The whole book is a monologue of one man's involvement as an assassin for a cartel operating out of Juarez; it is every bit as disturbing and realistic as you might (not even be able to) imagine.

His is a story of some redemption, telling his tale on the run with his family constantly hiding from the blowback of his history; it is compelling because it is such a dire story.

But, aside from the introduction and a few asides by el sicario, the whole hows, what and whys are largely absent from this text, it is really a much more street-level insight into the violence of drug cartels.

One thing is clear, the drug war is corrupt and corrupting to all who intersect it, from the civilians who occupy the spaces drugs flow through on up to the governments that purport to be stopping it, there is just too much lucre for the madness to stop. Narco-terrorism is going to be to 2020 what the jihadis were to 2001 for the United States and Mexico; organized crime is flush with cash, infiltrated into so many civil institutions, technologically saavy, well-armed (thanks DEA!) and growing in numbers.

The ten-fold increase in border town deaths since 2002, is not to be ignored, it is reflective of the chaos and crises incumbent in cartels jockeying for position. These "awkward teenage years" which have the cartels navigating growth spurts, will precipitate changes likely to increase the scope of the cartels (albeit fewer of them) and the depth of the various vices in which they engage.

This is no joke...