Howie Carr is an author that I never knew until I picked up this book at the supermarket. I never heard of the Bulger brothers and I have only visited Beantown once for a couple of days as a tourist a few years back. Since I live in New Jersey, this book helps me understand our own corruptive state politics and powers that be better but I am still angry at them anyway. The Bulger Brothers remind me more of Cain and Abel. They both seek the same success even crossing borders and lines that most of us would never dare cross. Imagine Whitey Bulger at your Thanksgiving table or any of his goons. The book is true and I am only halfway through reading about Whitey's crimes and trying to understand the corruptive state of city and state politics. I like the Boston as a city but the Bulger brothers have shown what can happen when they abuse their powers to influence, control, and even destroy others for the sake of their own. You don't want Whitey Bulger to have a grudge against you because he's dangerous. He's not the second most wanted man beside Osama Bin Laden for nothing as the author writes. His danger is that he is too close to us. He looks and acts just like anybody else. We don't know how many dead bodies there are that have not been uncovered in Boston yet but the dead does speak sometimes if you listen hard enough.

As much as a simpleton that Howie Carr is, his recounting of the Bulger brothers' lives exposes the small-minded venality that taints so much of the city. That Billy became president of UMass was puzzling to anyone who didn't know the story behind the story. Carr's explanation of how it happened and how corruption followed him put it into context.

The book is an engaging read, but mostly for Bostonians and New Englanders. Carr's biases come through, but given how preposterous the situation is/was, they are overwhelmed by the bizarre nature of the facts and they are a minor annoyance that doesn't get in the way of the narrative.

With a readable typeface, an engaging storyline and low amounts of concentration required to get its gist, Carr's book is great treadmill reading.

Living in Boston, I am very famimiar with most of the stories floating around about the Bulger Bros. Howie corrals all of the stories that I have heard, adds a few new ones, and presents the lives of Whitey and Billy in a parallel comparison. In doing so, he believably implies that the Bros. consistently helped one another to increase their power, Billy in the Senate and Whitey on the streets. An interesting read, but does not contain much new info on the two men.

I read it and I loved it. Finally, two of Massachusetts' worst sons are exposed. Despite the Boston Globe and plenty of sycophants long covering up their paths of devastation and destruction to our fair commonwealth, Carr's book will stand as the true testament to how the Brother's Bulgers actions destroyed lives. If you want to understand why people are fleeing Massachusetts for less corrupt states like New Hampshire and Florida, read this book.

This was a gift to my 97 year old aunt in Omaha who is loving it.