Life Sentence

The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore’s Deadliest Gang Leader Mark Bowden

The bestselling author of Killing Pablo takes readers inside a Baltimore gang, offering an in-depth portrait of its notorious leader.

Sandtown is one of the deadliest neighbourhoods in the world; made notorious by The Wire, it earned Baltimore its nickname Bodymore, Murderland. Montana Barronette grew up in the centre of it all. When a string of murders were linked to his crew, each with dozens of witnesses too intimidated to testify, three detectives set out to put Tana in prison for life.

Acclaimed journalist and Baltimore native Mark Bowden uses FBI wiretaps, police interviews, trial transcripts and his own ongoing conversations with Tana’s family and community to create the most in-depth account of an inner-city gang ever written.

‘True-crime writers in America face a high bar, set by illustrious predecessors such as Truman Capote. The author of Black Hawk Down rises to the challenge.’ The Economist on The Last Stone

‘[Bowden is] a Woodward that outdoes even Woodward.’ Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker

Mark Bowden is the author of fifteen books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo. He reported at the Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for The Atlantic and other magazines.