Kill the messenger

Gary Webb was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News whose 1996 investigative series, known as Dark Alliance, traced cocaine sales in Los Angeles back to a Contra-linked network with ties to the CIA. Webb died by suicide in 2004. Nick Schou's book follows his career and the backlash that followed the series. Schou contends that the newspaper's management abandoned Webb when he most needed their support.

The book is a biography and a study of how the press handles powerful institutions. It is aimed at general readers interested in journalism, Cold War-era intelligence, and the drug trade, and it has since been adapted into a 2014 feature film starring Jeremy Renner.