Book Review: Under and Alone

I’ll admit it.  I have a fascination with secret societies.  Whether it be the Masons or a group more notorious like the mafia.  The book “Under and Alone” gave me a little insight into two organizations that have plenty of secrets.  The FBI and the Mongols MC.

The subtitle of the book, “The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America’s Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang”, summarizes the entire 272 pages into one succinct sentence but does not begin to give you a feel for the roller-coaster of emotions that you experience while reading.   William Queen finds a way to blend truth with, what has to be, marginally dramatized fiction to make you feel the agony that he is going through as he struggles with leading a double life.

Keeping a life so opposite of his own morals Billy showed the struggles with keeping his sanity and a constant reminder of where his true loyalties lie.  I can’t help but wonder what was left out of the book both in terms of anything he may have done that crossed his own morals and the law and what facets of the investigation were left out so that other crime syndicates wouldn’t be tipped off.

The amount of trust the Billy put in his FBI brotherhood is amazing yet barely touched upon except for a few excerpts.  He trusted that his wife and kid were well protected at all times even though at any moment his cover could be blown and everything he actually cared about could possibly be erased.  The behind the scenes brothers in law enforcement that protect him and give him a cover are at direct odds with his biker brothers who he certainly grows an authentic attachment to.

There’s a large part of me that would like to believe every word in this book and say that everything happened as described but the realistic part of me says that there is no way that could be.  There is a lot of drama packed into a relatively few pages.  Some of those pages do discuss history of MC Clubs, their rivalries, their hierarchy and good background information to set up the rest of the story.  But the rest of it is a well written piece of drama that keep you at the edge of your seat which is surprising since you know that he survived to write the book.

I would love a follow up book to this 15 or 20 years in the future to see how the authors life has changed since being found out.  Has he completely gone into hiding?  Has his marriage, or his kids childhood suffered at all?  All are really interesting questions that only time will be able to answer even if I don’t get to know those answers.

I would recommend this book to anyone that, like me, that enjoys learning about things that are usually closed off to eyes of the general public.