Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: from Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff obstensibly sets out to examine four situations in which liars were revealed as such and the attitude toward lying in general. The Martha Stewart (no relation), Irve "Scooter" Libby, Barry Bonds and Benie Madoff perjury stories are told in some detail. Although James Stewart attempts to form a cohesive moral lesson from these four stories--he fails to follow through. The Martha Stewart story is told with just the right amount of detail and the motivations of the various participants is sufficiently explained. The Scooter Libby story is too jumbled and has too many extraneous details without tracking the main theme for the reader--especially one without a previous familiarity with the story--lots of insider Washington jargon and quick cross references that are supposedly revealing details and yet just add to the confusion. The Bonds tale Stewart spins is a mess. It reads like an srticle written on spec with the focus on Marion Jones- but when it turned out that the Jones story was too old the focus was shifted. Unfortunately, as the book went to press before the end of the Bonds' perjury trial--it is completely unsatisfactory. (Bonds was, of course, convicted). Finally, the Madoff tale has nothing new that a daily newspaper reader would be unaware of-- and of course Madoff was never charged with perjury.