Rating: 
Summary: a boston vet in the know
Review: a must...this book is incredible..a page turner...the alliance between two (2) mobsters, one a serial killer, is compelling...the loyalty of the agents is challenged and the bad guys profer..what is great is that none of the names are changed..its all there...some may hide..but this cosiness between two killers and fbi agents will raise some eyebrows...a must!
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Summary: The Irish Sopranos!
Review: If you like THE SOPRANOS, you're going to love this book. Itsall those characters and more, but instead of being New Jersey ItalianAmericans, they're Boston Irish. Whitey Bulger and his sidekick, Stevie "The Rifleman" are some very wicked characters, and this book has some graphic and violent scenes. But at its heart is agent John Connolly, an FBI star who turns out to be incredibly corrupt and unable to resist the charms of Bulger, whom he idolized as a kid when they both grew up in the same housing project in South Boston. The evidence presented in this book against Connolly and some of his fellow, crooked FBI agents is devastating. Some others have claimed that there are two sides of the story, that Connolly was a good guy. Think again. He was as rotten as year-old fish. And the law thinks so too: at the end of the book the authors point out that in December Connolly was indicted for multiple crimes related to his sick friendship with Bulger. This is the best mob book I've read in years.
Rating:
Summary: seemless story
Review: Black Mass reads like a novel, but it truer than fiction. The authors have managed to pull together several story lines and characters and tell a seemless story of corruption that has the FBI on its heals. What impressed me the most was the cast of characters -- Whitey, Connolly, Morris, Flemmi -- are more imposing than the next. These are powerful men that heve been reduced to what they all essentially are -- common criminals. The book's story will leave you shaking your head in disbelief and even anger at times. Any book that tugs on emotions such as these is worth a read.
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Summary: it's about time
Review: "Black Mass" is a work of courage, laced with quiet dignity, meticulously reported and executed with precision and lucidity. mr. o'neill and mr. lehr should be commended. not only have they done a exemplary job of chronicling this particular case -- as well as illuminating its myriad and scattered repercussions -- they have, perhaps more importantly, penetrated a deeper and more insidious by-product of law-enforcement today: the dubious relationship between agents and informants. moreover, they have done what all writers must do: taken a pernicious delusion -- that of the "noble" gangster -- and washed it clean until something called truth shines through. thank you, gentlemen.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling, disturbing, exhilarating book!
Review: O'Neill and Lehr have written an extremely compelling tale of double-cross, deception, and morality. It's main characters are men in positions of power who have neither conscience or compassion and the supposed good guys are, in many ways, worse than the bad. Obviously gangsters like Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi were violent, amoral criminals; but to find out that FBI agents like John Connolly were lurking in the shadows protecting them and manipulating everybody else will make even the most cynical reader feel outraged and frustrated. It is a courageous and, at times, disturbing story that will test your own conscience and force you to ask the question: who are we really supposed to trust? Great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Work of Fiction
Review: Although this book is an interesting read, keep in mind that there are two sides to every story. This one happens to be fiction. Being from the area and knowing how the 'world' works, please don't make up your mind about Agent Connoly based on this interpretation of some facts, some fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: A story that skims the top but never gets down and dirty
Review: This book will amuse the casual true crime reader, but the cognoscenti will laugh it off. Why these two reporters are being heralded for this book when it is merely a slapdash re-write of old Boston Globe articles is beyond me. Yes, the saga of the Bulger Brothers is indeed singular, but the real down and dirty story has yet to emerge, and probably will not until all parties are dead and buried. Someone who actually lived with the personalities and knows the piquant details will spill the real beans on this Boston drama someday - save your money for that book.
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Summary: Rehash of old News Stories
Review: If you have read the news accounts over the last few years don't bother purchasing. The book appears to be all of the past Globe newspaper stories dressed up a little. The authors have obviously added detail of the FBI/ mobster relationships from the thousand of pages of court transcripts. However, there is little added that allows the reader to get a feel for the characters and the lives they led.
Rating:
Summary: Kinship gone amuck!
Review: Lehr and O'Neill have compiled the engrossing account of how the power of kinship and ambition turn a blind eye to crime and its cover-up only to be exposed by equally ambitious and dedicated investigators. Without mincing words the authors, as witnesses themselves, tell the riveting story of virtuous intent lost through Irish charm, notably that of FBI agent John Connolly, compromising the honesty and integrity of an elite FBI unit and sophisticated Federal prosecutors in Boston, who in turn all succumb to the mystique of ruthless mob boss Whitey Bulger. An insidious tale. Long in the newspapers the highlights are an old story to Bostonians implicating the FBI and running to top level politicians, but the authors have tied it all together in a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction fashion. As for capturing your interest, it reads like a novel. I picked it up and could not put it down until the last chapter. From the book: "'In 1861', the judge began, "Lord Action wrote that 'every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice.'" To that the judge added: 'This case demonstrates that he was right.'"
Rating:
Summary: Who do You trust?
Review: If this book does not open your eyes your head must be buried deep in the sand. A very disturbing relationship develops between the police informates and the law, in this case the snitch gets the upper hand. It all sounds like something out of a 2nd rate detective novel, the only problem is it is all true! Come to think of it maybe we all are better off if we keep our heads buried in the sand? I also recomend "A Tourist in the Yucatan" A dead on thriller!
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