Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 9/11/2008 + 774 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

Quite a departure for Perez-Reverte (not an art-mystery or an historical swashbuckler) - but possibly his most heavy-hitting work to date. After the first couple of chapters, my first thought was, 'this is just like a Quentin Tarantino film!' However, the book as a whole is much more insightful and thoughtful - if just as violent.
This story of the rise of a female drug-runner, told both from her perspective and that of an investigative journalist writing a book of her life, may show the author's past as a war journalist. One comes away from this book feeling that you truly know the milieu, the danger, the people and the motivations... and that likely a lot of the book is fact.
Pulls no punches.. and while a lot of it is exciting and suspenseful, it is also tense, disturbing, and often sad.
One of the best parts of reading is that it can truly open windows into other cultures, other perspectives - this book definitely succeeded in doing that for me.

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