In the wee hours of June 6, 1993, 286 victims of illegal immigration washed up on the shores of Queens, New York. Ten of them were dead. When the cargo ship The Golden Venture ran aground that morning on Rockaway Beach, few Americans knew anything about Cheng Chui Ping, widely known as Big Sister Ping or the Mother of All Snakeheads in the Chinese immigrant community. Now resting quietly in a U.S. federal prison, this grandmother and convicted human trafficker has her story rendered dramatically by Patrick Radden Keefe. Even more vivid, however, are the stories that The Snakehead tells of the would-be Americans who discover that they are helpless puppets in global underworld schemes. A well-written true crime book with implications for us all.