Book Review Robert Wiersema THE BORDER by Don Winslow The ongoing political and social attention being paid to the boundary between the United States and Mexico gives a ripped-fromthe-headlines urgency to Don Winslow’s stunning new novel The Border. Winslow is no Johnny-come-lately to the issue, however: The Border is actually the culmination of almost two decades of research and work. In The Power of the Dog, the first novel of his Cartel trilogy (which was published in 2005), readers were introduced to Art Keller, a former CIA agent who joins the newly formed DEA on his return from Vietnam. One of his first actions − as an advisor in Mexico − is Operation Condor, a Mexican program to destroy the opium fields in Sinaloa, destroying the heroin trade and crippling the cartels. The operation meets with partial success – the opium fields are destroyed – but the events set in motion a change to the cartels’ power structures and approaches to the drug trade, including the creation of crack cocaine and a focus on shipping, rather than manufacturing. The prize isn’t the product, but control of the border. The repercussions of Keller’s actions unfold through The Power of the Dog and its followup, The Cartel, published in 2015, culminating in the events of The Border, set in the present day. Along the way, readers are offered a detailed and terrifying glimpse not only into the brutalities of the drug trade, but also the intricacies of manufacturing and smuggling, the staggering human cost of the ongoingWar on Drugs, and the cold-hearted algebra and international partnerships that keep the drug trade thriving. Winslow – formerly a private investigator and antiterrorist trainer – brings a wealth of knowledge and research to the trilogy. This is more than just fiction: upon the release of The Border, Winslow shared his expertise with the drug industry through a series of detailed articles and television appearances. He’s a scholar who uses his research to create white-knuckle thrillers rooted in the real world. The Borderbegins with Keller serving as the head of the DEA, settled in Washington, D.C., thousands of miles away from the erupting violence inMexico. The action this time takes place on both sides of the border, as the tentacles of the cartels reach directly into the United States. It’s variously action novel, think piece, conspiracy thriller and financial mystery. It is also, at its core, a fundamentally human story. One of the ongoing subplots concerns the journey of two refugees from their home in a garbage dump in Guatemala City, hopping a train for the perilous journey across Mexico and risking the border in hope of a better life for themselves and their families. What happens to them is chilling, and all too real, giving a human face to the headlines which we have all been seeing for the last couple of years. This realism is key to the success of The Border, and the trilogy as a whole. While Winslow is writing fiction, he is clearly writing out of his deeper knowledge. There are invented scenes – including the massacre of a busload of students – which ring so closely to actual events that one can’t help but wonder just howmuch he has invented. While each is part of a larger, sprawling story, spanning more than four decades, each novel of theCartel trilogy can be read as a stand-alone book, with an independent story that also serves as a chapter of the ongoing tale. I would advise reading from the start, though; once you begin, you’re going to want to read all three. They’re not only great books, they’re important, vital to our understanding of what is going on all around us. CSANews | SPRING 2019 | 39
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