i read this book as soon as i heard it was published. i did not know eddie but my best friend of 5 years knew him, her whole family knew the polecs. it made me want to read it and understand what they all went through. that whole community suffered such a horrible tragedy, and somehow they all still came together to give comfort and hope to eachother. it is such a powerful book, the way it draws you into the polecs lives. every teen in highschool should read this book and come to an understanding that violence doe not solve anything. and it never will, it is sad that a sweet, young and innocent guy had to die in order for our justice system to improve just a little bit and it is sad that he had to die so that people could now see what this type of violent behavior has not only done to a family, but the entire community. i now know the polecs and they are the strongest people i have ever met, god bless them and may god give them strength and hope throughout all the days of their lives.

I am 17 years old, and in june 2000 I was brutally assaulted by 3 kids with baseball bats and had to have reconstructive surgery on my skull. This happened about a mile from where eddie was killed, and I'm also a senior at cardinal dougherty high school, where eddie was enrolled. I read this book, and I must say it hit me hard because I was so close to receiving the same fate as eddie. Please if you can take some time to read this book so that we may spread the message of peace to the world, and stop future things like this from happening.

After watching the Polec's on Dateline NBC recently, I got this book from the library, read it and cried almost halfway through it. I was hoping that the book was fiction and not true but that was not the case. I have every respect for the Polecs, wanting to make the community a better place inspite of tragedy to their son Eddie,They had a wonderful son whose life was taken in a senseless tragedy. I recommend this book to anyone who has children.

The sordid story of how MCA Records got "mobbed up" during music biz mogul Irving Azoff's tenure as company president. Knoedelseder starts off with a powerful narrative, but as it shifts from an industry expose into a Mafia fetish, and then into a trial book, it starts to drag. Still, the first third tells you a lot about the underside of the record business economy, in particular, how "cutout" records and counterfeits get into the stores. After that, you'll learn that mafia strongmen and government prosecutors can both be bad for your health and livelihood, lessons which are always good to keep in mind, even though they're almost self-apparent.