A sadder sequel

The best writers know how to balance the stories they want to tell with the stories they need their audience to read. Frank Herbert wrote Dune Messiah to correct a common misinterpretation of his first novel. Dan Harmon and the creative team behind Rick and Morty famously adjusted how Rick was portrayed in response to immature and toxic fan reactions.

Don Winslow’s The Cartel, the second novel in the Power of the Dog series, is not so much a correction as it is a shift in perspective and a re-contextualization of the story.

I loved The Power of the Dog and intentionally delayed reading its sequel because I knew it would never fully live up to the first book in my mind. So I gave it time to breathe. After a few months, I returned to the world Don Winslow had created, and I am glad that I did. Don never disappoints when it comes to his writing and prose, but I did enjoy this book slightly less than its predecessor.

The Cartel does not focus primarily on the cold warriors, hitmen, DEA agents, and cartel patrons who wage the war on drugs. This time, the story is about the people produced by that war and caught in its wake: journalists brave enough to report on corruption and brutality, young men who are all but drafted into the conflict and lose every shred of their humanity, and emerging crime families and bosses looking to make money and build reputations by any means necessary. Particular attention is paid to the women in small rural Mexican towns who become de facto mayors and police officers after the cartels force the men they cannot bribe into hiding or simply kill them outright.

By shifting the focus from those with agency to those without, the conflict becomes sadder, bloodier, and altogether more futile. No one is safe from the violence, and doing the right thing can make you a target no matter how insignificant you may seem. Winslow was smart to take this approach, as it prevents the series from becoming just another entry in a market crowded with military/techno-thrillers and square-jawed, ultra-competent literary protagonist.

If you read The Power of the Dog and focused only on the action while overlooking the immoral cover-ups and the human cost felt throughout the Americas, then this book is for you. The Cartel shows not only the violence, but the consequences, and blood, that violence leaves behind.

I look forward to reading the final chapter of the trilogy later this year or early next year.