Get your crime lit fix with Befriend and Betray

by Rob on June 20th, 2008

We here at Sharp aren’t above crime nonfiction lit. Drugs, guns and tough guys make for a good read. So it was with relish that we picked the new tell-all book of former police informant Alex Caine.

Originally from Hull, Quebec, Caine led a circuitous route to being an informant. First he left home as a teenager; then he served as a special operative in Vietnam; he even spent time in prison. But eventually fate intervened, and he became a highly prized informant, infiltrating the likes of the Bandidos, Hell’s Angels and KKK over the course of twenty years. In the book he tells of how he and his police handlers duped these organizations into readymade police stings: pounds of drugs, guns and explosives, all on tape.

Caine’s incredible stories are accentuated by his prose. Tough and spare, it accurately describes the hyper macho world of biker gangs and cops. Over the course of the book it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the two. Jerks, it seems, exist on either side of bad and good. But Caine glides through the world and readers are better because of his skill. Recommended.

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