NO DOUBT ABOUT IT

No doubt about it, I have an addiction to novels by Don Winslow. It all started when my other half bought ‘The Power of The Dog.’ He raved about it while I was knee-deep in one of Gerald Seymour’s novels. Then he bought ‘The Force’ and then he bought ‘The Cartel.’ Next, ‘The Border.’ Right, I thought, let’s see what this guy has got. And oh my goodness, Mr Winslow has got the lot. 

            When critics say his work is ‘epic,’ ‘ like the Godfather,’ ‘a portrait of modern America,’ they are not wrong. There’s polemic, without bashing you over the head with it. The vast number of characters does not turn into a thinly drawn ‘cast of thousands.’  Every character is finely conceived and conveyed, and deserving of his or her place in a narrative that blows your socks off. I learnt more about the Mexican drugs trade than in any story I’ve ever read. We know from the press that Mexican cartels are cruel and barbaric and ruthless in protecting their interests. Everyone is fair game, including women and little children. Winslow is unsparing in his depiction, without being gratuitous and sensationalist. With a strong tolerance for violence in fiction, I felt chills. Other scenes evoked waves of utter despair. This is strong stuff and it elicits powerful emotions in the reader. Law enforcement in Mexico is complicated by competing organisations whose remits are often overlapping and blurred to the extent that what should be done, when a criminal line of investigation is followed, doesn’t get done. The kicker is that, if more were spent on raising ordinary Mexicans out of poverty, US governments would not have the same level of problems with migrants crossing the border to escape for a better life. Instead they are left to rot and feed the seemingly insatiable demand for cocaine and heroin in the States and beyond.  Fundamentally, there are too many vested interests in maintaining the status quo, and Winslow displays this in vivid and compelling detail. It comes as no surprise that his work has already been optioned for film. 

            I could dribble on about what I’ve been doing over the summer. Apart from mentioning the fantastic reviews SIX has garnered and saying I had a productive period of writing, that’s it. My September blog post belongs to one writer only: Mr Winslow, and I urge you to buy his thought-provoking, entertaining and utterly addictive books.