This is the second book I have read by Winslow, the first, THE DAWN PATROL, was set on the beaches of San Diego, as three or four good friends, all surfer dudes, end up in a drug war. This book, however, takes all the drug wars to another level. Though fiction, it seems real because Winslow has based much of it on actual happenings. We follow three major players, one DEA agent Art Keller, the center of the book, a man determined to get revenge for the death of a colleague. He wants to kill the drug King Pin, Adnan Barrera, the notorious head of various named drug gangs. The third protagonist, Pablo Morales, is a journalist, living in Juarez, covering the news of the day and, unfortunately, the slow demise of his favorite city as the drug wars turn it into a war zone. The novel covers about ten years, as the rival gangs turn Mexico into a living hell, especially for the underclass, the peasants, who are driven off their land, out of their homes, by the drug armies. There are other minor players/killers like Chaco, Forty, Eddie Ruiz and a ten year old killer named Chuy. And Marisol, a female doctor, whom Art falls in love with but her dedication to the poor, despite the dangers, ruins their relationship, as both know that they have other, more important concerns, the poor for Marisol, the death of Adan Barerra and the taking down of other drug kingpins for Art.
The novel starts in a New Mexico monastery, where Keller raises bees and lives the life of a recluse until he's contacted by the DEA to tell him that Barrera has a two million dollar contract out on him. This motivates Keller to act as an independent agent of the DEA, working both in the States and Mexico, the goal being to kill Barrera and gain some control over the drug trade, the drug war. We get probably the most accurate picture yet of the horrendous violence visited upon Mexico over the past twenty years, a result of the US's insatiable need for drugs and the Mexican cartels willingness to do anything to fulfill this need, making them millions, the czars billions of dollars. Keller knows the cartels well, and we see how he gradually accepts their violence as a mean to and end, willingly killing along the way to achieve his ends. The corruption is rampant, from city, to state, to federal government, including it would seem, the President and his acolytes. It hard to believe that the cartels runs practically everything from the top down but they are so willing to blackmail, kidnap and coerce anyone to their team that they are successful. And if you stand up to them, they kill you and your family, like its nothing. It's difficult to imagine all this was going on while most of us were living a decent life here in the States. And to an extent, it continues on today. I won't go into the particulars of the three or four major protagonists except to say there are many villains but also heroes, those who stand up to the cartels (and usually pay for it) like Keller, various agencies in the Mexican government, and the DEA if not the CIA. And we realize, too, that everything is political, the American response to this violence, always with politics not the welfare of the poor in mind, as well as the response of the Mexican government, worrying about the money they get from their neighbors to the north.
The narrative ends with violence and killing in Guatemala, where the cartels have set up their headquarters. But this is not why we read the novel, the narrative thread. Rather, we meet, close up, the victims, the perpetrators, the enablers (US), and those who fight against it. It's a good read, and I recommend it. Readers will never think the same about the illegals who are entering our borders. What many are running from is unfathomable to us but the reality for them. Could something like this happen here in the States, a complete breakdown of government, the justice system, and the political system. I suppose my answer would be yes. Scary.
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