Wayne Barrett was a reporter for the Village Voice for close to 40 years, and was the first to report on the inside deals, backroom favors, and outright scams that fueled the career of Donald J. Trump. Barrett had the goods on Trump long before Trump had an inkling to be president-back when he was just a New York character, and a New York crook.

This book is the first edited, annotated volume of Barrett's investigative pieces, revealing the shady dealings of New York power players from Donald Trump to Ed Koch to Rudy Giuliani. The book also provides a master class in investigative journalism. Barrett's craft and rigor were unmatched, and he taught generations of journalists how to connect the dots and find the patterns in the facts. In an age when journalism is under threat, Barrett's work reminds us of the possibility of journalism in the public interest, and the importance of journalists as detectives for the people, always holding the powerful to account.