Book Review ~ GOING UNDER

Going Under: Kidnapping, Murder, and a Life Undercover

by John Madinger

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SYNOPSIS – “I just want to make sure I’ve got this right. You hanged all three of them? …” That’s how it began, a case where the cops are crooks and the crooks are cops, a kidnapping where the victim is the bad guy, and the good guys must cross some lines to get him back. Welcome to the upside down and backward world of the undercover agent, where nothing is as it seems, and people – including the undercover – may not be what they appear.? GOING UNDER: Kidnapping, Murder, and A Life Undercover by former undercover agent John Madinger takes you into that world, and closer to the truth of the undercover experience than any other law enforcement memoir has ever gone. “”What is it like to work undercover?”” You’re a sheepdog in wolf’s clothing, running with the pack, and Madinger ran with the wolves for almost two decades. Now he shares his story to give you a unique look at American crime and the “”War on Drugs”” from the perspective of both cops and criminals. You’ll go with the undercover cops to meetings with street-corner hustlers and rip-off artists and into the lives of the America’s biggest rock stars, the world’s richest man, an Academy Award-winning actor, the marijuana traffickers conspiring to assassinate a federal judge, and the President of the United States. It’s an amazing ride, and there has never been another story like it.

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MY THOUGHTS – I really liked this book about a cop who did undercover work in Oklahoma. He shares several different cases he worked on throughout his long career using both gravity and humor. There are plenty of surprises to keep it interesting. It’s action-packed with some really wild stuff.

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GOING UNDER

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PUBLISHER – WildBlue Press – 280 pages

PUBLICATION DATE – Sep 13^th, 2022

MY RATING – 5/5 STARS

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR – John is a retired law enforcement officer and author of textbooks, history, and crime fiction. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, he still works providing training on money laundering, financial crime, and terrorism financing to police agencies around the world for the US Treasury Department. His book, Money Laundering: A guide for criminal investigators, 3rd edition, from CRC Press is a standard textbook for government agencies and universities. His first novel, Death on Diamond Head, was a bestseller in Hawaii and his second, Pipe Dreams: The dark secret behind Hawaii’s most infamous crime, will be coming from Watermark Publishing in July 2020. The Opium Kings of Old Hawaii: America’s first drug traffickers, will be published by The History Press in the Fall of 2020.

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