A sobering, even depressing book that speaks to the American addiction to conspiracy theories and outright lies. New York Times writer Williamson has made her beat the prosecution of right-wing ideologues and the dismantling of their machineries of deception. Here, she excoriates Alex Jones, the online blowhard who, soon after a young man killed 20 first graders and six teachers at a Connecticut elementary school, declared the massacre a "false flag" exercise meant to provide the Obama administration the opportunity to attack the Second Amendment. Anyone who followed Jones at the time could have seen his harangues coming; what's surprising about this account is how so many credentialed academics followed suit, lumping the Sandy Hook killings into a messy cycle of conspiracy theories involving the JFK assassination, 9/11, and other events. Millions of like-minded people who have the right to vote (and own guns) partake of such theories, fanned recently by Trump, the fomenter of a mendacious conspiracy theory that he rightfully won the 2020 presidential election. "From a decade's distance," writes Williamson, "Sandy Hook stands as a portent: a warning of the power of unquenchable viral lies to leap the firewalls of decency and tradition, to engulf accepted fact and established science, and to lap at the foundations of our democratic institutions." Sandy Hook became part and parcel of the paranoiac style of American thought--or perhaps better, nonthought. It can be fought, and Williamson records how the battle was taken into the courtroom, where numerous conspiracy theorists paid for their lies with jury-ruled financial penalties, while Jones' social media outlets were "deplatformed" and most of the errant academics lost their jobs. We won't know the outcome of the actions against Jones until 2022, but the author makes it clear that the remedies to curb what Kellyanne Conway called "alternative facts" exist. Essential reading that shows the straight line that runs from Sandy Hook to Charlottesville and Jan. 6. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Narrator Rebecca Lowman (Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America) brings her cool, calm best to this timely audiobook about the shooting in Sandy Hook and the rise of conspiracy theories. The prologue, author's note, and epilogue read by New York Times features writer Williamson set the tone for Lowman to take over as she presents the results of hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and analysis of court records. The compelling topic is enhanced by Lowman's skilled performance. She emotes empathy for the victims and their families. Anger and disgust are reserved for those who spread lies and deceptions about the tragedy and the trolls who committed identity fraud or stalked survivors using social media. Her captivating delivery of facts and detailed information about the arrests and trials of conspiracy theorists Alex Jones, James Fetzer, James Tracy, and Wolfgang Halbig will make listeners cheer. Woven into the time line of the Sandy Hook aftermath is the expansion of conspiracy theorists and the havoc wreaked on the lives of others as they continue to spew "fake news" and lies for selfish reasons. VERDICT An outstanding treatise on the history and rise of conspiracy theories today.--Stephanie Bange

In the aftermath of the horrific Sandy Hook school massacre, there was a global outpouring of sympathy and donations. At the same time, baseless conspiracy theories began to take root, claiming that the mass shooting never actually happened or was staged for nefarious political purposes. Parents of slain children who went on the public record to assert the plain facts of the tragedy or to memorialize their children were harassed and targeted in insidious ways. Some were even forced to go into hiding and change their names and addresses repeatedly in the intervening years. New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson's thoroughly reported investigation traces the history of these developments, focusing on the conspiracists (chiefly Alex Jones) who spread these lies and their motives, not the least of which was profit. She also sketches a history of paranoid conspiracy theory in the U.S. and the way it exploded with the rise of social media, then merged with mainstream political culture to grow into a problem that now threatens the foundations of democracy itself. Williamson ends on a hopeful note. She reports on the Sandy Hook parents' promising efforts to pursue justice in court, and she talks to experts who share promising recommendations for reform. Readers concerned about misinformation and the health of democracy will be grateful for this superbly documented account, an outstanding achievement in nonfiction.

New York Times reporter Williamson's searing debut demonstrates that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had its roots in the deeply troubling efforts to claim that the 2012 massacre of 26 first-graders and staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax. After vividly depicting the horrors of Adam Lanza's murderous rampage at Sandy Hook, Williamson delves into the vital part InfoWars radio show host Alex Jones played in spreading the conspiracy theory that nobody had actually died at the school. Encouraged by his conspiracy-mongering to pursue that wacko theory, members of his audience, already adamant in their distrust of government and the mainstream media, asserted that the tragedy was a stunt intended to bolster liberal efforts to pass gun control legislation and that the grieving parents were actually "crisis actors" faking even the existence of their dead kids. Williamson details how the pernicious reality-denying mentality Jones fostered in the Sandy Hook deniers spread to those Trump supporters who believed that he won the 2020 presidential election and who stormed the Capitol to "stop the steal." Williamson's years of research includes interviews with survivors of the school shooting, parents, and first responders, as well as analysis of court documents and other records. She has produced the definitive account of this dark chapter of American history. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency. (Mar.)