Stand in the wind

By Jean Little

Book Overview

Michael Plante, a low-level Hells Angels dog's body in Vancouver, is arrested for extortion in 2003. Coincidentally, police intercept a boat carrying cocaine from Colombia to Vancouver, a shipment arranged by the East End chapter of Vancouver's Hells Angels. The cops need to send someone inside to gather evidence that can be used to arrest and convict the gang. Plante does not want to go to jail. He cuts a deal, and so begins a descent into the nightmare of going undercover in the Hells Angels.The stakes are high. The East End chapter of the Hells Angels is one of the richest in the world. The cops need clear and substantial evidence that will hold up in court to convict four prominent members of the East End chapter-Ronaldo Lising, Randy Potts, John Virgil Punko, and Jean Joseph Violette-on weapons charges and extortion, and of committing crimes in association with, or for the benefit of, a criminal organization. Plante is guaranteed $500,000 for his role in Project E-Pandora, plus another $500,000 at the conclusion of the trials. When he signs the agreement, he says he was signing his death warrant.The police investigation takes two years at a cost of $10 million. In June 2005, the police begin rounding up bikers and their associates, raiding clubhouses in east Vancouver and Kelowna, carting away boxes of material, computers and even the Hells Angels' most prized possessions-leather vests emblazoned with the Hells Angels patches. Plante soon learns how slowly the justice system moves as it prepares to prosecute the Hells Angels members arrested. The high-profile and highly paid defence lawyers win applications to sever the indictment into a number of trials, meaning that Plante will face months on the witness stand under heavy grilling as the defence teams try to discredit him, accusing him of committing illegal activity such as drug dealing and transporting illegal weapons. Much is riding on the trials: Plante's life and livelihood; the test of the federal government's legislation on gangsterism that could dismantle the Hells Angels; and the freedom of the accused--all high-ranking and enormously wealthy Hells Angels. The judge's final ruling shocks the court. Hell to Pay is true crime reading at its best as it evokes the criminal underworld through the eyes of a biker who wanted his freedom but lives in constant fear of being found by those he put behind bars.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060239034
• ISBN13: 9780060239039
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: Harper & Row
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.

Customer Reviews

WoW

This book was amazing. Some find it quite boring. I really liked it. It was funny, adventurous, sad, and I will always remember it as a wonderful novel. At the beginning, two sets of sisters were stuck in the same cottage. They were put in a new environment. This really tested their personalities. At first, they greatly disliked each other. They grew closer together after a series of adventurous events. They discovered that they could get along. Martha, the main character, teaches Kit to stand up for herself. Kit becomes a new person. The setting, a cottage, is quite appropriate. It is away from "civilization" and is quite isolated.The girls experience a summer, of laughter, tears, and happiness, they will never forget.

Very interesting but real

I read this book and wondered what would happen next. It was really interesting, I enjoyed it.

a children's classic

I loved this book when I was a child. I recently reread it, and found that it hasn't lost any of its appeal. A well-crafted, perfectly paced, sweet but not sickly sweet story about friendship and courage.

An Excellent Book

This was my favorite book in elementary school -- it was the first one I checked out of the library each year for four years. The characters seem real, and the story is great.

This is an interesting book...

There's 4 girls that are in a cottage without their parents. First, they felt awkward but then, they started to become friends. Martha, one of the girls, was suppose to go to camp but she broke her arm so she couldn't go anymore and she was really sad about that. The 4 girls had many adventures living in a cottage without parents for about 2 weeks.