Author Don Winslow Lovingly Critiques Mexico in New Novel, 'The Cartel' Esther J. Cepeda - The Washington Post
go to original August 27, 2015

Crime Novelist of 'The Cartel' Calls for End to War on Drugs (PBS NewsHour)

The Cartel: A novel by Don Winslow Check it out on Amazon.com

Don Winslow’s epic new novel, “The Cartel,” about Mexican drug lord Adan Barrera’s desperate moves to stay on top of a quickly changing political and competitive landscape, couldn’t have been released at a better time.

The book, which begins with a Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-esque prison break, came out mere weeks before the real Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel, disappeared from a Mexican prison cell through a tunnel.

This wasn’t solely coincidental -  “The Cartel,” along with Winslow’s 2005 novel “The Power of the Dog,” is well-researched and chronicles the recent history of the Mexican drug cartels from 1975 to 2004.

Having recently visited Ciudad Juarez on a reporting trip to evaluate its nascent rebound from a drug-war nadir when it was known as a murder capital of the world, I couldn’t help but dig into Winslow’s fierce portrayal of the lives of those attempting to survive the horror.

Winslow once called his reporting on the drug war “a little tour of hell each day,” and it’s fair to say this latest novel offers a little tour of hell on practically every page -  begging the question of why anyone would want to read it.

Well, love.

Read the rest at The Desert Sun

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