!But this year's Labor Day party is different. This party has a new, exciting element- and it has the entire Tahoe Basin involved. The Mark Twain Casino Hotel has an unwanted visitor, and all of the experts in the world don't know what to do. Tahoe, Berkeley, San Francisco. Vesuvio, City Lights Bookstore, Poor Pierre's, Cody's, Cocking's. Telegraph Avenue, the Haight, the South Shore and the North Shore. Dylan, Garcia, Keystone Berkeley, Commander Cody. The Sixties and the Seventies and Now. Tahoe Basin Blues is Art vs. Commerce, Outlaw vs. Casino, Counterculture vs. Establishment. Only Tahoe could bring artists, casino workers and intellectuals together to plot revenge on a casino. Only in Tahoe could that plot go so awry. With the bikers blocking the highway, there was only room for one lane of traffic in each direction, and even as he watched the surreal scene unfold, Benny the Torch could see the Nevada State Police starting to turn back traffic. They were shutting the Tahoe Basin down.