Piercing the Shields of Justice: Inside the Atf [Hardcover]

William J. Burgess (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Piercing the Shields of Justice: Inside the ATF presents a realistic insight into criminal investigations from undercover operations and serving search warrants to office politics as well as governmental politics and how they relate to and affect the investigation and the investigator including the controversies of mismanagement, incompetence, the National Rifle Association, supporters of gun control, and Congress. Readers will gain a better perspect-ive about recent events making headlines involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Piercing the Shields of Justice includes photographs of undercover operations as well as surreptitious photographs inside an outlaw motorcycle gang depicting drugs and guns. As the agent in this book discovers, it is easier to catch a criminal than deal with the bureaucracy. William Burgess has a unique expertise as a retired Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms who conducted hundreds of criminal investigations and served hundreds of search and arrest warrants. He forwarded five times as many cases for prosecution than the average agent and had only one non-convict-ion in his entire career. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Brunswick Pub Co; 1st edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556181566
• ISBN-13: 978-1556181566
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,988,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Almost unreadable, August 27, 2005

By 

Ruth M. Saavedra (Auburn, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Piercing the Shields of Justice: Inside the Atf (Hardcover)

This author could not have had an editor; this book reads like the product of a vanity press. I bought it despite what I now realize was a very accurate assessment by the previous reviewer, because I was doing research on the ATF. However, the insights into the workings of the ATF are drowned in the author's personal whining about his incompetent superiors and co-workers in addition to the very poor writing and structure. I have read several other books about the ATF. This is by far the weakest and least informative.

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the most poorly written books I have ever read., May 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Piercing the Shields of Justice: Inside the Atf (Hardcover)

This might actually have been a very good book if the author had teamed up with a professional writer. Burgess gestures throughout his book at stories, issues, and viewpoints that would be interesting if clearly articulated, but the writing was so terrible and the narrative so unclear and disjointed that I found the book painful to read. It is regrettable that this is the only book available by a former ATF agent providing an inside view (such as it is) of the bureau. I must also add that the book is no longer current, and hence cannot address major changes in the ATF. This is not at all the author's fault, but it is something that should be taken into consideration for potential readers who are interested in the modern bureau.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An poorly written account of a agent's fight against crime, May 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Piercing the Shields of Justice: Inside the Atf (Hardcover)

In short, this book was terrible. The author wrote too much about things he should have left out and not enough about the reason why people buy this book-fighting crime as an ATF special agent. We learn about every minute conversation with every person he comes in contact with. And it is amazing how everyone speaks as if they are in a courtroom while chatting in a bar. We learn about his aching knees and buying groceries on the way home from work. Every minute detail is there, unfortunately, it does nothing for the story line. And by using a combination of the author's own words and "reading between the lines", a reader can easily see the hidden racist and misogynistic undertones in the book. The title of the book is very misleading. I thought this would be a history of the ATF, IMHO an excellent LE agency, as written by an insider. Instead, I was rewarded with a hamfisted autobiography that left much to be desired. Instead, I highly recommend "Very Special Agents" by James Moore (ISBN 0-671-57035-8) for those interested in a detailed and informative ATF history. To the author's credit, I will never deny the fact that this man dedicated his life to putting away some very dangerous people. I'm sure that he has a plethora of stories that need to be told. I just suggest that he get some help with writing his book the next time.