"Mark.Bowden's well researched account of the hunt for Pablo is best read with a CL smoothie regging cold as the Rockies, because his writing is as smooth as Coors' barley pops" - Paul Bunyan

Personally, I found this one quite the riveting work of reportage on the American involvement in the hunt, capture and eventual assassination of Pablo Escobar, hailed as the Colombian billionaire godfather of international cocaine trafficking. However, the writing style was more journalistic than artistic, which at times made the presentation seem cramped and rushed. All in all, not a bad read.

I loved this book. If you enjoyed Netflix’s “Narcos”, then you’ll probably love it too. Not only is the true story absolutely crazy, but author does a really great job of breaking the years-long conflict up into easily digestible chapters. It’s incredibly well researched without being dry, and the author does a great job of using several different viewpoints. Overall a great read that kept me super engaged.

I thought i would like this book .. but it seemed like reading a news paper !

It was filled with information rather than a story of the most famous drug dealer.. and I was very excited to read his story, but I wasn't able to continue reading it.

I would love to try another book to know the story of Pablo Escobar, but not this type of books. I would rather like a story being told by someone who was very close to him like his mother or his bodyguard or someone else ..

Insightful account of the hunt for Pablo Escobar.
I plough through this book well written book in no time.
Well worth a read.

I know some readers criticized this book because it wasn't very fast-paced. In fact, it's very methodical, giving an in-depth look at the rise and ultimate fall of Pablo Escobar. While you may think you know this story, Bowden's book goes deep into the role of the US in bringing Escobar down and offers a better understanding of Escobar's influence on Bogota and the level of corruption among the police and courts, which helped Escobar avoid capture for many years. As someone who appreciates details, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Really enjoyed this book, gets into the technical aspects of the hunt for Pablo from the side of the Columbia government & US government. If you enjoyed the show Narcos this book is for you.

I wanted to read this before I made a start on the Netflix series 'Narcos'. Basically, I wanted to know the truth (or as close as anybody can get without being there) of the story before watching a more dramatised version of it.

To be honest, it's a story that doesn't need to be exaggerated or sexed up. The story of Pablo Escobar, and the men (both Colombian and American) who lined up to stop him, is so utterly wild that if an author tried to present it as fiction nobody would believe it. Escobar earned billions (back in the days when this was still a relatively difficult thing to achieve), pretty much owned and modernised the city of Medellin, and organised a reign of terror across Colombia. He tried to run for public office in the early days of his empire. He was responsible for the deaths of police, armed forces, government officials, presidential candidates. He was even considered the mastermind behind an airplane bombing and bombs in public places. Like I said, life is often stranger and wilder than fiction.

Even the attempts to bring him down were the stuff of fiction. Endemic corruption in Colombian society meant that Pablo's snitches were embedded deeply within government, the military, and the police. He was able to evade capture for years (and later escape from 'prison') thanks to high levels of corruption. The few people who couldn't be corrupted were either targeted by Pablo's sicarios or slated by a press and public that didn't know what to believe. Even the American operation was mired with infighting by the small, tightly operated, and brilliant Centra Spike intelligence unit and the bloated and highly expensive CIA operation. Centra Spike won the battle to chase Escobar, but it cost them in the long run.

It's a story that benefits from Bowden's impartial and considered approach. He doesn't sensationalise or sex things up, probably because he knows that the facts speak for themselves, and his storytelling skills are strong. He keeps the prose in the background and never shows off, which throws the astonishing events into sharp relief. This is an excellent bit of non-fiction that reads as compellingly and quickly as some of the finest crime fiction. Highly recommended.

Bei 30 % abgebrochen weil ich die Beweihräucherung dieses Psychopaten nicht ertrage. Als gäbe es irgendwas gutes über diesen Killer zu sagen ... an so einem ist jede Zeile verschwendet.

Pablo Escobar was the founder of the Medellin Cartel, and was a notorious drug lord. He began his criminal career as a young man doing petty crimes before graduating to serious criminal activity. He eventually employed other people to kidnap people who owed him money. His most notorious kidnapping scheme, where the victim was businessman Diego Echavarria, who was kidnapped and eventually killed in the summer of 1971, Escobar received a $50,000 ransom from the Echavarria family. He made a pretty good living off of his criminal enterprises, amassing some $30 million by the time of his death. Another thing that grossed me out was that he married a 15 year old girl when he was 26. I realize there are all sorts of age gaps in relationships, but it is nasty when one party is not even legal adult age. He had been incarcerated and escaped, which is where this book comes in. It goes over the manhunt and his subsequent capture/death. Overall, it was a decent book.

Starting from the unsettling cover till the last disturbing word this book is a masterpiece. I don't know what is it about Mark's Bowden writing that makes the violence sound so exciting. There are bombings, kidnappings, torturing and brutal murders and I was repelled and strangely attracted to the story at the same time. When extremely brutal vigilante group fighting Pablo Escobar arose I was straight up spooked. Seriously, how do you fight people like narco kingpins? Is the only answer to violence is more violence? Good reminder that the world we are living in can be very frightening.

A succinct but thorough overview of the collective political, military, law enforcement, and intelligence efforts to catch Pablo. Unfortunately, the scope of this book does not allow for any of the minute to minute intensity that Bowden captures in Black Hawk Down. Still, it seems to be a highly authoritative and well researched history.