The Cartel: A white-knuckle drug war thriller - Tapa dura

"Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. This is the War and Peace of dope-war books. Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’s got the jazz-dog feel of a shot of pure meth." (James Ellroy)

"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." (Lee Child)

"The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read." (Harlan Coben)

"Don Winslow is one of the most exciting and well-researched crime writers of modern times. The Cartel is a masterpiece of storytelling." (Simon Kernick)

"Astoundingly ambitious...Draws on real events and people as it chronicles Mexico’s drug wars...Masterfully organised and teeming with memorable characters, it is unlikely to be bettered this year." (Sunday Times (Thriller of the month))

"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." (Michael Connelly)

"A magnum opus coming in June from Don Winslow, who is to the Mexican drug wars what James Ellroy is to L.A. Noir. It's a long-awaited sequel to one of his greatest, The Power of the Dog." (Janet Maslin New York Times)

"Ten years ago Don Winslow published The Power of the Dog, essentially the Godfather of the Mexican drug wars, an epic, blood-drenched tale of greed and murder. Now he’s returned with a sequel, The Cartel, which may well be the most relentlessly bleak and corpse-strewn crime novel ever written....Winslow brilliantly brings to life the savagery of the conflicts between rival cartels and also the heroism of the ordinary folk, mostly women, who dare to fight back. The Cartel is unforgettable and genuinely tragic." (Mail on Sunday (Thriller of the week))

"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. You've read the headlines about the decapitations in Juarez, the kidnappings in Mexico City, the mass graves and battling cartels and corrupt politicians and police, the daily casualties of the Mexican-American drugs wars, which made you second-guess that Club Med vacation. An epic, gritty south-of-the-border Godfather for this time." (Benjamin Percy Esquire)

"[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... his most powerful writing to date...As a reader, it's natural to want to immerse yourself again and again in the world Winslow depicts. But this, the author reminds us, is not wholly fiction: The Cartel is dedicated to a long but necessarily partial list of journalists murdered or "disappeared" during the period covered in the book...[Winslow is] a thriller writer of remarkable moral depth." (Sunday Herald)

From the internationally bestselling author of the acclaimed novel The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping true-to-life epic, ripped from the headlines, of power, corruption, revenge and justice spanning the past decade of the Mexican–American drug wars.

It’s 2004. DEA agent Art Keller has been fighting the war on drugs for thirty years in a blood feud against Adan Barrera, the head of El Federación, the world’s most powerful cartel, and the man who brutally murdered Keller’s partner. Finally putting Barrera away costs Keller dearly – the woman he loves, the beliefs he cherishes, the life he wants to lead.

Then Barrera gets out, determined to rebuild the empire that Keller shattered. Unwilling to live in a world with Barrera in it, Keller goes on a ten-year odyssey to take him down. His obsession with justice – or is it revenge – becomes a ruthless struggle that stretches from the cities, mountains and deserts of Mexico, to Washington’s corridors of power, to the streets of Berlin and Barcelona.

Keller fights his personal battle against the devastated backdrop of Mexico’s drug war, a conflict of unprecedented scale and viciousness, as cartels vie for power and he comes to the final reckoning with Barrera – and himself - that he always knew must happen.

The Cartel is a story of power, corruption, revenge, honour and sacrifice, as one man tries to face down the devil without losing his soul. It is the story of the war on drugs and the men – and women – who wage it.