An interesting read on the FBI's work to stop the Mafia and their Strip club operation in Atlanta. The story makes a good read and will hold your interest. Overall, a good read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

AMERICA - 1997 to 2001

Atlanta Georgia, was home to one of America’s most prominent strip clubs. Attracting athletes, celebrities and other wealthy patrons. The Gold Club owned by Steve Kaplan at the time, brought in millions of dollars each year.

But was it just a front for prostitution, credit card fraud, money laundering and other crimes.

Investigating America’s Most Notorious Strip Club by Mark Sewell, a retired FBI agent, promises the reader a deep dive into the facts about the FBI’s famous investigation into the club’s owner Steve Kaplan alongside his alleged association with the Gambino Crime Family.

Essentially, I loved the plot of this story and I feel it would make a great documentary if done right. 

The book starts off giving the reader a run down on The Gold Club and the characters not only surrounding it, but those inside. At times a little confusing with who’s who, because the author’s focus seemed to be on dropping the names of professional athletes and celebrities, (maybe for shock value) but the history behind the club is interesting.

However, I feel like this story would have been better told by a different author, maybe in collaboration with Mark Sewell. So it was told with taking one step backwards so to speak. It felt like one of those movies you watch where you really have to pay attention to understand what is going on.

At times it was tedious, to the point I jumped four chapters (around 80 pages) to finish the book.

After the club's 2001 closure, following Steve Kaplen’s guilty plea to racketeering charges, Atlanta City Council agreed to attempt to purchase the location although it was next used as a church before opening as The Gold Room nightclub in 2009.

As promising as this title was, the nonfiction writing was just too heavy for me to pull my way through. I think maybe the audiobook would entice me more? I hope they make a documentary on this subject because it is truly wild, just not enough for me to read.

Mark starts out with a little quip about controlling the narrative. It comes up a few times in the book. It's a good one, the book that is. Could be great. The story itself, definitely great. The book, the writing, has some issues that are actually interesting. Reading this book in a meta-context is almost as interesting as the actual story about the strip club itself. By this, I mean really examining the writer and what is making him spend considerable amounts of time being, well, kind of petty. Mark, buddy, some things you just need to let go. You're the good guy in this, everyone who matters knows it. Anyone who thinks otherwise isn't going to be convinced by the axe grinding contained in this work and all it does is bring the whole thing down to, well, the level of the people you ultimately helped put behind bars.

I took notes during my read. Certain things that catch my eye and I decide I should come back to them. The best books I read don't really require this. I sort of slip into the book and it's not really reading but experiencing something, you know? Anyways with this book I almost get there, but the author just kind of jars you back to reality. It's like hanging out with an old friend of yours, and he has some great stories and things are going fine, then suddenly he'll just slip into this well honed comlaint, one that he's been thinking about and turning over in his head for years, decades even. You've heard it before, it sucks and is boring and you just kind of zone out as your buddy goes on autopilot about that damn insurance company, or those damn neighbors, or whatever the thing is that he just absolutely cannot let go. Specific parts about this case are definitely grinding Marks gears and it comes out in the writing, not in a good way. I don't want to hear my buddy complain for the hundredth time about getting kicked out of a bar ten years ago. I definitely do not want to read, over and over again, about how the defense tried to make Mark into the witnesses lover. Once is enough. This trend is present throughout the book. Just tell me the one time, bro. Like I said, we're all on your side. Just let it go.

Anyways, here's my list of things that just don't need to be elaborated on. Towards the end I just gave up and stopped listing them so I could get on with the book, which is really good at times.

We know Snoop Dogg is famous and in commercials with Martha Stewart. We know this, Mark. do not devote words to telling us what we already know. Just tell me that he made questionable VHS tapes and leave it at that. This was the point when I started wondering why he bothered to write certain things. Clearly someone is bitter that criminal activity is glorified, or whatever. Just stick to the salacious bits man, we can figure the rest out. Don't insult me, we get what you're trying to say.

Oh ya, and the Jerry Springer bit. Whats up with (not the real number). This bit was confusing. It clears up later, when someone from Springers camp actually calls and I realize oh, you've given the reader a fake number, not Jerry Springer. Why even add those seven digits in? Just like, don't put that part. Just delete that sentence. Here, I'll fix it for you. "I gave them agent whomevers work number".

Early on you introduce Andruw Jones and you just say "we'd see him again" and I just laughed out like, like Mark bro, ok. Thanks. Do FBI agents have some kind of quota of "one liner" attempts? Come on man. WE'D SEE HIM AGAIN. YOU HAVEN"T HEARD THE LAST OF ME. ILL BE BACK. Anyways this book is full of sort of eye rolling things like this, but the story is good enough to keep going. Mark is a likable enough guy too, which is good because he is just all over this book. I mean, like his inner thoughts and what he personally is caring about or thinking about. But not explicitly, you can just interpret it from what he's deciding to talk about and his, let's say "opinions" on things.

Why do you think Terrell Davis and Jamal Anderson both blowing their knees out is weird? They get smashed to bits for a living. It would be weird if their knees didn't blow out.

Here's a bit from my notes: He needs to cut out all the petty holier than thou stuff and replace it with facts. I'd like a history of Kaplan, for example. I'd like a brief history of some of the other main players. Maybe a brief description in the introduction as to where each bit of the legal process occurs. Subpeona -> Grand Jury ->Indictment? You could use this to set up some foreshadowing for what's to come because as it stands I'm just reading fast and furious Mark Sewells memories and anecdotes. Set me up, give me some good chunks of that, then slow things down with those little histories, Try to make a connection between something in Kaplans past and his current behavior. I don't know, research something about the guys upbringing. Mark is firing on all cylinders, a constant stream of events, a lot of direct quotes that are just sort of, long and well there they are. Is it a court transcript? A lot of it is good but I don't really have any time to savor it, you're just off to the next long ass direct quote of something someone said.

Here's a big one. Sewell should seriously reconsider quoting a podcast, verbatim, then refuting it point by point. He comes across as bitter and just sounds aggrieved. It doesn't help his cause. Reword that whole passage, or at least put it in the footnotes dude. Like, we all know these people suck but just, let it go. We're all on your side and we all know lawyers just straight up lie constantly.

Retitle the book all puns intended, I cannot believe you made me read those words three times. Those puns are not good at all.

What's with the dig at Andy Warhol? What's the point of that? Again man, just wearing your feelings on your sleeve constantly.

The bit about the gold gloves just litering Andruw Jones apartment is great, just stick to stuff like that. The book is best when Mark is talking about things that directly involve him, and are interesting. There's also quite a bit that directly involves him and is not interesting, at all, to anyone who is not Mark Sewell. Anyways, good story man. The book is good enough too, just wish you'd cut some stuff out and replace it with like, something that doesn't read like a pathetic complaint. Stop yelling at clouds.

Maybe don't tell people how to make GHB.