Crooked

"In Crooked, Nathan Masters weaves together a sordid story of deep and pervasive rot at the Department of Justice... In Mr. Masters’s telling, the investigation has all the makings of a great film plot, complete with theatrical witnesses, twists, turns and a conclusive, if slightly maddening ending."

“An enlightening look at American political scandals in the 1920s, which continue to shape how politics is played to this day.”

“Masters makes an impressive book debut with a brisk, lively history of a political scandal, ‘one of those Roaring Twenties spectacles…that held the entire nation spellbound.’…Drawing on extensive archival research, [he] creates a tense narrative peopled by colorful, often unsavory characters…A stirring look at a shameful episode that holds distressing relevance for today.”

“Although the events took place many decades ago, the story is as timely now as it ever was, and Masters brings it to pulsing life. Wheeler, Daugherty, and the various supporting players (including J. Edgar Hoover, before the world knew who he was) emerge as fully fleshed-out people, and the story is as exciting as any political thriller.”

“CROOKED is the fascinating tale about how a freshman senator from Montana took down one of the most corrupt and powerful Attorney Generals in US history. The fight between Senator ‘Boxcar Burt’ Wheeler and Attorney General Harry Daugherty led to the principles underlying the Department of Justice and the role of congressional oversight that we rely upon today. Filled with a cast of colorful characters and crimes and scandals galore, CROOKED is narrative history at its best.”

“Readers should be forgiven if they find CROOKED, Nathan Masters’s riveting account of a wild political scandal, too fantastic a story to be true. Yet it is true, and filled with the sort of amusing absurdities and eccentric characters—savvy bootleggers, scheming detectives, con artists, spies, and unscrupulous and opportunistic officials—that could only have occurred and existed during the Roaring Twenties. CROOKED depicts this fascinating era (with its many uncanny modern-day parallels) with such precision and verve that I couldn’t put it down.”

“Nathan Masters delivers a powerful and thrilling nonfiction debut, packed with larger-than-life government officials and scheming operatives. Through groundbreaking research and sparkling prose, CROOKED unveils a page-turning origin story of political scandal.”

"Nathan Masters' deeply researched tale of Teapot Dome, the presidential scandal that would define political scandal for fifty years, is filled with strange, colorful characters and puts the reader right in the middle of one of the wildest stories in American political history."

"Nathan Masters' CROOKED unfolds like a gripping mystery novel, only the plot and characters are real and the power struggles reach the top levels of Washington's power elite. A Senate investigation that riveted the country, accusations of corruption in the justice department, a politically-convenient suicide in which the facts don't add up, the country's greatest detective, a red-haired key witness named Roxie—this story is missing nothing. It's also an important story about our nation's past and about the workings of government. Well done, Mr. Masters."

“'An impressive debut ... Masters’ genius for character- and action-driven storytelling breathes life into a century-old political scandal that resonates today.”