THE SPIDER

The surreal and sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein, from Brooklyn boyhood to Manhattan jailhouse death.

In a narrative as gripping as the documentary series Filthy Rich—and that adds previously unreported details to the well-known story—Levine, whose previous book exposed Donald Trump’s predatory nature, offers an unblinking account of how the world's most flagrant pedophile made his money—and what he did with it. "It would be a conservative estimate,” writes the author, “to say that since the 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein spent more than $35 million related to his abuse of women and girls." Levine is to be commended for so thoroughly and indelibly laying out the truth about the scores of victims as well as Epstein’s fellow perpetrators. Numerous faces from both sides are included in a riveting 16-page insert that begins with Epstein's high school yearbook photo and ends with the “unmarked stone crypt believed to be Epstein’s final resting place.” Among the many people who won’t like this damning book are Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton. While nothing can redress the lifelong damage suffered by Epstein’s victims, it is essential that their stories be told with understanding and without prurience, as Levine does here. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a long section covering Epstein's imprisonment and death adds new details but does not preclude the possibility that he was murdered. Some readers may wish for more psychological analysis: Why and how did he turn into a sociopath so obsessed with underage girls that he went through his entire adulthood without a normal romantic relationship and never came anywhere close to marrying or having a family? However, that minor shortcoming doesn’t detract from the power of the story—or the appalling revelations: “Beginning around 2001, Epstein started confiding to acquaintances that he wanted to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch.”

The most horrifying story about what money can buy that you will ever read.