The third installment of this series is no less explosive than the first two; however, I found The Power of the Dog and The Cartel to be more fascinating, and a greater exposition of Winslow's incredible writing ability.

Without getting into specifics, and spoiling the book, many parts of the book were inspired by recent history. In fact, Winslow appears to have gone to great lengths to make that inspiration painfully obvious to his readers, including facts in the book that had no other purpose than to indicate that a particular character was nothing other than a stand-in for a current newsmaker. This detracted from the book; even if Winslow was inspired by current events, the lengths to which he went to make his point are not appreciated.

What he seems to be trying to do with this, though, is drive home his point, the big idea behind the entire series: there isn't a Mexican drug problem and an American drug problem and a Colombian drug problem. There's a drug problem; America consumes the drugs that Mexico and Colombia produce, and in that consumption America is complicit in the violence and evil that is perpetrated by the drug cartels, whether it occurs in the USA or not.

The Cartel had a satisfying end to the series. This book, while engrossing and well-written, ripped that open, and did not adequately close it back up.