Reviews

Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr

kbarenthaler's review against another edition

3.0

An in depth look at the case of James “Whitey” Bulger and his time as an informant for the FBI. The amount of information contained can sometimes seem to be a bit too much to keep readers’ attention but it is all important in the overall story. Great look into the history of Boston.

paddyo1993's review against another edition

2.0

Very interesting subject matter and lots of in-depth exploration. However, I got lost in a lot of the timeline and struggled with keeping up with all of the characters and legal information.

Too much for this simple reader

icalyn_13's review against another edition

3.0

Frustrating, yet fascinating, read. First and foremost, I suck with names in real life and when reading, so when you have as many people involved as in this story, I nearly need a hint about who they are talking about, like Bob (FBI Boss). I hate having to flip to the front of the book, find the name, remember who they are and why they are important, and then reestablish where I was before I got lost. Secondly, as I said in one of my updates: give me the story in near or chronological order please.

Overall thoughts: it started really well. I was intrigued right off the bat with the first chapter, and then I started to struggle a bit with the lack of chronological order and the sheer number of names. In the middle of the book, I was really not enjoying it because it was getting repetitive in my mind, but maybe I was just confusing characters. Then, when the poo hit the fan, I was hooked. The trial, the escape - that was amazing and really appealed to my prevelant love of law, and bumped up this score to a 3 from the 2 it was hovering near.

I'm looking forward to the movie, but I'd only recommend the book to people that love books about mafia history - I don't think this is a book that casual readers will necessarily enjoy.

kipreads's review against another edition

informative reflective tense medium-paced

2.5

raebelanger's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

2.0

theshaggyshepherd's review against another edition

4.0

I think this is a great book for someone with interests in this area. Otherwise it can get lengthy and boring at some parts. Overall a good book though, in my opinion.

dizzybell06's review against another edition

2.0

I was really interested in this story, but I felt like I was just reading facts. The story seemed to skip around a lot and add in information from previous years at moments that got a little confusing. There were to many people and stories to keep track of. I also feel like the book fell flat at times and that information was added in to fluff up the book more. At times I was really into the book, but at other times my mind wondered elsewhere. I liked the premise surrounding this book and how it all played out, but do not feel as though the book was written in a way that made it easy to get through.

cbreese's review against another edition

4.0

A thorough account of the myriad crimes, and crooked dealings of Whitey Bulger and his gang with the FBI. I had to take a break from this book for a while because it was just so dark, but it's well researched and written and gives you a complete understanding of what transpired over decades. It also includes an update from the original book to include the capture of Bulger in 2011 and subsequent trial.

callieisreading's review against another edition

4.0

The Southie of the 1970's and 1980's was run by a gangster named Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger, who took over the Winter Hill Gang after its leader, Howie Winter, was put behind bars. Whitey and his right-hand man, Stevie "The Rifleman" Flemmi, controlled everything that happened there, from gambling, to drugs, to weapons. Beyond a penchant for violence and a ruthless reputation, the thing that kept Whitey and Stevie out of trouble with the law was a close friendship with Michael Connelly, a high-ranking member of the FBI in Boston who had grown up admiring Whitey as a kid in Southie. This friendship was mutually beneficial, as Whitey and Stevie provided information to the Bureau regarding the LCN, La Cosa Nostra, or the Italian Mafia, eventually to basically the nullification of the LCN in Boston. On the other side, Connelly protected his guys, tipping them off to potential wiretaps, pointing investigations in other directions, and according to Whitey and Stevie, giving them the green light to commit basically any crime, short of murder (which didn't stop them, Whitey is currently on trial for 19 killings). The experience of reading Black Mass was intensified as I followed Whitey's trial along, with parts from the book frequently coming up in the case. Made for a very exciting couple of days.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I thought there were some editing problems, but not enough to kill it for me, or really even distract me from the story.

emmagoldblum's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

3.75