Crimes Of Honor

Book No. 7 of The Bureau, Crimes of Honor, follows the surviving protagonists through the tumultuous years between 1965 and 1973. The civil rights movement expands and urban ghettos burn through "long hot summers," while the war in Southeast Asia escalates with corresponding protests in America. The FBI inaugurates new extralegal operations labeled COINTELPRO—BLACK HATE and COINTELPRO—NEW LEFT, attacking any groups and individuals who fail to meet Chief Hoover's definition of "true Americans." More high-profile assassinations rock the nation and Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the next presidential campaign, succeeded by Richard Nixon awash in Syndicate money. Once in office, Nixon heaps new fuel onto the fire in Vietnam and brings the war home, wielding lethal force against campus protesters. Black Panthers, Weathermen, and other radicals respond in kind. Ryan O'Hara joins the FBI, while his father is forced from the Bureau by Hoover. The director's death in 1972 permits Erin O'Hara to become one of the first female FBI recruits since 1924, entering the academy as burglars expose the Bureau's COINTELPRO operations and the Nixon White House lurches into Watergate. Dominic Giordano seeks to lead his Mafia family in new directions, at risk of his life. The era ends in scandal and dissension, verging on America's first resignation of a president.