I appreciate this book on many levels. For its bullet-proof research. For the author's willingness to risk his life. For the fact that it would be nearly inconceivable as a work of fiction. For the interweaving of numerous personal horror stories. For the author's sly England shout-outs. It was equally appealing for its action-packed entertainment as it was for its meticulous classification of different aspects of organized crime and their implications not only in Latin America, but the entire world. Ioan Grillo is an extremely talented writer, finding more unique ways to refer to drugs and to refer to Mexico than I thought possible.

Read this book, and if you don't find it wholly engrossing from the get-go, you should put it down and start with Goosebumps and work your way up because this is nightmarish.