What drives a man to commit 28 months of his life living a lie, to himself, his friends and his family? What aspect of his character, what situation in his life, could compel him to make such a sacrifice? In Under and Alone, Mr. Queen, a veteran of Vietnam and a lifelong member of one branch or another of American law-enforcement, describes his penetration of the Mongols motorcycle gang, his two plus years associating with them, and the 54 arrests which resulted from the evidence of criminal activity he acquired. Mr. Queen is not shy in relating the extent to which this journey taxed him emotionally and psychologically. He also reveals, with seeming candor, the lengths to which he came to identify with some of the men he was trying to put behind bars. His was surely a noble sacrifice, to imprison men and women who had deliberately chosen a life of violent crime, but isn't betrayal still betrayal no matter its ends? Isn't succumbing to betrayal a price to pay in and of itself?
This is a markedly superior effort to No angel, Jay dobyns' account of penetrating the Hells Angels, for Mr. Queen has a keener understanding of the philosophical questions most readers of such books will be asking themselves. And though his answers are not always satisfying, Mr. Queen does just as good a job explaining the psychology of a man undercover as he does in detailing the everyday titillations and uglinesses of life inside an outlaw biker gang. (4/5 Stars)
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