A Peek Under the Hood

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>2023 First Place Winner True Crime Firebird Book Award</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>2024 Finalist Narrative Nonfiction & True Crime American Writing Award</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>2024 Top Ten Finalist Nonfiction Bookshelf Award</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>2024 Second Place Winner True Crime Bookfest Book Award </strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>2024 Winner True Crime Next Generation Indie Book Award</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>2024 Winner True Crime NYC Big Book Award</strong></p><p></p><p><strong><em>A Peek Under the Hood</em></strong> is a true crime exposé of the case that freed an entire inner-city neighborhood from the perils and decay wrought by heroin trafficking. </p><p></p><p>In 1994 DEA Special Agent Michael Pevarnik opened an investigation with his informant a Vietnamese refugee who infiltrated a string of drug-dealing auto repair shops in Worcester Massachusetts. His yearlong case Operation Tune-Up solved murders in New York; chased a wily fugitive through Puerto Rico; went undercover with cocaine smugglers in Panama; and most impactfully exposed the biggest heroin traffickers the old mill town had ever seen.</p><p></p><p>When Worcester's Main South neighborhood was given a voice as a crime victim nearly two years after the virtual elimination of heroin in New England's second largest city-a phenomenon that reduced violent crime stimulated business growth increased property values and improved the quality of life-it was the first time in US court history a community was allowed to give a victim-witness statement declaring what they not law enforcement defined as a victory in the war on drugs. </p>