-
“I’m totally swept up. You can’t ask for more emotionally moving entertainment.”
— Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author
-
“A first-rate edge-of-your-seat thriller.”
— Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author
-
“A gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent, and wildly entertaining…an absolute must-read.”
— Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author
-
“Sensationally good.”
— Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
-
“This is the War and Peace of dope-war books. Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched.”
— James Ellroy, New York Times bestselling author
-
“Overpowering.”
— Time
-
“High octane…The righteous indignation that fuels his tale of cops, cartels, and the near-apocalyptic havoc they can create is, to use a sadly appropriate word, addictive.”
— Entertainment Weekly
-
“With corruption, violence, and a love story to boot, [The Cartel] is sure to have you grasping at the edge of your seat.”
— Vanity Fair
-
“A magnum opus…[Winslow] is to the Mexican drug wars what James Ellroy is to LA noir.”
— New York Times
-
“One of the best thriller writers on the planet…Winslow has written an epic, gritty south-of-the-border Godfather for our time.”
— Esquire
-
“A sort of 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.”
— Rolling Stone
-
“Here is fiction based on the best journalistic sources, with lively dialogue, timely revelations, and overall 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.”
— NPR
-
“A grand and gripping epic novel.”
— Huffington Post
-
“A Wagernian epic of murder and vengeance..The Cartel is as much a work of meticulous journalism as artful fiction…[with] skillfully drawn characters.”
— Barnes&Noble.com
-
“An adrenaline rush, addictive as crack, and epic…Winslow deals in corruption, subversion, and revenge with an intensity that makes him irresistible.”
— Los Angeles Magazine
-
“This exhaustively researched novel elucidates not just the situation in Mexico but the consequences of our own disastrous forty-year ‘war on drugs.’”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
-
“Horrifying in its accuracy, mesmerizing in its sweep and immediacy, brilliantly pace and placed…It’s all made intensely real by Ray Porter’s powerful performance.”
— BookPage (Top Pick in Audiobooks)
-
“A jarring glimpse into a reality about which many Americans remain blissfully unaware.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
-
“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…Clearly one of the most ambitious and most accomplished crime novels to appear in the last fifteen years.”
— Booklist (starred review)
-
“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.”
— Kirkus Reviews
-
“Ray Porter is an experienced narrator who does an expert job with Winslow’s complex plot and dozens of characters…Porter does many voices—depicting characters’ accents, genders, and ages very well. His pace is good, and his tone is intense without being overly dramatic.”
— AudioFile
-
“[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.”
— Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor (Factor Tip of the Day)
-
“Lengthy, ambitious, and uncompromising.”
— Mystery Scene