Ambush at Ruby Ridge: How Government Agents Set Randy Weaver Up and Took His Family Down chronicles the U.S. Marshals Service elaborate, multi-million-dollar 18-month surveillance of Weaver, an Idaho backwoods resident known as a white separatist, indicted on a minor firearms charge many claim was a government act of hatred and blackmail.

The resultant 11-day standoff in Weaver's small family cabin and the paramilitary attack that ensued are described through graphic and closely documented accounts: from the details surrounding the initial siege to the shoot-to-kill orders given by FBI headquarters.

Through court transcripts, private testimonies, and interviews with insiders, local residents, and friends of the Weaver family, journalist Alan Bock debunks the myth that government agencies are beyond the realm of entrapment, coverups, and even the killing of innocent people.

He overturns the hypocrisies and contradictions of the FBI, and takes you straight to the scene - first, to the tragedy of Ruby Ridge, then to the colorful neo-Nazi- and protester-filled roadblock, and finally to the courtroom, where prosecutors and flamboyant defense attorney Gerry Spence go head to head.