Mayhem

Boston-based journalist McPhee spins a convincing conspiracy theory out of the knowns and unknowns of the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a hail of bullets four days after the bombing, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, awaits execution in a Supermax prison. The Chechen brothers had come with their parents from Russia and received all the benefits of refugees, including citizenship. Yet Tamerlan went back to Russia, becoming radicalized; when he returned to the U.S., he swayed his brother to become an Islamist terrorist. By McPhee's account, numerous parts of the official story don't quite add up: "I...believe," she writes, "the federal government actively impeded a full investigation of the marathon bombings, as well as other crimes potentially involving Tamerlan and associates of his." Among these crimes was triple murder two years before the bombing. As it had done with the notorious Mafia hit man Whitey Bulger, the FBI's Boston office, writes the author, made efforts to recruit Tamerlan as an informant--which, she continues, explains why he was allowed to travel back and forth between Russia and the U.S. without a passport and without going through customs "even though he was on two terror watch lists." In exchange for such privileges and a flow of cash, Tamerlan informed on Chechen rebels, some of whom disappeared or were killed soon after. McPhee holds that the Tsarnaevs did not act alone but instead worked with several associates, all of whom are free. Some of her evidence is circumstantial--she suggests, without hard proof, that the brothers were incapable of building the bombs they detonated by themselves--but the irregularities she notes should prompt a reopened investigation, such as the fact that Tamerlan's wife was never called to testify: "To this day no one in the US Attorney's Office will say why." A readable and fascinating, if speculative, work of true crime.

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June 5, 2020

The Boston Marathon bombing shocked the American public in 2013, and the following days searching for the perpetrators terrified citizens of Massachusetts and surrounding states. McPhee (Operation Mean Streets) has crafted a meticulously researched account of brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who were responsible for the attacks, and the agencies that hunted them. McPhee dutifully lays out the story, including the facts concealed from the public following the bombing--Tamerlan's work as an FBI informant, the murders he may have committed two years before the bombing, the FBI's reluctance to work with local police, the evidence of a third accomplice, and more. Occasionally, McPhee's prose slips into conspiracy and conjecture, but she emphasizes that these ideas are merely possibilities. The book is invaluable, compiling many first-person accounts--predominantly interviews gathered by McPhee during coverage of the bombings and manhunt--and some of the details are highly graphic. VERDICT Thriller fans and readers who enjoy learning about FBI cover-ups or acts of domestic terrorism will devour this work.--Ahliah Bratzler, Indianapolis P.L.

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