A compelling summary of the steroids scandal

Giambi is depicted along with slugger Barry Bonds on the cover of ''Game of Shadows," written by San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. Because both Bonds and Giambi were under investigation, the two players were not among those who were subpoenaed to testify before the US House Committee on Government Reform in March of last year.

Understandably, attention has focused on Bonds. As he enters the 2006 season with 708 career homers, Bonds will almost certainly eclipse Babe Ruth's total of 714 and approach Hank Aaron's all-time mark of 755.

The book's two authors present a compelling portrait of conspiracy built around Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative founder Victor Conte, one that has enveloped other drug providers and a number of track and field stars -- national champions and US Olympic team members -- and Major League baseball players. When steroid tests were administered anonymously in 2003, 7 percent of the Major Leaguers tested positive.

In America, one is innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty. The court of public opinion is another matter, and most readers will complete ''Game of Shadows" convinced by the preponderance of evidence (circumstantial or otherwise) that Bonds has used steroids.

There are no new bombshells here, but additional leaked grand jury testimony fleshes out the story. There is considerable drama in the telling, and the writers have turned a complicated story into an easy read. Particularly fascinating is the profile of Conte and the jealousies between him and other enhancement gurus that ultimately helped break the case. There is even the suggestion that it might have been Conte himself -- a man whose own attorney quit, citing his client's ''narcissistic personality disorder" -- who was the source of much of the material fed to the Chronicle writers. Conte was supplying illegal drugs but at the same time appears to have envisioned himself as a potential crusader best positioned to truly clean up American sports.