Starts off as a fascinating overview of the "Roswell Incident" in July 1947, what was known, suspected or guessed at the time, how the story was buried and forgotten about by the US press under military orders, and what came to light over the years since - which is, admittedly, not a great deal. Unfortunately, in my opinion the authors indulge in far too much speculation about what might have happened and why, and again in my opinion their conclusions are incomplete at best and flawed at worst. While supposedly trying to consider all possibilities they did not consider the chance that the whole thing might have been a staged event to seed an idea for future use; nor did they entertain the idea that this might all have been a diversion for something else that happened elsewhere around the same time. Or even at another time. To my mind it is strange that the military clamped down on the story so quickly; in my own experience nothing apart from extremely loud bangs will rouse the military into immediate action, not least because most of them are inebriated.
One more possibility eluded the authors: that there WAS an alien craft, and possibly bodies, which had been deliberately planted for us to "discover". The reason no-one could work out where the drive unit was located was because it had been removed; they who had left this "gift" didn't want us to run before we could walk. This idea was suggested in another book (Apollo & The Whistle Blowers by Bennett & Percy) and I have to say I find it intriguing, especially in light of the "crop circle" phenomenon. Unfortunately these authors are not quite so broad-minded and the idea is not considered.
There is the additional aspect that the whole story rests on eyewitness testimony - eyewitness testimony of course being at the bottom of the generally-accepted evidential hierarchy. And whilst the authors are very open about the fact that the vast majority of evidence is nothing more than eyewitness testimony, it seemed to me they forgot this and concluded what they wanted to believe. Whilst on the surface there appears to be little reason for the US military to "over-react" as they seemed to, there is also a possibility that this was all a staged event. This is overall an intriguing story and an easy read, a culmination of many years of patient and painstaking detective work, it left me with about the same impression detective generally do: incomplete, too speculative, and with conclusions too strongly shaped by preconceived ideas.
