An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Compelling writing makes all the difference in nonfiction, and when it’s applied to an already intriguing subject, readers get a fascinating story they won’t forget. James Neff’s deftly penned Vendetta illuminates the heated legal battles between Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa that spanned almost a decade and eventually convicted Hoffa in 1964.
While working for the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, RFK was looking for a new cause to pursue. At the same time, Jimmy Hoffa’s strong-arm tactics to gain power within the Teamsters were raising an outcry from prosecutors, the media, and other labor organizations. When RFK convinced the Senate to hold hearings into labor racketeering, it ignited a bitter feud between the two growing titans. As RFK’s and Hoffa’s influence within their own ecosystems grew—RFK was made Attorney General after his brother’s election, while Hoffa became general president of the Teamsters—so did the stakes for both men as they dueled in the courtroom.
Double agents, jury tampering, mobsters, and of course Jack Kennedy’s assassination (possibly orchestrated or at least condoned by Hoffa) make this a riveting slice of American history, underscored by carefully chosen details that bring every tense moment to life. In the end, RFK’s murder and Hoffa’s still-unsolved disappearance seem almost inevitable—the perfect, if harrowing, conclusion to a vendetta that shook America. --Adrian Liang