Slightly madcap true tale of elaborate drug-operation bust in Worcester, MA. I'm a little familiar with Worcester, but the map drawings help follow the stops among various business fronts for these gangsters. Many, many characters, a little difficult to keep all sorted in ones had, but the action rolls well. Sadly good picture of struggles for power among policing agencies, and some nervous moments as the author/main character really just tries to stay alive! ( )

While I did not have the chance to read this book from cover-to-cover at one sitting, Michael Pevarnik writes a riveting account of his time with the DEA working to break up a multi-layered, multi-state, multi-national heroin ring operating out of Worcester, MA. He methodically provides the back ground of the environment (both mental and physical) of the Main South neighborhood of Worcester, described the players, movers & shakers of this industry and length of time - 4 years - to bring all those involved to account for the lives forever altered. As the reader, I experienced the tensions, disappointments, fears of every encounter in which is was involved and the brave individuals who put their lives on the line to make a difference. I recommend this book to those who studying criminal justice, international law/economics, and humanity. ( )

Michael Pevarnik, a thirty-year veteran of local and federal law enforcement, has written an account of his time as a DEA case agent during Operation Tune-Up, a mid-nineties undercover operation to eliminate organized drug dealing in beleaguered Worchester, Massachusetts, New England's second-largest city and the unlikely epicenter of an international drug trade. Pevarnik takes you from the beginning, when a Vietnamese refugee becomes an informant, through the capture and prosecution of various kingpins. It's tempting to say a book like this reads like a novel, but real life is seldom that neat and tidy. For example, the bad guys come across as pretty boring, their defining characteristics mostly limited to the way they look or speak. (No Tony Sopranos here.) However, true to its title, the book does put you in the middle of the action and gives you a good sense of what it's like to be a law enforcement agent in the middle of an undercover operation. There's a lot of hypervigilance on the law enforcement side and a lot of paranoia on the criminal side, with a fair amount of bad luck and coincidence spread around. Locales include Panama and Puerto Rico and encompass such diverse elements as silicon wafer theft (surprisingly more lucrative than drugs), police corruption, and of course, murder. True crime fans and anyone interested in reading about undercover police work or the illicit drug trade will probably enjoy.

This is an interesting account of a DEA investigation into heroin and crack dealing in Wooster, Massachusetts during the nineties. No hyperbole, romance, or high drama, just the daily grind of low-level crime and law enforcement. This would be a good read for crime fiction writers trying to be realistic.

A great read. True crime, and a page turner to beat. This was very interesting and a clear story, despite the very numerous characters and moving pieces. Highly recommended for all true crime lovers.