?Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown complete with gun battles a ruthless
kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it's all true.' Time In this thrilling panorama of
real-life events the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a
surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother who from a tiny noodle shop in New
York's Chinatown managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people. In The Snakehead
Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping's complex
empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He
follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants
risking everything to come to America and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a
generation of undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and
exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force The Snakehead is both a
kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America.
