The Cartel

From the acclaimed author of The Power of the Dog-and continuing the gripping, harrowing storyof the Mexican American drug wars that fueled it-comes an electrifying newnovel that spans a deadly decade and brings this tale of greed and corruption,revenge and justice, heroism and deceit into the present moment.

It''s 2004. El Federación, the most powerful drugorganization in the world, has been exploded, and the Mexican drug trade hassettled out into several cartels that exist in a state of tenuous accord. Thepatron of El Federación, Adán Barrera, is in solitary in a San Diego prison.Art Keller, the DEA agent who put him there-and killed his two brothers-isliving at a New Mexican monastery, tending bees; the solitude and simple truthsof the place a powerful antidote to his former "life of lies." But when Barreranegotiates a deal that lets him serve out his time in a Mexican prison, aseries of events is set off that undermines whatever accord existed between thecartels, and a war of unprecedented scale and viciousness erupts.

With Berrera back in the world he once owned andwilling to do whatever he can to own again, Keller plunges back in the game,playing, as he always did, by his own rules. What ensues is an all-out war withplayers-honest and corrupt, victim and perp-on every level of society and onboth sides of the border. But it is also Keller''s personal war on drugs, hisown addiction, and the question that hovers above every move he makes: Is helooking for justice or for revenge?