El Cartel de los Sapos 2. (The Cartel of the Frogs 2)

A sequel to the 2008 best seller that spawned a very popular television series, this follow-up delves deeper into the world of narco trafficking through the eyes of Carmelo Sánchez, an actual member of the security detail and a close confidant to Diego Montoya, one of the most notorious leaders of the Norte del Valle drug cartel. The author, whose own initiation into the world of narco trafficking began in adolescence, offers a play-by-play account of some of the dealings orchestrated by Montoya, including the centralization of the cartel's cocaine operations in Mexico. "Montoya," he writes, "didn't trust any of his employees," and, like most crimes bosses, was gripped by a paranoia that "everyone was stealing from him." Montoya, we learn, would eventually grow fond of Sánchez, son of Argemiro Sánchez, alias Miro, a former employ of the crime boss. Indeed, theirs was a relationship that would become cemented over time. Even more fascinating is Sánchez's revelation that at one point he had grown increasingly tired of constantly looking over someone else's shoulder, of never seeing his family, of keeping up with his children only through photographs. Delivered in omnipresent narration, the author's work never strays too far from the narrative conventions that characterize the genre, with chapter titles like "Eye for an Eye" and "Tactics of War" and dialog written for the big screen ("The narcos continue their…fight for power with blood and fire"). But his account of the inner workings of the drug cartel—especially the nexus between Colombia and Mexico—is enough to forgive the writer for any stylistic choices and clichés. His ability to float from subject to subject, or person to person (some chapters are no more than three pages), keeps the narrative from becoming bogged down. Recommended for Latin American current events collections.—Michael Sosa, Brooklyn, NY