Review by Frances019 -- The Cartel Crusher

[Frannie Annie]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Cartel Crusher" by Dan E. Hendrickson.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Cartel Crusher by Dan E. Hendrickson is about the fight between Mexican drug cartels and Marnia, the woman who wants to wipe them all out. She is the daughter of the Mexican President Tomar Gonzalez, and is forced to witness the violence of the cartels firsthand when one attacks the ship that she and her friends are having a birthday cruise on. She joins the Mexican military and dedicates her life to wiping out the cartels with a group called the Anti
Cartel Task Force. The point of view switches between her and the leaders of the various cartels, which adds to the depth of the story.

Readers who like thrillers and military stories will likely enjoy this. The book contains a lot of violence including rape, which is not graphically described but is heavily implied a couple of times. Child pornography also plays a big role in the story as part of the cartels' money making schemes. Sexual abuse and assault victims, as well as those who can't stomach child pornography or the brutal and heinous acts often committed by cartel members, will probably want to pass on this book. I personally was disturbed by some scenes, but seeing Marnia and her Anti Cartel Task Force take down some bad guys made these scenes easier to bear.

What I liked most about this book was the plot. The idea of a beautiful woman leaving a life of luxury to fight a particularly ruthless group of enemies was intriguing to me, and the book doesn't disappoint on that front. I think that using multiple points of view was a smart choice because I got to see what was going on in the heads of the cartel leaders, as well as Marnia and her family. This also reveals things to the reader that other characters don't know, and it made a lot of scenes more satisfying to read, as well as keeping the story suspenseful.

What I disliked the most was the way the book is written. A lot of the book is written in a third person, omniscient point of view. There is nothing wrong with this, but I don't think it was executed well. There was a lot of showing rather than telling. The author used many lines that sounded like "this character thought about that" or "this character argued/discussed/told something to another character." Many times he will use these lines without including any actual dialogue in the situation. Too many scenes like that make it nearly impossible for me to get into the story because details are not being shown. Even a character's thoughts can be shown through internal dialogue, which would have made the story more engaging to read.

I was not impressed with the writing style for the reason mentioned above, but the content was suspenseful and I still enjoyed myself through some sections of the book. The action scenes and the dialogue that the author does use are pretty good, and for that reason I will give this book 3 out of 4 stars.

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The Cartel Crusher
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[Julius_]

I love the conflict of interest in this book. How the "cartels" and their "crusher" are relatives. Your summary was very good! Thanks for such a great review.