This was a disappointing read it definitely needs a rewrite because I felt as if the author was all over the place and I couldn’t follow along. There was some good insight into the epidemic but overall this is a no for me.

The fentanyl epidemic in the States is dire and I was interested to read more into how it started, what the scale of damage is, action plans, long-term effects. This book is written by someone who was a senior official in the White House during the Biden Administration, he claims he worked at both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. Braun goes on to explain his role and the problems he faced - juggling multiple major incidents at once etc and then onto cartels and the fentanyl crisis.

But... this book is written as if the target audience were macho, macho men. I was rather surprised at the style of the writing, it felt like a long brag and the heavy use of a thesaurus. Here are a few examples;

'This typical "Kingpin" strategy wouldn't work. This was not the old "Chicago Outfit" that could be imperilled by confining Al Capone behind bars.'

'When I heard about the assassination, I initially thought, 'Huh, well, the weekend plans of the Caribbean desk folks at the National Security Council and State Department just went out the window. They are going to be stuck in windowless classified offices all weekend'

'I paced around the T-shaped corridors of St Elizabeth's squawking into one phone while dialling someone else on another.'

The phone calls ' Basically...' 'Ugh. Ok..'

I was also concerned at the apparent inadequacy of US vetting systems, claiming he (author) managed to find a programmer 'buried in some arcane office no-one has ever heard of at DHS, the Office of Biometrics and Identity Management' '...to duct tape and bubble-gum the systems together.'

All of the above occurred in the first few pages.

This was incredibly off-putting when I was expecting to read a concise and professional piece of literature . The author, who says this book is a first-hand account, doesn't sound credible. There were parts where it read well and then not. It felt as if different people were writing different parts.

Honestly, criticism aside, this book has potential but it needs a complete re-write and maybe an attempt at making the USA sound a little more 'put-together' rather than a bunch of clueless people running around random security departments.

Disappointing.