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March 24, 2014
On one of the most picture perfect race days in recent memory, two homemade bombs rocked the finished line of the Boston Marathon and plunged New England's largest city into shock as local, state and federal law enforcement officers fanned out to track down Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Chechen immigrant brothers whose disillusionment with the U.S. allegedly led to one of the country's most deadly terrorist attacks. The account by two award-winning Boston Globe reporters mirrors newspaper's original coverage. They get inside the heads of dozens of the participants, including a doctor who ran the race and tended to bombing victims, a Boston police officer, a marathon official, one of the injured spectators, and intermingle those riveting tales with stories about the four people who died in the tragedy. As the manhunt unfolds, the tactical moves by local law enforcement officials and political leaders take center stage. With a tone that owes more to breathless storytelling than dispassionate newsgathering, the book sometimes skirts the edge of melodrama. But the authors succeed in communicating an authentic sense of the anxiety and claustrophobia that gripped the region and the resilience that emerged from the ordeal.

March 15, 2014
In a remarkable work of narrative journalism, Boston Globe journalists Helman (co-author: The Real Romney, 2012) and Russell (co-author: Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy, 2009), with support from their comrades at the Globe's news department, map out the heartbreaks, dogged pursuits and courageous acts of defiance that resulted from one of America's most foolhardy and cowardly acts of terrorism. Most readers will remember the shock and awe that emerged when two improvised explosive devices--pressure cookers outfitted with nails and other fierce forms of shrapnel--ripped apart the crowds at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. The authors could have chosen to focus on the single-minded manhunt by the FBI and the Boston police department, which ultimately killed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and arrested his younger brother Dzhokhar with grievous gunshot wounds, and their story is told here with fine reportage. But instead of closing the book with the arrest, the authors tell the story of the event through very human eyes. They include the stories of marathon organizer Dave McGillivray, who was helpless to maintain control, Shana Cottone, a Boston police officer who questions her response to the emergency; and Heather Abbott, one of more than a dozen people to lose limbs in the bombing. There were three people killed during the bombing, here represented by the family of Krystle Campbell, a young woman whose case of mistaken identity worsened one family's awful grief. Many of the scenes are heart-wrenching, but it's worth getting through, as the book portrays a defiant Boston, resilient victims, and the determination of a community that two naive, dimwitted youths will never strike enough fear into a city that it won't rise again. Journalism that demonstrates all the arguments why we need professionals to tell the stories that mark our generations and a valentine to the people that proved Boston Strong.

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Starred review from April 15, 2014
"The Boston Globe"'s extensive coverage of the April 15, 2013, attack on the Boston Marathon forms the foundation of this work by "Globe" reporters Helman and Russell. A compelling and comprehensive narrative woven together from five different perspectives, the title includes a sixth: that of the bombers and their family. It tells the definitive story of the event, starting before the bombings and covering through to their aftermath. Despite the multitude of sources drawn upon, the writing is seamless and riveting; the authors expertly place the reader in the center of the action: on the sidewalk next to the bombers' backpacks, in a getaway car with the suspects, in a hospital elevator with President Barack Obama, and inside the minds of the responders and investigators. VERDICT This well-crafted tale is likely of most interest to readers similar to the people profiled: marathoners, hospital staff, emergency responders, police, investigators, and Bostonians. Sensitive in its treatment and thrilling in its pace and immediacy, the book will also appeal to those who enjoy reading about crime, disaster-response planning, and current events.--Ricardo Laskaris, York Univ. Lib., Toronto

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