Cynthia Cooper tells her story of the biggest corporate scandals in US history. As the head of Internal Audit of Worldcom, she struggled to earn the recognition of the value of Internal Audit within the company. Through her perseverance and her clever and courageous abilities, she gains the resources which enable her and her team to discover the fraud which ultimately toppled the company.

Ms. Cooper's book is an easy and compelling read. Despite the technical issues dealt with in the book, even someone who knows nothing about corporate finances and operations will be able to understand what the lie was in the financial statements, how it was discovered, and why it had been told.

I believe that anyone who has feels that they do not understand the machinations of Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing--any of the corporate shenanigans which have resulted in financial scandals, shareholder loss, and criminal prosecution--would benefit greatly from reading this book. It is important that we, as citizens, understand how the greed and dishonesty of our "captains of industry" can directly impact its employees, its shareholders, the communities which headquarter these companies, and, ultimately, our country. And it can be done in very simple ways.

This book is a digestible explanation of how very basic the issues are at their roots. Greed and pride resulted in the telling of lies. The lying was rooted in a desperate desire to hold on to material possessions which, in truth, had already disappeared.

This is a very personal book. As I read it, I felt that Ms. Cooper was my girlfriend, writing to tell me about an ordeal from which she had only recently emerged. Her ability to get through the turmoil is largely attributed to the moral support and helpful actions of her family--husband, daughters, parents, grandparents, siblings and the spouses of her siblings. We also learn how her high ethical standards were instilled by her family and how she is passing these convictions to her daughters.

Because she has revealed so much personal information--her history, her successes and failures, her feelings and thoughts about the people and events which culminate in disaster--we share the mixed emotions she has about the perpetrators of the fraud. This is a very unique and surprising aspect of the writing. Ms. Cooper characterizes no one as all good or all bad. As a reader, I empathized with the motivations and the rationalizations of the individuals who participated in the fraud.

The actions which Ms. Cooper and her team took required courage and ethical conviction. No one made it easy for them. They endured hostility. They were ostracized. Their careers, their livelihood and the welfare of their respective families were imperiled. They even feared for their physical safety. Yet they came through the other side and truly exemplified "fighting the good fight."

One day, each of us will be called upon to fight that fight in some way. Reading this book is a one small way to prepare yourself for that day.