The Washington Times
published my review of Don Winslow’s The Border.
While serving in the U.S.
Navy on an aircraft carrier in San Diego in 1970, I was a frequent visitor to
Tijuana. We were told to be most careful regarding the criminals and drug gangs
that operated openly in Tijuana, especially at night. During the day, Americans
flocked to Tijuana for the shopping and the city was relatively safe. But at
night, the streets, bars and cantinas were prowled by drug dealers, armed
robbers and other assorted criminals. Still, many American servicemen flocked
to Tijuana for the nightlife. In later years, rival criminal drug gangs turned
this exotic and exciting Mexican city into an open war zone.
For more than 20 years, Don
Winslow has researched the Mexican drug cartels and its huge, far-reaching and
powerful criminal enterprise. Mr. Winslow’s “The Border” is the last
installment of a fictional trilogy that includes 2005’s “The Power of the Dog”
and 2015’s “The Cartel.”
The first two well-researched
and well-written novels feature a mano a mano contest between an “El Chapo”
type brilliant and violent Mexican drug lord named Adan Barrera, the leader of
the Sinaloa cartel, and an obsessive half-Mexican DEA special agent named Art
Keller. The two, at times friends and allies, but more often bitter enemies,
operate against each other in Mexico and across the border in America.
In “The Border,” Adan Barrera
is missing after a gunfight with a rival cartel and is presumed dead. In his
wake, other drug lords vie for his top spot with corruption, conspiracy and
countless murders.
...The horror of the murders and
violence in this novel and the two previous novels might seem gratuitous had
not Mr. Winslow based nearly all the atrocities on true incidents. Mr.
Winslow’s drawn-from-the-headlines scenes are supplemented with scenes and
characters that are reminiscent of some popular crime films.
Having gone out with narcotic
officers on drug raids and having interviewed numerous cops and DEA special
agents over the years, I found the crime scenes to mostly ring true.
You can read the rest of the
review via the below link:
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