Reviewed by Rita Radostitz

As stories go, The Informant’s doesn’t get much better: an FBI informant who goes too far in his infiltration of the Klan and actually participates in one of the crimes he is charged to observe—a murder no less. The foundation of this B-movie plot is rich, detailed source material, which allows author Gary May to accurately build suspense, create vignettes of the action and transform the characters into real live human beings.  Unfortunately, May’s training as a historian overpowers his sense of story, and this excellent opportunity for a work of literary nonfiction is missed. 

May sees the story, seems to recognize the importance of the characters and knows how to build anticipation for events to come.  However, instead of building the scenes and pulling the reader into the plot, The Informant reads more like a college history textbook or a string of newspaper articles.  The murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo by a group of Ku Klux Klansmen is, in and of itself, an interesting story.  The fact that one of the participants in the murder was an informant for the FBI makes it more than that: an important caution about the corruption that can happen when thugs are given the power of the shield.  If only May had written the “non-fiction novel” that this could have been, the message could be broadcast further.