Elaine Shannon

Elaine Shannon writes a tense account of the rise of a new kind of criminal – one the leverages technology, visceral violence, always looking for new opportunities. Hunting LeRoux documents the Drug Enforcement Agency’s investigation into Paul LeRoux, a reclusive genius whose criminal empire spans drugs and arms smuggling worldwide. His ambition knew no bounds – he maintained a mercenary squad dedicated to making people disappear. He worked on developing missile guidance systems for Iran. Elaine compares him to an evil version of Elon Musk – a shark always looking for a new money-making opportunity unconstrained by morality. Elaine Shannon also portrays the DEA investigators that hunted LeRoux and highlights both their bravery and vulnerabilities. The story is compelling but lacks the depth to recommend without reservations.

The Good – Elaine Shannon succeeds in portraying LeRoux as charismatic (when he wants to be) but an amoral monster. She had great access to the DEA and provides compelling portrayals of the individuals in the 960 group – the unit that investigates DEA’s hardest cases.

The Bad - While the book does a good job detailing the investigation and is an easy read, I would have appreciated some more depth on how LeRoux built and maintained his empire as well as the investigation. More problematic, Elaine Shannon seems to have based the book on DEA and court documents – she clearly has great sympathy for their agents but that makes the book seem like an extended press release.… (altro)

Despite what is a fascinating subject--a double agent--this book is dull. After reading more than 200 pages, the only insight gained is that Bob Hannsen was a bit strange. He was socially awkward, not liked by his co-workers, and had the zeal of a religious convert regarding his association with Opus Dei. There are hints that he had father issues. There is no real explanation for his treason, just some vague speculation that he did not feel properly appreciated by his colleagues. Perhaps it is not possible to know what moved him to spy for the Soviet Union, but the authors did not give any sense of Bob Hanssen as a real person operating in the complex world of work and family. What was his day-to-day life like? He had six children, but there is no discussion about his relationship with any of them, either before or after he was arrested. It is likely his family would not participate with the authors, but the authors could perhaps have delved into when and how Bob Hanssen converted to Catholicism, how the socially backward Bob was able to attract the vivacious Bonnie, how his wife's family felt about him, whether he remained in contact with his mother after his father died. Presumably, as a devout Catholic, his wife did not divorce him, but does she maintain a relationship with him? Do his children visit him in prison? Perhaps Bob Hanssen is simply too much of an enigma for the authors to figure out; but if that is the case, then why bore us with so many words and so little information? For example, the overly long excerpts of letters between Bob Hanssen and his Soviet contacts seem to just be padding to a weak opus of the authors. The information contained in this book can be more quickly learned by reading a few pages on the Internet. One site is found at http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hanssen/1.html.… (altro)