I bought this book a few months ago when it first came out, but since I've been working furiously on my own manuscript, I haven't had time for any recreational reading until a few days ago. Since it came out, I've been reading many glowing reviews, so my anticipation of
cracking the book - or Kindle, as it were - open was growing. I read the book over just two days, and to say the least, I wasn't disappointed. Here's the book description from Amazon.com:
"In the last six years, more than eighty thousand people have been killed in the Mexican drug war, and drug trafficking there is a multibillion-dollar business. In a country where the powerful are rarely scrutinized, noted Mexican American journalist Alfredo Corchado refuses to shrink from reporting on government corruption, murders in Juarez, or the ruthless drug cartels of Mexico. A paramilitary group spun off from the Gulf cartel, the Zetas, controls key drug routes in the north of the country. In 2007, Corchado received a tip that he could be their next target—and he had twenty four hours to find out if the threat was true.
"Rather than leave his country, Corchado went out into the Mexican countryside to trace investigate the threat. As he frantically contacted his sources, Corchado suspected the threat was his punishment for returning to Mexico against his mother’s wishes. His parents had fled north after the death of their young daughter, and raised their children in California where they labored as migrant workers. Corchado returned to Mexico as a journalist in 1994, convinced that Mexico would one day foster political accountability and leave behind the pervasive corruption that has plagued its people for decades.
"But in this land of extremes, the gap of inequality—and injustice—remains wide. Even after the 2000 election that put Mexico’s opposition party in power for the first time, the opportunities of democracy did not materialize. The powerful PRI had worked with the cartels, taking a piece of their profit in exchange for a more peaceful, and more controlled, drug trade. But the party’s long-awaited defeat created a vacuum of power in Mexico City, and in the cartel-controlled states that border the United States. The cartels went to war with one another in the mid-2000s, during the war to regain control of the country instituted by President Felipe Calderón, and only the violence flourished. The work Corchado lives for could have killed him, but he wasn't ready to leave Mexico—not then, maybe never. Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man’s quest to report the truth of his country—as he raced to save his own life."
As I mentioned in my last book review for The Fight to Save Juárez, it's awesome to read a book (at least partly) about Mexico's drug war that is truly personal and shows the human side of things. Midnight isn't written in a linear/chronological fashion, but I don't think that takes away from the substance of the book - Corchado's internal battles over the future of Mexico and how he deals with death threats made repeatedly by cartels he writes about. I don't know Corchado personally, but I've been reading his articles for years, and I consider his love of over 20 years, Angela Kocherga (who appears frequently throughout the book), to be a friend. In other words, I felt a personal connection to his story, and a great respect for the risks he has taken as a journalist to at least try to get to the truth of matters - an almost impossible task in Mexico.
The writing is superb. He mentions in his acknowledgements something about getting help with his dry reporter's writing, but there's nothing about Midnight I found even close to that description. The passages about his childhood I found less interesting than his secret meetings with an unnamed US investigator who held the key to finding the identity of his potential killer, or reading about his conversations with people at the highest levels of both the US and Mexican governments like I was there in the room when they happened; but that's a personal preference.
There's a little bit of drug war history interspersed throughout the narrative, but it's just to give context and doesn't slow down the narrative. You don't need to be an expert on happenings in Mexico to appreciate the first-hand, gritty look at murders in Ciudad Juárez and politics in Mexico City from the ground up. Midnight is truly a gripping read that you're going to have a hard time putting down, and Corchado's writing will make you feel like you were there with him and his colleagues the night he found out he was a hunted man. I highly recommend Midnight in Mexico for your next read.
I was very lucky to have been asked to do a peer review of this manuscript during the publishing process, as I got to read this admirable work before almost anyone else. I get
asked to do a lot of reviews of books dealing with Mexico's drug war, and while I love expanding my knowledge of the subject, sometimes the material gets a bit repetitive. That's just the nature of our business; there are certain facts and issues you have to hit in case your readers are wholly unfamiliar with the topic. However, what I loved the most about The Fight is the fact that Ainslie manages to work drug war facts and history into a gripping narrative, rather than the norm, which is the other way around.
The Fight tells the story (among others) of the descent of Ciudad Juárez into a violent narco hell during the tenure of former Mayor José Reyes Ferriz roughly between 2007-2010). While the narrative is primarily from Ferriz's perspective, Ainslie also delves into the lives of a cartel member's mistress, a human rights activist, a photojournalist, and others. He describes in heart-wrenching details events like the Villas del Salvarcar massacre, where gang members on a cartel payroll ambushed a party and killed several innocent teenagers and young adults in a case of mistaken identity. You can feel Ferriz's anxiety in dealing with corrupt police officials and trying to find someone willing, able and courageous enough to take a leadership role that often equates to suicide.
To say that Ainslie had an in-the-trenches perspective while researching this book is an understatement. He had first-hand access to the Mayor, members of for President Felipe Calderón's cabinet, and citizens on the street whose stories tend to be far more fascinating than anything you can find in fiction. Far too often we learn about Ciudad Juárez through news reports telling all about body counts and cartel perpetrators, which completely dehumanizes the city and its all-too-human population. The Fight takes the reader into the heart of life as a Juárez resident, and not just someone looking in from the safety behind bulletproof glass. The research is impeccable and the narrative is rich and gripping. If you want to learn more about the struggle to return Juárez to some semblance of normalcy from the perspective of real people rather than headlines, then I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The Fight to Save Juárez.
I started reading this book as part of my research for my next book, partly because the content would be useful to cite and partly because it was my biggest competition. I was pleased after finishing it for several reasons: First, it was clear that Dr Maril has had a
considerable amount of first-hand experience working with Border Patrol and has culled a significant number of sources along the border; second, the author is even-handed in his critique of DHS and its component agencies, as well as his support for the safety of law enforcement officers, without any obvious bias or political agenda.
The book is titled The Fence, but it covers a wider variety of border-related issues that either directly or indirectly tie in to the border fence or the immigration debate. I was disappointed and not at all surprised to learn about the extent of Border Patrol inertia as an organization. After spending eight years as a female law enforcement agent in the military - not exactly a bastion of forward-thinking progress - I can unequivocally say I had it really good compared to female Border Patrol agents. Any agency that squashes every iota of dissent with retribution and initiative with reprimand is doomed to dysfunction. Fortunately, Maril manages to shine a light on the sacrifices made by Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers trying to work within the confines of an archaic system.
Where Maril isn't even-handed - and deservedly so - is in his criticism of DHS for overspending, underplanning, and generally having its head up its behind when it comes to reality on the ground in the borderlands. Just his explanation and illustrations of the ways in which DHS has carelessly handed over hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to profit-maximizing contractors to build a fence that is completely unnecessary in some places will leave you in awe. And not in a good way.
My only critique is that some narrative sections about certain people he knows and interviews can be tedious, and the details concerning fence contracts, technology, and construction can get too much into the weeds for more casual readers. The book seems to be organized in a chronological fashion for the most part, then digresses, which can mess with the flow a bit.
However, this doesn't take away from the substance of The Fence, and the extensive evidence Maril puts forth to back up his assertions about the lack of true purpose and direction for the fence along several parts of its almost-700-mile length. If you're looking for a book that explores not just the history of border fence constructions and all the problems that have plagued it, along with related enforcement and immigration issues, this is the book for you. I highly recommend it for researchers and casual readers interested in learning more about these border security-related issues.
I'm going to start out by saying if you have any interest whatsoever in the drug legalization debate, then run - don't walk - to your local or online bookstore and get this book.
I kind of knew before I started reading it that I would probably have this reaction. Earlier this year, I read Drugs and Drug Policy: Everything You Need to Know by three of the same authors. It was such an eye-opening book, and one of the reasons I loved it so much is that I was no closer to making up my mind about legalization as I was when I started it. I know that sounds weird, but as an analyst, I pride myself on being on the fence about some issues. That means that I'm still actively taking in information, and that I feel there's more to be learned. Marijuana Legalization was a different experience, in that I already supported the legalization of marijuana before I read it. While my position hasn't changed - and, in fact, was reinforced by much of what I read - I learned quite a bit, and some of it made me doubt my position a little bit.
If you're not familiar with Drugs and Drug Policy, Marijuana Legalization is written in the same easy-to-follow Q&A format. Each chapter has a general theme or tackles a different aspect of the legalization issue; for example, the composition of marijuana and why it gets you high, the risks of using it, how its prohibition works, and some of the pros and cons of legalization, just to name a few.
But it's the questions that the authors try to answer that are the lightbulb moments throughout the book. There were so many times that I came across questions thinking, Yes!! That's exactly what I want to know!! That being said, there were some instances where I got solid answers, and more instances where I was left frustrated because there weren't any. This isn't the authors' fault. We're dealing with an inherently specuative issue here, and the best that anyone can do - and what the authors do with great skill - is to provide several scenarios that could play out, given the facts they have to work with.
I want to point out some very important points made in several parts of the book that highlight why this is such a hotly debated issue, and kind of why I waffle on my opinions about some aspects of legalization. First of all, it is abundantly clear that the authors are in agreement that alcohol is more addictive and more dangerous than marijuana. Tobacco is as harmful to the body and likely more so, although the most harm it does to others is generally the impact of second-hand smoke. However, the book sheds so much light on why we're socially, culturally, and morally so much more okay with drinking alcohol than we are with getting stoned.
The heaviest users of any intoxicating substance are the ones who will be the most heavily targeted by manufacturers of that substance. Therefore, because any future marijuana manufacturing corporation will want to maximize profits, it will likely make marijuana products with the highest legally possible THC content and market its products to encourage heavy use. The vast majority of alcohol and tobacco profits come from roughly the top 20% of users, so these companies do not have public health as a top corporate priority. Their lobby groups have also been very successful at minimizing the taxes that can be levied on alcohol and tobacco, so the financial windfall some legalization proponents anticipate might never materialize.
Marijuana is categorized by the DEA as a Schedule I narcotic, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and has no medicinal value. However, marijuana has a much lower "capture rate," meaning the proportion of people who get addicted out of the number of people who try it, than alcohol or tobacco. While this is strictly anecdotal, thousands, if not millions, of people claim it helps them with pain, glaucoma, MS symptoms, and chemotherapy-induced nausea. Neither alcohol nor tobacco (or caffeine, for that matter) have any medicinal value. By these facts alone, marijuana should at least be reduced to a Schedule II or III if kept controlled, and alcohol and tobacco should become illegal Schedule I narcotics. Yet, due to societal and cultural mores, this will never happen.
Very few people serve jail time for simple possession or use of marijuana. Those who do are usually incarcerated because the use or possession was incidental to another crime.
No country in the world has truly legalized marijuana, meaning that the entire chain - production, distribution, and use - is completely legal. All those countries you've heard of - Portugal, the Netherlands, etc. - have decriminalized marijuana (and in some cases, other drugs) use, meaning it's treated as a misdemeanor. If we just decriminalzed marijuana here at the federal level, instead of just at the state level, it would have very little positive impact on law enforcement and the justice system. Cops and lawyers would still need to investigate and prosecute growers and dealers.
If marijuana were legalized, there would likely be an initial rise in consumption. However, this is more about the social stigma attached to its use than the fear of breaking the law. I promise you, anyone who really wants to use marijuana later today can do it relatively easily and for minimal cost. The authors used a really great quote by Abraham Lincoln to explain how the use of an intoxicant depends so much on how fashionable it is at the time. Cocaine use in the US has varied over time, spiking in the 1980s when it was cool to use, and everyone who used it didn't think it would kill them. Cigarette use has declined in the last few years because it's less cool to smoke. Restrictions on where you can smoke have helped, but there's no reason that the same rules that apply to smoking and drinking can't be applied to marijuana use. We can legally allow people to use marijuana, but regulate and socially frame it in a way that becomes less fashionable/cool to use it.
Anyway, this is just the start. If you've noticed, some of the issues I've pointed out sound in favor of legalization and some against. That's the beauty of this book; it provides you with the information to help you make up your own mind. But ultimately, even the authors acknowledge that a person's stance on legalization and drug use in general has more to do with that person's values more than marijuana's legal status. We all know that the values of an entire nation of people don't change in one direction or another overnight, and I don't anticipate that policy makers will read this and have some sort of epiphany (although I wish they would). However, YOU, as the average American, can learn a LOT about marijuana use, distribution, enforcement, decriminalization at the state level, and the legalization debate by reading this book. I'll warn you; it may cause your values to shift from "in favor" or "against" into a happy level of indecisiveness, which always fosters a more civil level of debate.
To see more about Marijuana Legalization at Amazon.com, CLICK HERE!
A couple of months ago, the publicity folks at ZedBooks emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in reading and writing a review for Drug War Mexico prior to its publication. Well, never one to turn down a free book, and especially one on my subject of choice, I agreed.
The book is available now, and here's the publisher's summary:
"Mexico is a country in crisis. Capitalizing on weakened public institutions, widespread unemployment, a state of lawlessness, and the strengthening of links between Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, narcotrafficking in the country has flourished during the post-1982 neoliberal era. In fact, it has become Mexico's biggest source of revenue, as well as its most violent, with an astonishing 9,000 drug-related executions in 2009 alone. In response, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, armed with millions of dollars in military aid supplied by the US government, has attempted to launch a "crackdown," ostensibly to combat the power of organized crime. Despite this, human rights violations have increased, as has the murder rate, making Ciudad Juárez on the northern border the most dangerous city on the planet. Meanwhile, the supply of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine has continued to increase. And yet, both the Mexican and US governments pour money into a drug war fought by an army with a track record of violating human rights and having close links to the drug cartels. In this insightful and controversial book, Watt and Zepeda throw new light on the situation, contending that the "drug war" in Mexico is in fact the pretext for a bi-national strategy to bolster unpopular neoliberal policies, a weak yet authoritarian government and a radically unfair status quo."
Before I started reading Drug War Mexico, I thought it would be like a lot of other books that have come out in this genre of "narcobooks." Parts of it are, but make no mistake - this is designed to be a textbook for a college class (as its hardcover $116.95 sticker price makes clear). That doesn't mean there aren't several stretches from which the casual reader could benefit, but before dropping even the $24.95 for the paperback version (it doesn't come in eBook), you should know what you're getting yourself into.
The authors are both professors at the University of Sheffield, and certainly know what they're talking about. However, it's very clear that the two have VERY different writing styles, and of course specialize in different things. I had no trouble at all picking out which parts of the book were written by which author: Watt, the historian, has a more casual, readable style that explains sometimes convoluted histories and incidents in a manner that's clear and minimally confusing. Zepeda, the political economist....well, let's just say that wading through several sections of discussions on Mexico's political economy, neoliberalism, NAFTA, etc. made me want to poke my eyeballs with a fork. Needless to say, I skipped a few of these parts to get back to the drug war "meat," which was more Watt's territory.
Despite the book's stuttering nature between fascinating narcohistory and economic drudgery, there's a good bit to be learned. For me, the part of greatest value was contained in the first three chapters, where the history of the relationship between Mexican drug trafficking families and the PRI is explained in detail I've never seen before. It's incredibly interesting, and goes so much more into the relationships and interdependency between those two than other narcobooks I've read, which have mostly glossed over this issue.
I'm sure there's plenty of good information to be gleaned from the political economy sections as well, and especially if you're a student or researcher specifically looking for this kind of information. However, be forewarned that a good chunk of it is biased and accusatory. By now, I'm used to hearing that everything bad in Mexico and Latin America is the fault of the United States. Honestly, some of it is. But I have to draw the line when Zepeda pretty much claims that today's drug war in Mexico is largely a result of NAFTA and a change to neoliberal policies. I get it; increased unemployment and population displacement make for a great operating environment for TCOs. However, drug trafficking and associated violence in Mexico existed before NAFTA, and the increased violence is more a result of evolving TCO tactics and Mexican government strategies to fight them. Blame us for drug demand and drug prohibition; fine. But NAFTA? It was just too much of a stretch for me.
Bottom line, if you ask me if you should read this book, my answer is going to be, "It depends." If you're a casual reader looking for an easy-to-read overview of the drug war, no. If you're a student and want well-researched information on this specific aspect of the drug war (if largely biased, but what isn't these days?), then you should consider it. I do think this book will do better as required reading for college courses rather than a weekend or airplane page-turner.
To view this book's information on Amazon.com, please CLICK HERE!
I was very excited to get started on this book for several different reasons. First, it was written by two colleagues of mine, professor and TCO expert Dr. George Grayson from the College of William & Mary, and journalist and author of This Is For The Mara Salvatrucha, Sam Logan. I've read most of the material written by both authors, so I knew it would contain a lot of good information.
Second, this is the first authoritative book ever written solely about Los Zetas, the most vicious, bloodthirsty, and ambitious TCO in Mexico. Of course, much has been written about Los Zetas over the years, but never this much, and never in this much detail.
It's obvious from the start that Grayson and Logan have done their homework. There's plenty of history about how Los Zetas were first recruited in the late 1990s, and joined the Gulf cartel as Osiel Cárdenas Guillen's private army. The authors cover how Los Zetas are organized, financed, armed, and trained, and these sections contain information that is a researcher's dream. The Executioner's Men also discusses the expansion of Los Zetas into Central America, as well as their operations in the United States - of particular interest and importance to my work.
One of my favorite parts is the chapter on Dual Sovereignty - how Los Zetas (and other TCOs in general) are operating as a state parallel to the Mexican state. The chart (one of many helpful charts and tables) in that chapter that outlines side by side all the state functions that both execute is quite eye-opening.
The book does have some down sides. First, it's not a page-turner; but then again, I don't think it's designed to be. I really hated it when my own book was criticized for things I never intended to do with it, because I believe a book should be reviewed with its purpose in mind. That being said, it's a great source of information for anyone who needs a solid source to cite for research. Unfortunately, that's the result of the book containing an overload of facts, figures, and names - my second dislike.
For anyone who has read Grayson's Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?, this should come as no surprise. I'm familiar enough with both authors' work to know who wrote what sections. Logan's narrative is awesome, and I highly recommend you check out his first work on MS-13; it's really good, and a great inside look at how the world's most dangerous gang operates. I just wish Logan's narrative sections had been interspersed throughout this book more frequently to break up the deluge of narco names and stories of arrests and killings.
Bottom line, if you do any work or research related to Mexico's drug war, this needs to be in your book collection. I read it with my page marker Post-Its because I knew I'd come across information I could use in my writing post haste. It's not light summer reading to take to the beach, but again, remember - it's not designed to be. The Executioner's Men is an immensely valuable source of solid information on Los Zetas, and anyone who seeks to know more about this brutal organization should crack this book open sooner rather than later.
Every so often in this business of following Mexico's drug war, I come across an analyst or writer who really gets it. Don't get me wrong; there are dozens of academics, journalists, analysts, politicians, law enforcement agents, etc. who have a really good handle on the situation in Mexico. But many times, because of what their job entails, they have a limited view of the big picture, or some of the more in-depth, nuanced issues. I've been reading Ioan Grillo's work for some time, and he really gets it; a fact made obvious in his first book, El Narco.
The first several chapters are dedicated to the rise of today's major cartels. It's a fascinating history lesson, interspersed with some really cool stories about different big personalities involved in the development of cocaine smuggling in Mexico, and why certain cartels started fighting each other in the first place. I definitely learned quite a bit; like the fact that opium poppies were first introduced into Mexico by the Chinese in the late 1800s, and the first man to orchestrate cocaine smuggling in Mexico was Honduran, not Mexican.
Politics in Mexico isn't an easy river to navigate, but Grillo does an admirable job explaining the role the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) played in negotiating and playing along with the cartels, and how the transition to real democracy in 2000 dramatically altered that delicate balance. My only criticism of this first section of El Narco is that it switches back and forth between political history and narco history - ostensibly to follow a chronological path - and sometimes there aren't adequate transitions between the two. This sometimes leaves the subject material in conflict with what the reader might think the theme of the chapter is (based on the chapter title), which can be a bit disconcerting. If you can disregard that, there's no way you can avoid learning something really neat about the drug war's history here.
Most people who write about the modern drug war in Mexico point to 2006 as its start. Grillo points out that it's a convenient historical marker because that's when Calderón took office, and as such, began his aggressive anti-narco campaign that supposedly let all hell break loose. Grillo proposes that the modern drug war actually began towards the end of former President Vicente Fox's term in 2004, when the first major battle over Nuevo Laredo broke out between the Sinaloa Federation and then-Gulf enforcers Los Zetas. He contends that Los Zetas were engaging in brutal paramilitary tactics, like beheadings, dismemberments, and grenade attacks, that had not traditionally been used by other TCOs. When the rest of the drug lords and their subordinates started seeing what Los Zetas were doing to intimidate others, they started to do the same, and the war went downhill from there. Of course, Calderón's all-out war didn't help matters, but it was more of the transition from PRI rule to "normal" democracy in 2000 that dumped out the gas can. Los Zetas threw the match, and Calderón added some kindling.
Since the book is written in a past-present-future format, the second section is an overview of the activities TCOs are involved in. He covers the details of drug movements across the border, different methods the TCOs use to murder and intimidate their rivals and various other victims, and also delves into some of the cultural aspects of the drug war - Santa Muerte, Jesus Malverde, and narcocorridos.
In the final section, Grillo delves into drug war policies on both sides of the border, and how TCOs are morphing and expanding in order to keep drug profits coming in. He also tackles the controversies of drug legalization, the use of the term "insurgency," and the current extent (and potential) of US military involvement in Mexico. His recommendations are brief and in no particular order, but they're logical, and he clearly explains why he thinks each change is necessary.
One of the things I like the best in El Narco is the way Grillo brings to life (if in a macabre fashion) the business-like cruelty and psychosis of so many narcos. For example, in one passage, he's talking to an assassin about how new recruits are trained. The assassin explains that the "newbies" often take more than ten minutes to cut off a hand or arm, and make a mess in the process; the pros can do it cleanly in 3-4 minutes, largely because many of them used to be butchers. In another passage, he describes a video he saw of a blindfolded 13 year-old hostage, naked and trembling, begging his parents to pay the narcos the ransom they were demanding for his release.
I can't lie about my bias here; I'm a fan of El Narco and thus Ioan Grillo because I agree with about 99% of what he says. It's hard to give huge props to a book that is considered direct competition to Cartel, but I can't help it. Actually, I prefer to consider it a companion book, rather than competition. Remember, Grillo is a seasoned journalist and I'm an analyst. While the general content and message of our books is similar, our approaches and the way we lay out the information is different.
This is what I love about the community of writers who follow the drug war; we're just happy to get good information out to people who really need to know what's happening south of the border. Grillo is good at relating stories and the personal experiences of people he interviews, and this makes El Narco immensely readable. There's no jargon or charts or tons of statistics to wade through. However, one of my few criticisms (and I may have brought this up earlier) is that I'm not a huge fan of the way the information flows in the chapters themselves. While the book follows a chronological format, the information in the chapters themselves could be organized better to make it flow even more smoothly.
Bottom line, this is a book you really need to read when it comes out in late October (available now for pre-order on Amazon). I had a hard time putting it down; like I said, it's immensely readable, with some great stories and fascinating history and factual tidbits about the drug war. If you're even remotely a fan of my work or viewpoints on the drug war, you'll quickly become a fan of Grillo's and El Narco - I certainly did.
I'm very excited to share with you my review of this fabulous book by colleague and fellow drug war observer, Fred Burton! While the subject matter of Chasing Shadows admittedly has nothing to do with Mexico, I know many of you are very familiar with Mr Burton and his work, so I wanted to share a glimpse into his latest work. I can tell you now, you're going to have a hard time putting it down! Here's a summary:
"On a warm Saturday night in July 1973 in Bethesda Maryland, a gunman stepped out from behind a tree and fired five point-blank shots into Joe Alon, an unassuming Israeli Air Force pilot and family man. Alon's sixteen-year-old neighbor, Fred Burton, was deeply shocked by this crime that rocked his sleepy suburban neighborhood. As it turned out, Alon wasn't just a pilot—he was a high-ranking military official and with intelligence ties. The assassin was never found and the case was closed. In 2007, Fred Burton—who had since become a State Department counterterrorism special agent—reopened the case. Here, Burton spins a gripping tale of the secret agents, double dealings, terrorists and heroes he encounters he chases leads around the globe in an effort to solve this decades-old murder. From swirling dogfights over Egypt and Hanoi to gun battles on the streets of Beirut, this action-packed thriller looks in the dark heart of the Cold War to show power is uses, misused, and sold to the most convenient bidder."
In Chasing Shadows, Mr Burton weaves the narrative of the mystery surrounding Alon's assassination with pieces of Middle Eastern and American military history in a really gripping way. It all serves as background and context for his investigation into Alon's murder, but it filled so many gaps in my knowledge of Israel's conflicts with its neighbors in the 1970s. As a former Air Force officer, I was thrilled to learn about the evolution of and challenges to our air combat skills as a result of Vietnam and the Cold War. Again, all these historical tidbits are interspersed seamlessly with the drama of Alon's cold case. I saw the movie Munich, so I knew about the murders of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games. Yet, only after reading this book did I truly understand the full international context of those murders by Black September.
One of the best things about Chasing Shadows is its readability. Mr Burton is a great storyteller, and he very clearly draws connections and relationships between people and events so that readers can easily see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. He also allows readers to feel the pain of the Alon family from not having their questions answered by the Israeli government, and the frustration he felt over three decades of running into brick walls every time he tried to get answers from our own government. Mr Burton explains critical historical events like the Six-Day War and various operations during Vietnam in a way that makes readers say, "Oh, now I get it." The whole combination of history and the Alon murder investigation reads like something straight out of Hollywood; yet all the events really happened.
If you have any interest at all in international affairs, world history, espionage, Middle Eastern terrorist groups, or just want to read a gripping, thrilling book that you just can't put down or wait to read what happens next, then Chasing Shadows is definitely for you! Check out the video trailer for the book below, or to visit the Amazon.com web page for it, please CLICK HERE.
This is the first time I've posted a book review on this blog, but there aren't too many books out there like this one. If you follow the gang situation in Mexico or elsewhere in Central America, then this book is definitely for you. Here's an excerpt from my review, and a quick summary of the book, on Examiner.com:
"Samuel Logan’s debut book is a well-written, engrossing tale that combines solid research and a great narrative about a group the FBI has called “the world’s most dangerous gang”: the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
"This non-fiction work is mostly about Brenda Paz, a young Honduran girl who found solace in American gang life when her family started to fall apart. After being witness to too much gang violence and getting arrested for her indirect involvement, Brenda decided she wanted out. Thus began her work as an informant for local law enforcement and the FBI.
"Throughout the can’t-put-it-down narrative of gang murders, family strife, and confrontations between Brenda and the police, Logan intersperses facts about MS-13 that provide readers with a very good picture of just how dangerous this gang has become. Much of the story takes place in Texas and northern Virginia, and Logan explains why young immigrants in these areas are susceptible to the lure of gang life. He also lays out details of the gang’s expansion in the United States, and how they finally started to garner the attention of law enforcement across the country." To read my full review, and for links to Sam Logan's book site, personal site, and blog, CLICK HERE.
I'm an intelligence professional with over nine years of experience in military law enforcement and six years of experience conducting intelligence analysis.
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