Publishers Weekly, starred review

At first glance, this book is an account of how Farah happened on al-Qaeda's diamond-smuggling operations while he was the Washington Post's bureau chief in West Africa in 2001. Farah details the sequence of events that led to his now famous expose of the Mephistophelian alliance between al-Qaeda and Liberia's notorious former president Charles Taylor, and the summary rape and ruin of West Africa while Taylor orchestrated the inequitable trade of diamonds for uniforms, weapons and cars to perpetuate the nightmarish strife. However, this is not where the book ends—it's where a new unsettling story begins. After Farah's article ran in the Post, he and his family were forced to leave Africa for their own safety. On arriving home, Farah says, he was met by a bitter and embarrassed CIA determined to discredit him in order to cover the fact that they knew nothing about al-Qaeda's involvement in West Africa. Over time, the CIA's behavior led to the revelation of damning information about the United States's entire network of intelligence agencies, rife with infighting, disorganization and lack of central control. Farah's drum-tight presentation of evidence to substantiate his allegations will be difficult to dispute, and his stark and straightforward writing style makes this book hard to put down. Maps not seen by PW.

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