the next instalment of art keller and adan barrera incorporates the later stages of the narco wars, and the birth of the cartels. be warned there's a massive increase in violence, brutality and horror. the first two pages before the novel starts are a list of the journalists murdered for reporting what was going down mexico way, fuck it's a long list and a lot of names. i read them.
some of the scenes were hard for me to read but winslow writes the facts, he don't glorify it, it's very gritty stuff. 
i have not read a book as fast paced as this for years, it's gripping and surreal. it's not the mexico i knew but the one where journalists are murdered, hundreds of women missing in juarez, police politicians all on the take, corruption is the natural state. 
you wonder how absurd the war on drugs is, how it all exists, the weed, the coke, the smack, the crystal all because there's a massive demand for it across the border. 
'power of the dog' and 'cartel' should be read by everyone. it's not just a novel but history of man, it's a lesson in economics, power and terror that sucks everyone into its vortex. your either taking the silver or the lead, there's no way out.