Smuggler

by Nicholas Fillmore

2019 IndieReader Discovery Award Winner.

When twenty-something post-grad Nick Fillmore discovers that the zine he publishes is a front for drug profits, he begins a dangerous flirtation with an international heroin smuggling operation and in a matter of months finds himself on a fast ride that he doesn’t know how to get off of.

After a bag goes missing in an airport transit lounge, Fillmore is summoned to West Africa to participate in a fetish oath with Nigerian mafia. Bound to drug boss ALHAJI, he returns to Europe to finish the job. But in Chicago O’Hare customs agents “blitz” the plane and a courier is arrested.

Thus begins a harried yearlong effort to elude the Feds, prison and a looming existential dead end. The real events behind OITNB.

Genres: Nonfiction, Ebooks, True Crime

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Nicholas Fillmore is the author of SMUGGLER, an IndieReader Discovery Award-winning memoir; THE GOSPEL OF SATAN, a novella; ALLOCUTION, poems; and SINS OF OUR FATHERS, a novel.

Fillmore attended the graduate writing program at University of New Hampshire, was a finalist for the Juniper Prize in poetry and co-founded and published SQUiD magazine in Provincetown, MA.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Smuggler - Nicholas Fillmore’s fiercely honest account of his crossing over from hanging out as a post-grad dharma bum in a New England college town to being a link in the chain within the underworld of international drug smuggling.

Before delving into more detail, let me make two things abundantly clear: Smuggler is a very well written book and Smuggler makes for a compelling read. I intended taking my time, finishing a few chapters a day over the course of a couple weeks, but once I started, I gladly keep turning those pages deep into the night.

Ok. So the question looms: Why would a twenty-nine year old college-educated regular kind of guy get mixed up in smuggling heroin in the first place? Actually, there’s a confluence of at least four reasons. The first has to do with the author’s aspiration to be a writer. Turns out, an English prof told young Nicholas that to be a writer is only “if you’re foolish enough to throw your life away.”

Damn those boobs who discourage someone wishing to devote their creative energies to writing! If I had been present during that exchange, I think I would have given the prof a well-deserved kick in the ass. One can only wonder how Nicholas’ life would have developed had he been encouraged rather than discouraged.

The second reason is the main reason. In Nicholas’ own words: “whatever else might be said of my decision to smuggle heroin, it was perfectly clear to me that I was on a fool’s errand – not out of any overt design to be a fool, of course, but to feel life up close, hold my hand to the hotplate of experience, a fool all the same.”

So there you have it – a restatement of Joseph Campbell’s judgement that we humans are not after the meaning of life nearly as much as we yearn to feel fully alive, to live with a sense of immediacy and intensity. Well, none will doubt, if you’re after intensity, drug smuggling will fit the bill – on second thought, make that many stacks of bills of large denominations, ergo full throttle intensity.

You might wonder: Was Nicholas smoking pot, snorting cocaine, popping pills or even shooting heroin? The answer is an emphatic “no” on all counts. Rather, he was leaning on another drug for support, a legal one - in the author’s own words: “Alcohol was my heroin, a benefaction.” Although others might downplay the effects of booze, I do not – thus I count the bottle as a contributing factor and reason number three Nicholas turned to drug smuggling.

Reason number four is one we can all understand. At the time, Nicholas was living with his girlfriend, working as a waiter and scratching to pay the rent. Plain and simple – having a nice big pile of greenbacks sure would be a welcomed switch from continually being broke. Dinner at upscale restaurants, new car, fancier digs, never having to worry about money . . . wow, there’s a measure of pleasure just thinking of what it would be like to live like that.

Next up: How do you to justify that your heroin smuggling contributes to the destruction and death of countless men, women and children? This is such a critically important question, I’ll let Nicholas answer in his own words: “Of course we were thoroughly callow. What had heroin addicts to do with us? we reasoned - or their friends or families, or whole societies undermined by a culture of lawlessness to do with us? We were merely fulfilling a demand, a prescription. I reckoned myself unaccountable by the same logic everyone reckons himself unaccountable.”

But, but, but . . . as Nicholas discovers early in the game, as a smuggler of heroin, there’s no room for tippy-toe. Once you’re in, you’re in completely. When Nicholas is on a train or an airplane or in those inevitable sticky spots such as airports, he must forever be on his guard: Is that tall guy in the suit an undercover FBI agent? Will security at this airport search me or my suitcase? Can I really trust the people I’m working with or working for? In a word, paranoia isn’t an on and off thing – quite the contrary – drug smuggling = paranoia. For, if you are caught off your guard even once, depending on the country – Jakarta, France, India, Singapore – you could face years in prison or even the death penalty.

And along the way, we get to know a number of women and men who are also in the smuggling game, among their number: Claire, the sister of Nicholas’ girlfriend who brings him into the drug world under the guise of a publisher of a zine magazine; a guy Nicholas calls Piss-Paul, a seasoned smuggler who takes Nick’s very presence as a personal affront, the type of guy who wants his cut of the money, fairness be damned, and isn’t hesitant to blow up deals if he doesn’t get his own way; Barry, who plays the part of a faithful beagle in following Piss-Paul around and forever doing his bidding; Alhaji, the boss from Nigeria who believe in witch doctors and witchcraft as a way to instill loyalty in his heroin smugglers – he has Nick even swear an oath as part of a witch doctor’s ritual.

All in all, Smuggler packs one hell of a wallop, a book speaking to our current day international society and culture and deserving a wide audience. Get yourself a copy and enjoy the ride - all the while thankful you're not the one smuggling heroin.


Nicholas Fillmore currently lives in Hawaii with his wife, his daughter and three dogs. He's at work on his next book.

"In the end a smuggler stands for nothing, a mask inside a mask, a means to an end, a series of compromises, deferrals, evasions, substitutions. For a moment, though, everything seemed plausible." - Nicholas Fillmore, Smuggler

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smuggler

This was an interesting story about a twenty-something guy who is looking around for work after college. He finds this job where he starts out thinking he’s going to be editing a magazine when he leaves town and kisses his girlfriend goodbye. But the situation soon gets squirrely and turns out to really be about smuggling heroin.

Nicholas needs money badly since the rent is due, but he struggles with his conscience. It’s international drug smuggling after all. Plus there’s a lot of risk involved, depending on the country it could be as high as death. It’s quite a dilemma, the money is insanely good. Nick does make the greedy choice and gets involved, begins lying to his girlfriend about where he’s actually traveling to and what he’s doing on these trips. He’s working with others and things soon get very dicey, as if they weren’t already shady enough.

Smuggler tells the real story behind Orange Is The New Black. The story is a good one and is well written along with being a good moral lesson. It would work for both memoir readers and true crime readers. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Nicholas Fillmore, and the publisher for my fair review.

Publisher: IBPA. 292 pages.
RATING: 4/5 Stars

My BookZone blog:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20...

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe this guy actually did these things, much less wrote a book about them. The first part of the book is about his career as a heroin smuggler, which was not at all glamorous and exciting. I cannot see how he let himself get dragged into it. The next is about his life in prison, easier to imagine, but still far removed from my plane of existence.
A weird read.
I received this book free from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.

[Lynda Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicholas falls into the heroin smuggling business almost by accident, as it seems like a good way to make easy money quickly. So it begins, but things eventually start to fall apart. Good times are followed by increasing paranoia, friendships turn to rivalries, and romance is ruined by lies. Feeling that things are coming unstuck, Nicholas becomes more and more reckless, until his inevitable arrest. The second half of the book covers the time he spends behind bars, the array of interesting characters he meets in various government facilities, and his eventual release.

This isn’t your usual run-of-the-mill true crime story but a work with true literary style. The author is obviously well-educated and has a tremendous vocabulary, although there are a few minor editing errors. The current-day story is interspersed with reminiscences of his “criminal” activities as a child, which serve to humanize him, as does his relationship with his girlfriend L (to whom the book is dedicated). Even though we know that Nicholas will eventually get caught, the story is still suspenseful because we don’t know when it will happen or under what circumstances.

I would have liked more of an idea of the passage of time, as the period over which Nicholas performs his criminal activities and the length of his imprisonment aren’t made clear. I was surprised at one point to discover he spent four years in prison before he was even sentenced. While the story is very well-written, it feels a bit light-hearted given the subject matter. I would have preferred some more introspection from the author on the impact of his actions on those around him and, perhaps, some indication that he regrets his actions, further to his feeling of the loss of six years of his life. I get the impression he’s holding back, which may be a coping mechanism and, therefore, understandable.

An engrossing cautionary tale for our times.

Warnings: coarse language, criminal activity, drug use, excessive alcohol consumption, LGBT themes, sexual references.

I received this book in return for an honest review.

Full blog post (11 January) including $10 Amazon gift card giveaway: https://www.booksdirectonline.com/201...

[Alysa H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thing about non-celebrity memoirs is that they have to be either very well written, fascinating, or both in order to capture the reader's attention. Fortunately, this book -- for the most part -- is both.

I was somehow completely unaware until close to the end, when one of Fillmore's drug smuggling associates, here called "Temper," was revealed clearly to be Piper Kerman, that this book was in any way related to Orange Is the New Black. I just thought that Fillmore's story of smuggling in the 1990s, and his subsequent time in prison, was interesting on its own terms and took it on face value.

Fillmore's writing shows his erudition, so much so that it sometimes comes off as a pretentious graded project for an MFA in Creative Writing. Then again, this could be my own bias against privileged white dudes who majorly fuck up their lives and then think they have a wonderful story to tell. Fillmore is of that ilk, yes, and the late-20/early-30something Fillmore who embarked on a smuggling career seems like a huge jerk whom I would not want to be around. However, today's older and wiser Fillmore -- the one who wrote this book -- does, in fact, have a good story to tell and the talent to tell it. It's about bad choices, peril, crime and punishment; about being a jerk and ultimately getting over it after years of self-reflection.

The first half of this book, the smuggling half, can get a little repetitive at times. There's lots of waiting around in hotels and airports and such, as well as the aforementioned young jerk behavior. But the people Fillmore encounters are never not interesting, the anecdotes about them compelling in the way of a car crash. The second half of the book, the prison half moves a little faster, and is more familiar ground for anyone who has read other prison memoirs, though every prisoner's personal experience is unique and Fillmore's is no exception.

** I received a Review Copy of this book via NetGalley **

[Thereadingbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicholas Fillmore tells his life story about being a drug smuggler for a African drug lord. You can sense through it all his own understanding that he was doing wrong but did not know how to get out of what he was doing. This book is sort of a spin off of the book Piper wrote that created the series Orange is the New Black. For me as I read the story I had mixed feelings about what was happening to Nicholas. I like that he found his redemption so to speak but I struggled with that fact he was moving heroin. All three Claire and Nicholas as well as Temper wrote books about their drug smuggling days. I know our criminal justice system is full of people who used drugs that are still sitting there in jail for possession of marijuana. Part of me rooted for redemption and part of me rooted for severe punishment like a person of color would receive. I think they all where lucky in the end that they had a second chance and families that supported them to rebuild their lives. I still sit here and think about our criminal system that severely punishes people of color for use of a substance and someone white people from a middle class family some how gets out easy because he became a rat. I want the system to be fair to all. Nicholas is a very good writer and I hope he continues to pursue writing as a career. I know as I read I felt the same anxiety as he did crossing ports of entry with mules. I felt the tension and your own struggles as I read the words. This is not always easy to do and you did it masterfully.
I want to thank NetGalley and Iambic Books Publishing for allowing me to review this book for an honest review.

[Robert Dergosits · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading SMUGGLER by Nicholas Fillmore! It was a page turner with suspense, adventure, and interesting characters. I appreciated this memoir as a literary piece of writing. The vocabulary and descriptions were creative and colorful. It is clear to me that Fillmore is a skilled writer, painting a picture for the reader. Throughout the book, the reader is taken on a wild ride of difficult choices both ethically and emotionally and perhaps on an introspection of ones own self. I respect Fillmore's honesty and candor. He shares intimate self reflection and personal moments from his childhood. The reader gets to experience his growth thru this dark time in his life. The most powerful and life changing lessons are often learned through the most difficult times.

[Joyce Alla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicholas Fillmore’s memoir, The Smuggler, is a captivating read. Even though we know what’s going to happen to Fillmore, we go along for the wild ride. As readers, we’re simultaneously frustrated by Fillmore’s bad choices and also sympathetic to his situation – which is a testament to the author’s retrospective honesty and self-awareness. Fillmore captures characters and relationships vividly while escorting us around the globe, on drunken binges, to languish in dumpy hotel rooms and then into the steady daily patterns of prison life.

But the excellent writing is what really propels this book. Calculated word choices, unexpected sentence structures, often-beautiful prose take this memoir into a category beyond the tell-all tale of the reformed drug smuggler.

[Bookschatter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: It was OK

Smuggler is the first full-length work by Nicholas Fillmore, a gritty crime memoir which recounts his experiences of becoming a drugs smuggler as well as his time in prison paying his dues to society, and then his subsequent release several years later.

I truly wanted to write a raving review for Smuggler as I had so much fun interviewing the author and learning about his colourful story, unfortunately I really struggled getting through this memoir for stylistic reasons.

As you would expect in a memoir, the story uses first person narrative. The author is clearly highly educated and extremely well read; his background in poetry is also apparent. Herewith lies the first issue I encountered; passages were often descriptive in an overlong and over-poetic manner, i.e. I struggled keeping up with what was actually being presented. I am a firm fan and user of complex sentences and paragraphs, but this was too much for me.

My second issue was that I often had to consult the dictionary to fully understand the prose. Granted, English is my second language, however, I do speak it to native level and I struggled. Often. Combined with the prison acronyms which I simply could not remember.

Below are a couple of examples:

"The halcyon days of money and hotels and the belief that we'd found an "out" from the drudgery of low wages, meaningless toil and rules were collapsing under their own weight(lessness) and some vaguely felt second act in which we might be called upon, if only by our own brains, to speak of ourselves, not legally or ethically, but existentially—as we all must—was being wheeled into place."

and

"When they told me to pack out, the joy—the soaring joy—that I felt was foregrounded by a painful self-reflection: the next morning as the C.O. called my name and I walked to the main floor and the unit door fired and I stepped tentatively into the hallway toward the elevators and glanced back at those inmates up early and standing on the rail, ghosts of myself; as I made my way through R&D, shuffled down the hallway in to the sally port and got on the transport with half a dozen other prisoners; and as the steel door rolled up revealing the light of day and the bus hurtled into traffic turning not toward Dirksen but onto the highway, and it became clear that Yes, I was leaving ... something lifted and momentarily freed of conscience I was struck by a glimpse of myself I had not seen in four years, and I felt unutterably sad for all that I had lost."

My final issue was the lack of a clear timeline; it is only towards the end that I figured out that the author had been jailed from the age of 33 for eight years. Events were more like detached and separate vignettes; recollections; anecdotes. A myriad of characters made an appearance but I could not really understand or connect with any of them, including the author himself, as I felt I did not have any real insight into his own personality, thoughts and turmoil. The only constant was L., to whom the book is dedicated.

I think there were some truly fascinating facets and insights into African drug lords and prison life within this tale, but they were lost due to the issues mentioned above.

Would I read more from this author? Yes, I would as I believe Mr Fillmore has a lot to say; I would just hope for better editorial direction. But that is my own taste and personal opinion; just like when it comes to food and wine we all have very different preferences, and my struggles might be someone else's joy.

[ARC received via Netgalley]

BooksChatter

[Zachary Goode · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filmore weaves a hypnotic tale of drugs, crime, prison, and existential angst against a backdrop of poetic Cape Cod nostalgia and international intrigue. An instant classic.

[Susan Doran · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."

From Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, but also perhaps equally applicable to this tale of two Nicholases.

In SMUGGLER, a work of literary autobiographical reportage, we're entreated to join Nicholas in his bifurcated realities as poet-cum-arts-zine-publisher and middle management in the business of heroin smuggling.

The best art--and those lives best lived, really--allows for the existence of inherent messiness, jagged edges, ambiguities, unexpected shifts, nonlinearity, apparent contradictions, and the universes that can exist in a moment, rather than trying to reign in everything tightly and neatly, desperately to create a sense of control, having it all battened down, for everything to Stay Still and Make Sense.

In this sense, SMUGGLER is brave as a literary work and as truth-telling about oneself and one's experience. The trouble with excessively tidy narratives in works of non-fiction is the tidier the narrative, the more linear and reductionist it's made to be. That which doesn't strictly fit within the narrative must be discarded or willfully reframed to do so, which can sacrifice essential truths.

SMUGGLER provides space for those jagged lines, ambiguities, and contradictory and simultaneous realities to be and unfold, and we bear witness to that--Fillmore himself unbared in the telling.

With that said, moving past the meta-critique, SMUGGLER tells a fairly harrowing, and most definitely compelling, tale. I've not read anything like it--tho I realize some may have, since another book or two have appeared featuring some of the same characters featured in SMUGGLER--tho' 'd be astonished if they could be considered literature, as SMUGGLER should--as well as a Netflix series I've also not watched. It was illuminating, for example, to learn how relatively easy it was in the '90s to smuggle heroin internationally. Eager upper middle class late adolescents playing outlaws pulling down hella cheddar, comprising a secret gangsta "rebel" subculture, feeling themselves and their importance, while being expendable lackeys, traipsing with bags through multiple countries and continents--these mundane mechanics sitting atop an intricate complex multinational infrastructure headquartered in Nigeria.

Things I'd never considered, like how "staff" were recruited, trained, and managed, were eye-openers, again (and maybe things have changed since the '90s) given how intentionally low-key, de-complicated, and DIY it was by design, very much like Nicholas' own literary arts publication venture in his "normal life" seemed to be. Guess that really was the essence of the '90s. Simpler times...even in the heroin smuggling biz.

Fillmore is adept at drawing out attention to the life that lives within moments--there's an intimacy that lives in those close careful inspections of moments, an intimacy present throughout SMUGGLER. Fillmore does seem to be confiding in us--though not confessing--which makes it hard to set the book aside once you've picked it up, actually and in thinking about it.

There are inconsistencies in tone, style, persona, and seemingly how Fillmore felt about himself and his life and doings contemporaneously and in retrospect, but that's ok, and not be be unexpected. If you want to tell the truth about something like this, it's inevitably going to be the telling of truthS--not one convenient truth. What is consistent is Fillmore's talent as a writer. He loves words, and they love him back.

SMUGGLER is most unusual and absorbing...It was the most refined of minds and the least refined of topics.

Give it a whirl. I'm glad I did, and will be looking for Fillmore's next literary works.

[Lew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about torn feelings about a book. I thought I had found something, and then it was gone.

I loved Part 1 of the book. About how he became a smuggler and describing all the stuff he had to go through. I was thinking I found someone at HST's level, even maybe a Tom Robbins. Thoughts of The Rum Diary and Another Roadside Attraction careened through my brain. Really, really enjoyed it.

So I was anxious to read Part 2. Let down. Minor, but a let down nonetheless. The story still had me, but the sarcasm, references and gonzo style wasn't as present as it was in Part 1. Great story and well written, but I didn't get my HST fix.

This would have been five stars, but you can see why I had to give it 4.

I will probably read one or more of his books, if not just to see if I can get that Hunter or Tom feeling back again.

[Kate Vale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t usually read memoirs because the first one I read couldn’t hold my interest. Smuggler does not suffer from that problem. Although the first few chapters seemed to move slowly as the author gets caught up in becoming a drug carrier, the rest of the story swiftly barrels along. I was completely captured in those prison scenes as I became another “cellie” of the author.

Fears that Fillmore might regress and end up back in prison raised my anxiety when he forgot an appointment, but relief followed when he managed to convince those in power that he wouldn’t sin again.

If you have never experienced law enforcement from the “guilty” side of the divide, pick up Smuggler. It felt all too real, a cautionary tale about why going for the easy money may not be a wise choice.

[Chris Tolland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked from the first chapter! I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the creative and skillful writing. This memoir was interesting and intense as it journeyed into the mind of a smuggler and a young man finding his way in this life. The story was divided into two parts which helped me better understand the writer's experience. The first painted a clear picture into Fillmore's initiation and rise into the world of smuggling. He shared personal experiences, thoughts, and struggles. The other half delved into Fillmore's prision experience. I enjoyed how each person he encountered brought him a lesson of some magnitude. I highly recommend this book!

[Doug Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting & intelligent read

If this book is indeed auto-biographical the writer seems to bare his soul in an effort to expunge some deep-seated demons brought on by an alcohol-fueled, hedonistic lifestyle. It reads almost like a recovering alcoholic's A.A. Fourth Step Inventory wherein the member is strongly encouraged to make a "searching & fearless moral inventory" of his life & how it impacted others. He is taught that by so doing he liberates himself to a richer, more fulfilling life & to that end I would say he has long-since accomplished that goal.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another perspective from the Orange is the New Black drug smuggling ring. The writer tries so hard to come off as a pretentious, New England academia intellectual, but once he drops the act the book gets interesting. Definitely some irrelevant anecdotes, and tons of annoying typos and punctuation errors, but overall glad I read it.

[Afore Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was difficult to follow the timeline at times and elements of the story felt glossed over closer to the end. Overall, it was an interesting read with a good insight into the world of drug smuggling.

[Laurie Giantini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more than I wanted to know

Very detailed story of how college students end up smuggling drugs and the consequences thereof. Intriguing story, well written book

[Bettina Stammen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a riveting account of Nick’s slide into the world of drug smuggling from what sounds like a solid middle class upbringing. It seems the draw beyond fast cash must be living on the edge of danger. I for one was at the edge of my seat...Well written and engrossing.