THE SET UP

In this offbeat Las Vegas noir, a struggling actress, a discredited journalist, and a service-industry dropout are drawn into a dangerous plot involving a mysterious marketing outfit.

The Set Up, as the outfit is called, is “a multi-level marketing scheme, preying on a loose and competitive community of unsuccessful actors.” Tired of failed auditions and her barista job, sharp-tongued Ally Parks accepts an offer to be a “brand ambassador,” which requires her to approach potential sales targets in the guise of different “characters.” Marshall Grant, a one-time newspaper reporter now teaching a summer journalism class, is gradually drawn into the plot after someone leaves on his lectern a copy of a damagingly inaccurate article about a supposed suicide he wrote 30 years ago—a death, his students charge, from which he benefited. Then there is former waiter Web, a Set Up employee who first discovered Ally and becomes responsible for keeping an eye on her. At first, Ally enjoys the easy money she makes. But the more roles she plays and the more personally involved she gets with people she encounters, the shadier things get. After an influential developer dies unexpectedly at a bar mitzvah Ally attends, everyone’s innocence and identity is called into question, including hers. Wynn, a sociology professor, knows his Vegas. He brings to his first novel an enjoyably edgy voice and dry humor, but he is unable to make his overly clever premise tick. He clearly loves the idea of the Set Up, but the reader struggles to make sense of it and, in the end, so do his characters.

A promising but ultimately off-putting debut.