Hawaii Book & Music Festival 2022

John Madinger is a retired Treasury agent, narcotics and money laundering expert, and award-winning author of mystery and detective fiction, true crime, and history. He’s the author of Pipe Dreams: The Dark Secret Behind Hawai‘i’s Most Notorious Crime—the most plausible explanation of the Massie case.

What’s it like to work undercover? You’re a sheepdog in wolf’s clothing, running with the pack, and Madinger ran with the wolves for almost two decades. In his memoir, Going Under, he gives a unique look at American crime and the War on Drugs" from the perspective of both cops and criminals. You’ll go with the undercover cops to meetings with street-corner hustlers and rip-off artists and into the lives of America’s biggest rock stars, the world’s richest man, an Academy Award-winning actor, the marijuana traffickers conspiring to assassinate a federal judge, and the President of the United States.

Raised in Manoa, Madinger is a graduate of Punahou School and has a master’s degree in History from the University of Hawai‘i. He currently lives on the mainland but hopes to come home.