Non-Fiction Book Reviews
Book Review: The Last Undercover
By Sandy Amazeen Oct 10, 2008, 2:41 GMT
Bob Hamer is a 26-year veteran of the FBI. In undercover operations Hamer posed as everything from a drug dealer to an aging pedophile. His last undercover assignment-and his hardest-was infiltrating NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association. Now, looking back on a career rich in the kind of action that makes for great cinema, Bob tells us of the challenges he endured and overcame as he stared the dark ...more
With twenty-six years as an FBI agent and numerous undercover assignments under his belt, Hamer provides a compelling narrative into the seedy, sleazy world of drugs, stolen goods, gunrunners and more. The focus of the book revolves around Hamer’s last undercover assignment that extended over four years as he infiltrated and built upon his place in NAMBLA, North American Man Boy Love Association. It was an assignment that called upon all his reserves as Hamer had to feign interest in something (young boys) that was totally abhorrent to his nature. His anchor was the knowledge that someone had to get these sexual predators off the streets.
Threaded throughout accounts of NAMBLA contacts and activities are recollections of other undercover operations starting as a raw, untrained agent attempting to collar a stolen goods trafficker. With the assistance of an understanding and supportive wife, Hamer pulls off a series of successful operations that unfortunately for law enforcement, don’t conclude with prison sentences. As interesting and varied as these recounts are, NAMBLA is by far, the most insidious with its carefully protected network of predators, cover stories and hunting grounds.
After reading this account you will never look at a Toys “R” Us store quite the same way again, most likely you will find yourself watching for chicken hawks. Hamer’s clean, crisp writing style brings these true crime tales to life in a way only someone who has actually lived them can. This is recommended reading for mystery and true crime fans.
