Covert

Starred review from October 15, 2007
NBA referee Delaney’s fascinating account of his prior life as a New Jersey state trooper who infiltrated organized crime will be a must-read for those drawn to Joe Pistone’s similar account in Donnie Brasco
(or the movie adaptation starring Johnny Depp). In 1975, Delaney was a relative novice in law enforcement when he was tapped by a superior to help build cases against major Mafia families by creating and running a fake business, Alamo Trucking. With the aid of St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times
sportswriter Scheiber, Delaney captures perfectly the daily routine and perils of undercover work, and describes the psychological challenges he faced during the three years of Project Alpha: “The granite foundation of my self-image... had given way to shifting sands of doubt and worry.” While less heralded than Pistone’s work, Delaney’s achievements—which yielded multiple convictions of members of the Bruno and Genovese families—were significant precursors to the Feds’ massive 1980s assault on La Cosa Nostra. Becoming a basketball referee after these proceedings was a return to an early passion of the high school all-state forward and captain of his college team—but the fear, he says, still comes back sometimes. 8 pages of b&w photos.

December 15, 2007
Delaney, who has been an NBA referee for almost two decades, tells of the nearly three years he spent, while a New Jersey state trooper in the mid-1970s, posing as Bobby Covert, president of a trucking company set up for the sole purpose of observing the Mafia. With the assistance of an informant wise to the ways of the mob, Delaney/Covert so successfully ingratiated himself with a wide array of mobsters that more than 30 were convicted on the basis of information he gathered. Delaney offers a compelling account of a nerve-racking double life in which one slip could result in death, but equally compelling is his recall of his reactions in the operation's aftermath: relief at it ending, giving way to guilt at having ratted on some gangsters with whom he had actually become friends, followed by fear for his life, and then actually missing the rush of doing undercover work. ESPN has bought the movie rights, so there should be ample demand. Recommended for all public libraries.Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2007
In the early 1970s, Bob Delaney was a New Jersey state trooper. When he was approached to take a risky undercover assignment, he accepted eagerly, even though it meant he would have to leave the police department and lie to virtually everyone in his life. This gripping book chronicles his years as Bobby Covert, trucking-company president and confidante to some of Jersey's biggest mobsters. He hung around with them and became their friend and associate. He even met Joe Pistone, another undercover cop who went by the now-famous name of Donnie Brasco. In three years, Delaney helped authorities put together an airtight case against some very bad people, but then he was faced with his toughest assignment yet: to rejoin real life as Bob Delaney. Now he's a referee in the NBA, and how he got there is at least as interesting as the book's true-crime stuff. Fans of such undercover-themed books as Donnie Brasco, or organized-crime exposs like The Valachi Papers, will devour this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)