"TAKEDOWN - THE FALL OF THE LAST MAFIA EMPIRE"by Rick Cowan and Douglas Century.

This covers the three-year undercover effort by Cowan, a NYC detective, to infiltrate and bring down the Mafia's garbage collection and recycling cartel. The waste racket was one of the Mob's biggest most profitable and seemingly invulnerable enterprises. Yet Cowan, to hear him tell it, brought it down almost singlehandedly. His entry point was Sal Benedetto, the law abiding chief of a legit hauling and recycling company being pressured by the Mob to join one of their "associations." Sal allowed Cowan to pose as a Benedetto cousin joining the business, and managed to ingratiate himself into inner Mob circles as they attempted to recruit him.

For almost three years, Cowan stalled, conned and stonewalled various Mob thugs and associates who pressured him to join. We get a detailed look at how the rackets worked (mainly by bid-rigging, intimidation, and extorting new members to pay off existing members for "stops" they "stole" before joining). This stuff soon exhausts itself. Thereafter, Cowan simply recreates just about every conversation he had with every Mob guy or associate (all of whom sound alike with their "youses" and "dees and doze"), as well as detailed descriptions of what they wore and ate. There's precious little action or drama--and a surprising lack of violence or even overt threats. In the one violent act recounted, a Benedetto driver is beaten and nearly killed by Mob thugs without intervention by Cowan or his backup--the assailants aren't even arrested or charged. In fact, there's no dramatic denouement as in "Donnie Brasco": Cowan gets his last secretly taped incriminating tidbit from a conversation with a Mob guy, and he's pulled off the case while indictments are prepared and handed down. This book manages the considerable task of taking an inherently interesting subject and making it tedious.