Black Mass succeeds admirably in showing just how fragile FBI integrity can be when the good guys lose sight of the truth, the rules, and the law * * WASHINGTON POST * *
A jaw-dropping, true-life tale of how two thugs corrupted the FBI * * BALTIMORE SUN * *
Black Mass should prompt a reevaluation of the uses and misuses of informers by law-enforcement officials throughout the country * * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * *
A triumph of investigative reporting, this full-bodied true-crime saga by two Boston Globe reporters is a cautionary tale about FBI corruption and the abuse of power * * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY * *
An eye-opening true-crimer * * KIRKUS REVIEWS * *
What a marvellous read Black Mass is -- DOMINICK DUNNE
[Lehr and O'Neill] vividly capture the turbulent culture and conflicting loyalties of the Boston underworld * * LIBRARY JOURNAL * *
More than an expose on the abuses of power, Black Mass tells of the shameful betrayal of all things decent by two of our own native sons who climbed the ranks of both the underworld and the FBI. The good qualities of loyalty and pride that we were raised on in Southie, were manipulated and perverted for their own gains as they promoted a culture of drugs, denial, and death on our streets. Lehr and O'Neill give us all the details with a journalistic precision that does not sacrifice the power of the story. After reading Black Mass, you might wonder if any of us really knows who are the good guys and who are the bad guys -- MICHAEL PATRICK MACDONALD * * author of ALL SOULS: A FAMILY STORY FROM SOUTHIE * *
This perfectly measured journalistic work constructs a thrilling factual timeline which bleeds and shocks, while avoiding the tabloid hyperbole of certain true crime wastes of paper pulp, stacked high in airport bookshops. It explores an ugly interdependency between the foxes and hounds on Boston's South Side - a chilling symmetry. Bulger is painted as a Machiavellian sociopath - the dark Prince of Southie, rising within his criminal court . . . Black Mass exposes the dilapidated soul of American justice at a moment when corruption seeped into the foundations of its integrity * * SKINNY * *
