Book Review: A Higher Loyalty - James Comey

I don’t tend to read all that many books on US politics but I had heard interesting things about A Higher Loyalty - Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey.

I was especially interested to hear this one on Audible, given the author was also the narrator. I really wanted to hear him explain his view on the situation.

Generally, I’d avoid a book like this because I was assuming it would just be a self-apologetic or self-aggrandizing account of recent events. What I found though was very, very different.

I was genuinely surprised by how compelling I found the book to be.

Most of the book wasn’t about the current Trump situation, etc. It was about his background, the New York mafia, and a lot of information about earlier investigations in the FBI.

I found the discussion around Martha Stewart particularly interesting. It seems that many times when people are brought in for questioning, that if they had just told the truth, the outcome for them might have been quite minor, but lying in the interviews is where things start to go very, very wrong for them.

I’ve heard a lot of people who support the current US president maligning Comey but I was left wondering that if they’d read this book (or listened to it), if they’d have either moderated or changed views.

US politics seems irredeemably polarized but regardless of your political leaning, given the background coverage in this book, and the timeliness of its later content, I’d suggest that it’s worth your while reading or listening to it, before forming any further opinion on it or him.

What can I say? I found it fascinating and I wasn’t expecting to.

Greg’s rating: 9 out of 10

2018-08-03