Gods of Mischief by George Rowe

Gods of Mischief by George Rowe is a look into the author’s undercover mission to help the federal government take down the vicious Vagos motorcycle gang. It is fast paced, dirty, and full of danger. It reads like a season of a television show or a movie that is just too crazy to be true, but for Rowe, it is very real indeed.

Book Description

“The high-octane, no-holds-barred, true story of a bad guy turned good who infiltrated one of the most violent outlaw motorcycle gangs in history to take them down. 

It’s the morning of March 9, 2006, hours before one of the largest motorcycle gang busts in United States history, and George Rowe can’t sleep. He keeps thinking about the past three years he spent as an informant for the ATF, working undercover with the Vagos, one of the most dangerous biker gangs in the country. His fiancée, a struggling heroin addict carrying their unborn child, is asleep next to him. She’s got no idea who he really is, what he’s done, or what’s about to happen. How in the hell, Rowe wonders, did it go so far and get so deep?

A gritty and harrowing memoir about human redemption and self-sacrifice, Gods of Mischief tells the story of the first private citizen to voluntarily infiltrate an outlaw motorcycle gang for the U.S. government. George Rowe, drug dealer, barroom brawler, and convicted felon, never thought he’d work for the feds. But when he watched the Vagos brutally and senselessly beat his friend everything changed. He decided to pay back his Southern California hometown by bringing down the gang that terrorized it. As “Big George,” a full-patched member of the Vagos, Rowe spent three brutal years juggling a double life—riding, fighting, and nearly dying alongside the brothers that he secretly hoped to put away for good. The road to redemption wasn’t an easy ride. Rowe lost everything: his family, his business, his home — even his identity. To this day, under protection by the U.S. government, Rowe still looks over his shoulder, keeping watch for the brothers he put behind bars. They’ve vowed to search for him until the day they die.” – Gods of Mischief

My Thoughts

Gods of Mischief is the type of book that hooks you from the beginning. It is an incredibly well-written account of the author’s life as an informant for the federal government, aimed to take down the violent Vagos motorcycle gang that wreaked havoc on his hometown. However, the author quickly learns that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and he is in way over his head.

Rowe is able to deliver his story with the passion and brutal honesty only someone who has lived it could ever do a memoir like this justice. It cuts out the Hollywood glamorization of gangsters and crime, and shows how things really are. It will leave you with a much different perspective of criminals and gangsters than when you first started reading. Not all are bad, some can change (such as the author), some are worse than you could ever have imagined, and they are much scarier in real life than they are in the movies.

This is a book that is well worth reading. The story is truly remarkable, and is one that I predict could be easily made into a blockbuster movie. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Gods of Mischief, Touchstone, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.