It’s a huge story, set in Mexico, the US and Europe, and tells, in a fictional sense, what’s happened in the drug wars and how we got there. The story follows mostly true events, and other characters include a 13-year-old hitman, a Texas high school football star who becomes the first American cartel leader, a journalist trying to cover the story under threats, and a beautiful social activist that Keller falls in love with. Barrera gets out of prison and decides to rebuild his empire, which brings Keller out of retirement to try to bring him down in a decades-old blood feud. The Cartel picks up where The Power of the Dog left off, and follows its two main characters, Art Keller, a DEA agent, and Adan Barrera, a Mexican drug lord, through the most recent 10 years of the War on Drugs. It’s a topic that fascinates the California-based author, and we’re really pleased that he took some time out from his busy schedule to have a chat with us.Ĭan you tell our readers a little more about The Cartel? At over 600 pages, and with a narrative that spans three continents it is certainly epic, but also manages to convey the daily tragedies that occur on a personal level as a result of the war on drugs – or more accurately the war waged mainly by US law enforcement against the cartels in Mexico. We reckon that The Cartel by Don Winslow is going to be one of the books crime fiction lovers simply must read this summer, and we said as much in our previews of the hottest books of summer 2015. Arriving a decade after the critically acclaimed The Power of the Dog, it’s also one of the most eagerly anticipated.

Power of the dog winslow