What an incredible historical work! I'd once heard this story years ago in an episode of the Criminal podcast, but I couldn't remember the details. The first part of this book read so much like a novel: I was gripped, tense, scared, on the edge of the seat...then we lost that narrative pull at some point. Still, I remained super engaged and the level of detail was amazing, without getting too bogged down, though there were a lot of people to keep track of! Anyway, I've learnt so much and it's wild that this story isn't more widely known in the US. Hopefully more people read this book.