This is a novel where you can see all the moving parts, but it’s constructed so well, that it never matters.
The dramatis personae is almost a list of archetypes: the hard-charging, straight-edged DEA agent the hard-charging agent's charmless boss and the urbane drug lord who gradually gets his hands dirtier and dirtier.
As I read it, pop culture artifacts as different as Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, and the techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy popped into my head. “But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you, my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.”Įverything about Don Winslow’s The Power of the Dog feels familiar.
