Don Winslow is the critically acclaimed, award-winning, internationally bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Power of the Dog, Savages, The Winter of Frankie Machine and The Cartel. A former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in Southern California.
www.don-winslow.com
One of the Best Books of the Year: The Seattle Times, The
Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian (London), The
Sunday Times (London), The Telegraph (London), The National Post
(Toronto), The New Statesman (London), and The Daily Mail (London)
The New York Times
"Winslow's drug war version of The Godfather . . . A big,
sprawling, ultimately stunning crime tableau . . . A magnum opus .
. . Don Winslow is to the Mexican drug wars what James Ellroy is to
L.A. Noir."
--Janet Maslin Esquire
"An epic, gritty south-of-the-border Godfather for our time. You
don't have to read Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog to get swept
away by The Cartel, its ripped-from-the-headlines sequel, but you
should. You should try to get your hands on everything Winslow's
written, because he's one of the best thriller writers on the
planet."
--Benjamin Percy NPR
"Hugely hypnotic new thriller . . . the pace and feel of an
exploded documentary . . . a brilliant and informative work of
fiction about a nightmare world that flourishes in the bright light
of day."
--Alan Cheuse
Rolling Stone
"A Game of Thrones of the Mexican drug wars, a multipart,
intricately plotted, blood-soaked epic that tells the story of how
America's unquenchable appetite for illegal drugs has brought chaos
to our southern neighbors and darkened our own political and
criminal culture."
--Will Dana Booklist (starred review)
"Winslow's riveting and tragic epic seamlessly blends fact and
fiction to tell [an] incredible, heartbreaking story. . . . Winslow
never loses control of his subject or his characters, despite the
book's scope and complexity. There is some of The Godfather here,
but Winslow's characterizations, though certainly multidimensional,
have more of an edge to them than do Puzo's, a greater recognition
of the tragedy a violent power struggle leaves in its wake. Clearly
one of the most ambitious and most accomplished crime novels to
appear in the last 15 years, The Cartel will likely retain that
distinction even as the twenty-first century grinds on."
--Bill Ott Arizona Republic
"The Cartel is the most important crime saga of the millennium.
This is reporting and expose built around an intricate plot, finely
etched characters and whip-crack dialogue. . . . Storytelling that
matters."
--Robert Anglen Lee Child
"Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of
the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold
whole." Men's Journal
"Winslow is the most fearless chronicler of the chaos and violence
along the U.S.-Mexico border . . . who has written what could be
the War and Peace of the War on Drugs."
--Erik Hedegaard Fresh Air
"The Cartel tells its ghastly story with enjoyable verve yet I was
even more impressed with the way Winslow uses his plot to offer a
superb history of the cartels and those out to stop them. Steeped
in reportage, the novel. . . possesses a virtue I associate with
traditional documentaries: it explains things. I finished the book
understanding why Juárez is so violent; why cartels murder so many
innocent people; why both the American and Mexican governments
favor some cartels over others; and why the war on drugs is not
just futile, but morally compromised. It's here that fiction and
documentary come together in a shared sense of, well,
bleakness."
--John Powers Michael Connelly
"Don Winslow has done it again. The Cartel is a first rate
edge-of-your-seat thriller for sure, but it also continues
Winslow's incisive reporting on the dangers and intricacies of the
world we live in. There is no higher mark for a storyteller than to
both educate and entertain. With Winslow these aspects are entwined
like strands of DNA. He's a master and this book proves it once
again." Los Angeles Times
"Winslow has delivered two of the most . . . emotionally resonant
novels in the past decade, 2005's The Power of the Dog and its epic
conclusion, The Cartel. . . . His prose is sparse and ferocious,
and his rapid-fire story hits you like bullets from an AK-47."
--Ivy Pochoda Entertainment Weekly
"High-octane . . . The righteous indignation that fuels Winslow's
tale of cops, cartels, and the near-apocalyptic havoc they can
create is, to use a sadly appropriate word, addictive."
--Clark Collis James Ellroy
"Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The
Cartel. This is the War and Peace of dopewar books. Tense, brutal,
wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It's got the
jazz dog feel of a shot of pure meth!!" The Sunday Times
(London)
"Astoundingly ambitious . . . It is unlikely to be bettered this
year."
--John Dugdale (Thriller of the Month) Vanity Fair
"With corruption, violence, and a love story to boot, [The Cartel]
is sure to have you grasping at the edge of your seat."
--Elise Taylor Details
"Winslow has long been hailed for his hard-boiled humor and
storytelling, and this sequel to the best-selling The Power of the
Dog shows why. . . . The coke-fueled, blood-soaked horror show that
ensues would scare Tony Montana straight."
--David Swanson Harlan Coben
"The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and
wildly entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute
must-read."
Los Angeles Magazine
"An adrenaline rush, addictive as crack, and epic in the
pre-Del-Taco-marketing-their-burritos-as-"epic" sense of the word.
Don Winslow deals in corruption, subversion, and revenge with an
intensity that makes him irresistible." Associated Press
"The Cartel is an intricately detailed narrative of the cartel
life. . . . Winslow has become an unintentional expert on a subject
that sickens him."
--Hillel Italie The Huffington Post
"A sprawling epic of drug trafficking, murder, coercion, and
corruption at the highest levels of Mexican law enforcement and
government. . . . A grand and gripping epic novel."
--Mark Rubinstein The San Diego Union-Tribune
"A monster of a novel--big in story, big in ambition. Based on real
events, it's unavoidably violent but not voyeuristic. There is a
deep understanding of the bonds and betrayals inherent to the drug
trade, considerable musing about the difference between vengeance
and justice, and a recognition that even in the face of
soul-sapping depravity, there can be nobility and courage."
--John Wilkens Sunday Herald (Scotland)
"The Cartel offers a riveting expose of a modern tragedy where the
fast pace of the thriller narrative never stumbles over the
painstaking attention paid to detail and background. More
importantly perhaps, they offer an alternative perspective on the
accepted history of America's involvement in the 'war on drugs', a
shocking litany of greed, complicity and political machination. . .
. Winslow [writes with] the authority of an investigative reporter
and the narrative skill of a best-selling author."
--Alan Morrison MysteryPeople (Pick of the Month)
"Winslow deftly uses violence in the novel, fully aware of how much
he asks the reader to act as witness. . . . The denouncement gives
The Wild Bunch a run for its money in the final showdown category.
He builds up to these moments beautifully, creating emotion and
setting the stage for visceral attitude when such scenes explode. .
. . For a mammoth novel, The Cartel moves. Winslow never loses his
humanity and rage as he sweeps across a decade of rough shadow
history to the wounded grace note it ends on. It captures
everything great about crime fiction and makes it epic." Kirkus
Reviews
"[A] vast and ambitious thriller . . . Winslow has envisioned his
novel on an epic scale. . . . At heart, this is the familiar tale
of symbiosis between pursuer and pursued, reconfigured for the war
on drugs and given a mean noir edge." Barnes and Noble Review
"Don Winslow is one of those shape-shifter novelists; now light,
now dark. Funny one minute, terrifying the next. . . . A Wagernian
epic of murder and vengeance . . . The Cartel is as much a work of
meticulous journalism as artful fiction. But through the blood haze
and the political fog, Winslow allows us to see--and even to care
about--his skillfully drawn characters."
--Anna Mundow Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Masterly . . . This exhaustively researched novel elucidates not
just the situation in Mexico but the consequences of our own
disastrous 40-year 'war on drugs.'"
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) The Chicago Tribune
"This is the big one . . . the El Niño, tsunami and San Andreas
Fault shaker of drug novels rolled into one--a 600 page immersion
that may leave you thinking you knew next to nothing about its
seamy subject. . . . The Cartel is so relentlessly paced, its
probing of daily evil so deep, you're drawn in whether you like it
or not."
--Lloyd Sachs Vice
"The book is as gruesome a read as it is insightful, chock-full of
research into the organization and tactics of cartels and their (at
times) strikingly similar governmental opponents. It is disturbing,
and it is based in large part on actual events."
--Kristen Gwynne The Seattle Times
"If you have managed to shield your eyes and plug your ears against
what's been going on with the war on drugs in Mexico, Don Winslow's
searing new novel The Cartel will tear off the blinders. . . . This
reader stuck with The Cartel to the end because it says something
important."
--Mary Ann Gwinn Interview Magazine
"[The Cartel] is brutal, graphic, and well-researched, with many of
the more gruesome acts based on real events. But there is something
else that characterizes Winslow's work. Beyond genre, there is
musicality to his prose; staccato sentences that draw the reader in
immediately."
--Emma Brown Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Don Winslow affirms his status as one of the best American writers
with The Cartel. . . . Devilishly plotted and exhaustingly vivid .
. . Winslow's style, efficient and undeniable as a bullet, keeps
you hanging on through the most labyrinthine plot twists. And there
are plot twists."
--Carlo Wolff Bill O'Reilly (Factor Tip of the Day)
"[The Cartel] gives, perhaps, the clearest insight I've ever seen
into the corruption that has nearly ruined the country of Mexico.
Very tough book, but if you want to know what's going on south of
the border it is a must read." Stephen King
"I'm totally swept up. You can't ask for more emotionally moving
entertainment." The Oregonian
"Winslow is a prolific author."
--Jeff Baker Miami Herald
"The dark side of the U.S./Mexican drug wars [from] the gritty
author of The Power of the Dog . . . Expect violence, gore--and
revenge."
--Connie Ogle National Post (Toronto)
"Despite an impressive amount of research and its epic scope, The
Cartel still readily embraces its old roots in the thriller genre.
The old comforts you might find in Michael Connelly or Elmore
Leonard are still here. . . . Terrifying."
--Andrew F. Sullivan San Francisco Chronicle
"Could not be more timely."
--John McMurtrie Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
"[Winslow's] story feels less like a product of the imagination
than an exhaustively researched bit of journalism. Which it is--a
kind of true story set in the recognizable horror show of Mexico
narco-terrorism."
--Philip Martin Santa Barbara Independent
"By securely grounding his fiction in fact, Winslow achieves a
level of emotional truth and illustrates the hard challenges and
brutal ironies of the decades-old dope war in a way that few works
of nonfiction can match. . . . If you care about the nature of
crime and justice in today's America and the steep price that the
men and women on the front lines of the War on Drugs pay to
preserve the law and maintain a semblance of order, then pick up
The Cartel and spend some time with the author's dark vision."
--Bruce Riordan LitReactor
"One of America's best crime novelists."
--Keith Rawson Time magazine
"Overpowering."
--Sarah Begley Cinephilia & Beyond
"[Winslow is] the leading American thriller writer of his
generation. . . . What emanates from his writing . . . is a sense
of humanity, of emotions under the surface, of the ever-going
ambition to understand society, what drives people to do what they
do, to explore what's in their nature that makes them behave the
way people have been behaving from the dawn of time. . . . It's
this warmth and compassion that makes Winslow one of the best
contemporary novelists just as much as his writing does. . . .
Whatever you feel gives life to the books of Don Winslow--be it
nail-biting action scenes, detailed and thought-out
characterizations of the people at the center of his stories or the
abundance of details that lends his writing astonishing
authenticity and credibility--one thing remains certain. The Cartel
is going to blow our minds and leave us wanting for more."
Star-News
"The opening scene of Don Winslow's The Cartel takes hold like a
vise, and for the next 600 pages the book keeps a tight grip as it
takes the reader into the underbelly of America's 30-year war on
drugs. . . . Like the journalists he praises, Winslow's grasp of
the material is impressive and has a nonfiction quality. . . .
Winslow educates without being heavy handed or preachy. . . . While
it is epic in scope, the writing has an intimacy and the
characters, even the most evil, feel authentic. It's a story that
is hard to shake even when you're done. And that is a good thing
because this book shouldn't be forgotten."
--Kevin Maurer The Bookmonger
"The Cartel may be to Mexican drug lords of today what The
Godfather was to the Mafia in the 1960s and 1970s--a great story
full of compelling characters, as well as a good way to learn about
the motives and methods of a super-violent criminal
organization."
--John J. Miller Library Journal (starred review)
"Winslow's two-novel project about this still-raging conflict is
entertaining, well researched, and difficult to process, a jarring
glimpse into a reality about which many Americans remain blissfully
unaware."
--Michael Pucci
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