Puppetmaster

The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover

By: Richard Hack

Narrated by: Dan Cashman

Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Richard Hack separates truth from fiction to reveal the most hidden secrets of Hoover's private life and expose his previously undisclosed conduct and actions which threatened to compromise the security of the entire nation.

Based on freshly uncovered files and personal documents as well as over 100,000 pages of FBI memos and State Department papers, Hack rips the lid off the FBI Director's facade of propriety to detail a life replete with sexual indiscretions, criminal behavior and a long-standing alliance with the Mafia.

©2004 Richard Hack (P)2004, 2014 Dove Audio, Phoenix Books

The FBI has always been corrupt!

Absolute power corrupts absolutely! America is in trouble if we can't free ourselves from this domestic intelligence agencies.

A chilling story, well told

The daily life of J Edgar Hoover has long been the cause of rumor and speculation. The telling of its everyday details, though, would be dull reading without the storytelling talents of Richard Hack and particularly the narrative talents of Dan Cashman, who could inject mystery and innuendo into a list of grocery items. Well done, gentlemen.

Good book

Good book I enjoyed listening to this story I always knew Hoover was devious and underhanded but new knew just how bad

Interesting and easy to understand

Would you consider the audio edition of Puppetmaster to be better than the print version?

Yes, for me. I could do so many things at the same time. It kept my attention.

Excellent bio, but …

Fascinating storyline about a devious legend. Balanced blend of accomplishments & unscrupulousness. Author Hack briefly covered Hoover’s early life in which J Edgar endeavored to please his momma, his unbridled ambition, inferences about his peculiar sexuality, & interaction with 8 presidents spanning 50 years. It’s interesting & relatively short relative to most biographies. But, the narration by Cashman was painful to listen to as he attempted to mimic the voice & accents of many characters including Nixon, Hoover, JFK, & Martin Luther King. So lame!

The FBI Story

What did you love best about Puppetmaster?

The whole story was fascinating.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The book focus , Hoover

What does Dan Cashman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Dramatization of the book, there is something about someone else reading to you that you do not get reading yourself.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was realization of the corruption of the FBI was really one person's ignition that festered and grew over time.

Good, but author seems to be fond of Hoover

Somehow the author can list all of Hoover’s extremely illegal acts and still end the book with what looks like a glowing view of Hoover

Well Researched and Insightful

Much thought has been put into the book and the story was told in an engaging and unbiased manner. If you are interested in learning about J Edgar Hoover, his impact on history and our contemporary world, this is the book that you have been looking for. Those of you who are intrigued by my comment about the "contemporary world", you definitely should read this book and see how the FBI under J Edgar Hoover influenced security in our post-9/11 society.

Power corrupts

As with his biographies of Howard Hughes (Hughes) and Ted Turner/Rupert Murdock (Clash of the Titans), Richard Hack brings a novelist’s flair for drama and a journalist’s nose for truth to the life of J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was the Director of the FBI for more than fifty years; he served nine different Presidents and sixteen Attorney Generals. The book is well-written and meticulously researched even thorough it does not reveal any new findings. The author attempts to keep this a balanced and impartial look at the facts. He covers Hoover’s life from childhood and his relationship with his mother to establishing the FBI to his death.

Hack’s most controversial conclusion about Hoover’s private life is that despite his weird intimacy with sidekick Clyde Tolson, and his household collection of male nudes and Chinese Ceramics, Hoover was not gay. I think you need to read the book and evaluate the facts, as the author presents them and make up your own mind on how to interpret the stated facts. The author goes into detail how Hoover set up the organization of the FBI but does not go into deal of its operation. Hack includes the headline-grabbing pursuit of Depression-era outlaws to his post-war crusade against left wing subversion. The author says little about the FBI as an institution or its crime fight methods. Over all he portrays Hoover as an intelligent, highly organized, determined , energetic, lonely and insecure man who comes off here as much as a puppet as master. Hack reveals Hoover as a consummate bureaucratic infighter aware of his vulnerabilities to shifts in political power.

The book was originally published in 2004 and republished again in 2007. The audio book was re-mastered into digital format. Dan Cashman did a good job narrating the book.

Who knew!

Not being old enough at the time, I always thought thru my parents that this is what a real patriot was. Who knew!!!