White Hot Hate

A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America’s Heartland

By: Dick Lehr

Narrated by: Kellen Boyle

For fans of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, the thrilling true story of a would-be terrorist attack against a Kansas farming town’s immigrant community, and the FBI informant who exposed it.

In the spring of 2016, as immigration debates rocked the United States, three men in a militia group known as the Crusaders grew aggravated over one Kansas town’s growing Somali community. They decided that complaining about their new neighbors and threatening them directly wasn’t enough. The men plotted to bomb a mosque, aiming to kill hundreds and inspire other attacks against Muslims in America. But they would wait until after the presidential election, so that their actions wouldn’t hurt Donald Trump’s chances of winning.

An FBI informant befriended the three men, acting as law enforcement’s eyes and ears for eight months. His secretly taped conversations with the militia were pivotal in obstructing their plans and were a lynchpin in the resulting trial and convictions for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

White Hot Hate will tell the riveting true story of an averted case of domestic terrorism in one of the most remote towns in the US, not far from the infamous town where Capote’s In Cold Blood was set. In the gripping details of this foiled scheme, we see in intimate focus the chilling, immediate threat of domestic terrorism—and racist anxiety in America writ large.

©2021 by Richard Lehr (P)2021 by HarperCollins Publishers

Unbelievable story

This book from start to finish is remarkable. I learned so much about what is going on in America as it relates to domestic terrorism. The FBI work here saved countless lives and they were true heroes. Definitely worth listening to. It read like a novel and unfortunately, it’s true.

An excellent and compelling listen

I could barely put this book down. The characters were beautifully portrayed - I felt like Dan Day was someone I'd known for years. The author moved the story at a good pace - providing the kinds of details that made the book more interesting, without getting needlessly and boringly bogged down in minutiae. And Patrick Stein - haven't we all known someone like him? (If you haven't, trust me; those guys are out there.)

What detracted from the book, for me at least, was the narration. On the whole, it wasn't bad. But most of the place names in Western Kansas were mispronounced, and to a local, it was really irritating. Many of those who buy this book will be from Kansas, because we're horrified that something so reprehensible was coming together right under our noses and we had no idea. How much trouble is it to call a librarian, a Congressman's satellite office, a high school civics teacher, or even a local Chief of Police, and get information on how the names of cities and towns in the area are pronounced? The author, himself, obviously spent quite a bit of time in the area, and would have been an appropriate source for that information. This particular narrator isn't the only one, certainly, who has botched the names of places and companies in Audible recordings, and I really think Audible listeners deserve that little bit of effort that it takes to get it right. Some names - Salina, for instance - were not even consistent in how they were mispronounced. A few other words were consistently mispronounced, also.

If you're not from Kansas, the mistakes in pronunciation probably won't bother you, and you'll find the narration acceptable. But wherever the setting is, whether it's Kansas, Maine, Alaska, or outside the U.S., the narrator should at least go to the trouble of finding out how to correctly pronounce names. In this instance, it made me wish I was reading a hard copy of the book instead of listening to the Audible version.

Troubling and uplifting at the same time.

I liked the detail which brought this story to life. Dan, the protagonist is a true American Hero.

Riveting

This was a well told story about how folks constantly bombarded with propaganda can turn into animals.

Captivating

While this was nonfiction, the writing and in character reading kept me engrossed. Hours of driving flew by. It is also an important, intimate view of how militias form and progress in parts of the country unfamiliar to me in Connecticut.

A sad commentary

This was a good account of what happened in Garden City, Kansas. I live 10 miles from the location that was going to be bombed by these people. I will say, the narrator did not do his homework on how to pronounce names involved in the story, which bothers me.

Well worth the time

Most of the book is based on recorded conversations of the plotters, which adds a level of clarity that most books do not provide. An alarming and timely look at xenophobic hate.

Middle school level writing

Get ready for lots of “he exclaimed” and “said Jill”. It’s folksy, humdrum, and boring and it’s written on a YA Fiction level.