A review by xcinnamonsugar
Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever by Joseph Cox

informative slow-paced

2.0

The subject matter of this book is incredibly fascinating, and I generally enjoy reading books written by journalists on niche subjects and events. 

With a story like ANOM's, however, I feel like the "good versus evil" narrative was taken too much at face value, and the writing style felt repetitive and almost corny at times. There were many rote observations of what rooms looked like and what people said. Any moral calculations by authority figures were assumed to be correct, and any lines that they declared they would not cross was assumed to be so. 

Wiretapping is understandably a very ethically complicated and controversial subject to address, and by not asking the tricky questions, I feel like it made the book feel rather one-sided, almost like a brag story.