Wiretap! - Paperback

by Charles Einstein (Author)

Fifteen years before the 1970 movie classic The Conversation, there was Wiretap!, Charles Einstein's stunning and authentic crime novel about a massive, illegal telephone eavesdropping operation within a major American city. Back-in-print for the first time in over 65 years.

Sam Murray, a top criminal investigator for a northeastern state, is sent to a city infested with corruption when a judge, suspected of being in the pocket of organized crime, is brutally murdered. The investigation uncovers a massive, covert, telephone wiretapping and surveillance operation, initially established by law enforcement and approved by the judge, but that was immediately used for blackmail, poitical influence, and financial gain. The explosive revelation could destroy the city...and Murray along with it.

"Part pulp fiction, part true-crime narrative, Charles Einstein's lurid potboiler Wiretap! [is] perhaps the most famous novel about telephone tapping. Part of the appeal lies in its true-to-life details. A standout." Brian Hochman, author of The Listerners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States

"A boldly authentic novel," Albany Democrat-Herald

"I know from personal experience that Wiretap! is the real thing. This is they way they can listen. This is the way they do listen." William J. Keating, former staff counsel, New York State Anti-Crime Commission

"The dialogue is crisp, and the book is sprinkled with surprising little moments. A winner." Pulp International