I checked Black Mass out from my local library on August 10th. I know I didn’t begin it until after I read The Infiltrator but it still took me over a month to slough through.
My husband constantly told me to just give up but I preserved! The subject matter, James “Whitey” Bulger and his relationship with the FBI, is interesting but it’s very dryly written and got boring.
Bulger was born and raised in “Southie” along with future FBI agent John Connolly. Connolly offered Bulger FBI protection in exchange for becoming an informant; Bulger, and partner Stevie Flemmi, began informing on their enemies. Connolly and his associates, many who received gifts from the gangsters, got wrapped up in the lifestyle and lost sight of their civic duties. Despite receiving negligible information on Boston crime Connolly would give Bulger and Flemmi a heads up on possible sting operations from local PD.
There are a lot of terrible examples of Bulger’s iron fist with the unlucky souls that crossed his path. “Whitey” felt invincible- Whitey was invincible. It took twenty years for the Devil’s deal to come to light but when it did heads began to roll. All except Whitey’s, he went on the lam for another 16 years, spending time on the Most Wanted List, before eventually being caught.
It’s impeccably written but I struggled to stay interested. The edition I read was re-edited following Bulger’s capture.
Thanks for the warning — I had this on my TBR