Red Velvet Media ®

From the desert to the glittering promise of Las Vegas, Nevada has long been the backdrop for heartbreak and broken dreams. Everyone is susceptible to the traps and temptations, but some families make it easy to give in. Award-winning H. Lee Barnes chronicles the Debecki sons in his latest novel Car Tag (Virginia Avenue Press) with devastating honesty. In what may be the quintessential Nevada novel, the reader re-lives the chaotic childhood of the Debecki brothers, while the story weaves in the present-day consequences. Younger Billy Debecki has killed a rural police officer; big brother Drew is a police officer on the Los Vegas police force trying to spare Billy the death penalty. Barnes sees an enormous potential for untapped literary resources in his home state. "I really think the parts that have to be explored about Nevada are the parts in between -- the trailer communities out in the middle of nowhere," he says. "Maybe these little places are the last vestiges of the Old West, where the maverick spiri