Third-generation federal prosecutor and daughter of an FBI agent Lis Wiehl, along with Lisa Pulitzer, dives deep into America’s longest running FBI investigation in “Hunting the Unabomber.”
Wiehl takes an extremely thorough approach to reveal the case of the Unabomber — Ted Kaczynski — and his nearly two decade reign of terror, committing 16 bomb attacks that killed three and injured 23 people.
Relying heavily on details from FBI Agent Patrick Webb, she explains how the FBI took some seemingly random and unrelated bombings against universities, airlines and a computer store, and learned to work with other agencies — the ATF and U.S. Postal Service — to find the man who would be come known as the Unabomber.
The book discusses Kaczynski’s ability to leave no trace evidence in his bombs, severely frustrating the agents, while also revealing his past, from childhood into adulthood, attempting to humanize him a bit and delve into his psyche to learn why he committed these atrocious crimes.
Those who enjoy true crime will love this book, seeing revelations into how law enforcement works to solve crimes using good old brain power, but also how the change in technology over time helped. It also allows the reader to think about intent behind committing crimes.
Wiehl and Pulitzer do an incredible job of creating an accurate, non-fictionalized telling of the Unabomber case. There are a lot of facts, timelines and people involved, but overall they do a good job of repeatedly reminding the reader of who people are and when and how events unraveled.
Five stars out of five.
Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.