Deadly Force: In the Streets with the U.S. Marshals

From the Tom Waits lyrics at the beginning, to the final lines when the manhunter stands over the handcuffed form of his prey, thinking, "Bring on the next contestant," Deadly Force delivers the heart-pounding speed of an action movie. The story takes place in three bursts--11 hours in January '95 in New York City, a flashback to 2 days in May '94 in Washington, D.C., then 9 days more in January '95 to wrap up the chase. But the hero, U.S. Marshal Luke Zitto, doesn't just "get his man": through the voice of the author, Carsten Stroud, he spouts off about suits and bulls and furballs, tells one wild story after another, and illustrates, through his own misbegotten career, what he calls a "corrosive flood of institutional paranoia throughout the federal justice establishment."

Despite the sexy flash of its language, it's a solid, convincing book. You'll learn a lot here about the history of the U. S. Marshals and about the turf wars between the FBI, CIA, and several other three-letter agencies. The highly dramatic style, though, makes it hard to tell how much is factual. Maybe that's not a drawback, if Marshal Zitto's paranoia is justified. --Fiona Webster