A New York Times bestseller
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Novel of 2016
Winner of the 2016 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award
Winner of the 2015 RBA International Prize for Crime Writing
A Sunday Times (London) Best Book of the Year of 2015
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From the internationally bestselling author of the acclaimed novel The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping, ripped from the headlines story 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 Adán 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 cost 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 true-to-life story of honor 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.
Editorial Reviews
“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 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