Lights, Camera, 𝘉𝘜𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘋!: FBI Story
The pending work uses an ingenious, cinematic, year-long FBI undercover operation to draw readers into the urgent but neglected topic of domestic sex trafficking—not QAnon, not Jeffrey Epstein conspiracies, but the age-old, All-American “pimps and prostitutes model” that’s all around us and surely accounts for the vast majority of trafficking. Masayo Halpin, my collaborator and the book’s central character, was ten years into her FBI career when she became coordinator of the Crimes Against Children division and chose to focus on CSEC, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, aka the pimping of minors.
Gloomy stuff, but fascinating. Much more to it than most people think they know (most don’t even realize old-fashioned “pimps & prostitutes” is sex trafficking). Law-enforcement, advocates, volunteers, victims/survivors and countless concerned citizens, dying to get the word out, find not many citizens willing to dwell on it for long. They’re understandably put off by nearly all presentations of the problem, whatever the format: the focus on the horror, the brutality. That’s a given by now, and no one needs more gory details. There’s much more to be seen and understood.
Such a book needs to be a read, not some eye-glazing textbook or a harrowing-but-narrow survivor account. Lights, Camera, Busted! presents what people need to know through Masayo’s six years working CSEC cases, as well as the experiences of police, prosecutor, advocates, victims, and traffickers, framing it all within a two-part Elmore Leonardish novella based on Operation Traffic Stop, the brilliant, amusing, large-scale undercover op that climaxed Masayo’s career. Making a tough subject accessible, palatable, even entertaining.
