The Border: The final gripping thriller in the bestselling Cartel trilogy
The explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Force.The war has come home.For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America’s longest conflict: The War On Drugs. His obsession with defeating the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel – Adán Barrera – has cost him people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul. Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking chaos in his beloved Mexico. But not just there. Fighting to end the heroin epidemic scourging America, Keller finds himself surrounded by an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down. From the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, D.C., Winslow follows a new generation of narcos, cops, addicts, politicians, and mere children fleeing the violence for the chance of a life in a new country. A shattering tale of vengeance, corruption and justice, The Border is an unflinching portrait of modern America, a story of – and for – our time.
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This is entirely a work of fiction. Any references to real people, living or dead, real events, businesses, organizations and localities are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
First published in the United States by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Samburu, Inc 2019
Stephen King, excerpt from Introduction to The Shining (New York: Pocket Books, 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Stephen King. Reprinted by permission.
Tom Russell, excerpt from “Leaving El Paso” (Frontera Music / BMG Firefly). Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Don Winslow asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover photographs © Ted Wood / plainpicture / Aurora Photos (landscape); Shutterstock.com (sky).
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Ebook Edition © February 2019 © ISBN: 9780008227555
Version: 2019-03-06
In memory of
Abel García Hernández, Abelardo Vázquez Peniten, Adán Abraján de la Cruz, Alexander Mora Venancio, Antonio Santana Maestro, Benjamín Ascencio Bautista, Bernardo Flores Alcaraz, Carlos Iván Ramírez Villarreal, Carlos Lorenzo Hernández Muñoz, César Manuel González Hernández, Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre, Christian Tomás Colón Garnica, Cutberto Ortiz Ramos, Doriam González Parral, Emiliano Alen Gaspar de la Cruz, Everardo Rodríguez Bello, Felipe Arnulfo Rosa, Giovanni Galindes Guerrero, Israel Caballero Sánchez, Israel Jacinto Lugardo, Jesús Jovany Rodríguez Tlatempa, Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz, Jonás Trujillo González, Jorge Álvarez Nava, Jorge Aníbal Cruz Mendoza, Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, Jorge Luis González Parral, José Ángel Campos Cantor, José Ángel Navarrete González, José Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa, José Luis Luna Torres, Julio César López Patolzín, Leonel Castro Abarca, Luis Ángel Abarca Carrillo, Luis Ángel Francisco Arzola, Magdaleno Rubén Lauro Villegas, Marcial Pablo Baranda, Marco Antonio Gómez Molina, Martín Getsemany Sánchez García, Mauricio Ortega Valerio, Miguel Ángel Hernández Martínez, Miguel Ángel Mendoza Zacarías, Saúl Bruno García, Daniel Solís Gallardo, Julio César Ramírez Nava, Julio César Mondragón Fontes and Aldo Gutiérrez Solano.
And dedicated to
Javier Valdez Cárdenas
and all journalists everywhere.
And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall.
—Ezekiel 13:10
Keller sees the child and the glint of the scope in the same moment.
The little boy, holding his mother’s hand, gazes at the names etched into the black stone, and Keller wonders if he’s looking for someone—a grandfather, maybe, or an uncle—or if his mother just brought her son to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as the end of a walk down the National Mall.
The Wall sits low in the park, hidden like a guilty secret, a private shame. Here and there, mourners have left flowers, or cigarettes, even small bottles of booze. Vietnam was a long time ago, another lifetime, and he’s fought his own long war since then.
No battles are inscribed on the Vietnam Wall. No Khe Sanhs or Quảng Trịs or Hamburger Hills. Maybe because we won every battle but lost the war, Keller thinks. All these deaths for a futile war. On previous trips, he’d seen men lean against the Wall and sob like children.
The sense of loss heartbreaking and overwhelming.
