Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden, 2001

Having spent the past few months up to my eyes in young adult and children's fiction, I desperately needed a change of genre. Lucky for me, I was recently visiting a family member whose bookshelves are stocked with seedy underworld true tales, just what I had in mind! So I stuffed my suitcase with some of his selections and headed out, excited about changing up my reading routine. As a result of my book nabbing, the stack next to my bed now includes:

• Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neil
• Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
• The Informant: A True Story...Based on a Tattle Tale by Kurt Eichenwald
• Kiling Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden

As you can see, these books are a bit of a departure from some of my previous titles ESPECIALLY Killing Pablo.

Written by Mark Bowden, a National Book Award Finalist for his work Black Hawk Down in 1999, this story was first published as a series in the Philadelphia Inquirer before it was compiled in a book. Bowden describes the rise of the infamous Columbian cocaine "outlaw" Pablo Escobar and the great struggle to finally bring him down. Fans may be happy to know a movie based on Killing Pablo is set to release in 2011, and if it remains true to the story, it will surely be stock full of extreme violence, drug use, and other bad behavior.

Killing Pablo is a true gem of narrative nonfiction. As someone who knows virtually nothing about the Colombian drug trade, or drug trading at all for that matter, I was able to understand the details of the story. One test of narrative nonfiction is its readability for the uninformed. Without a base knowledge, this genre can be daunting. You may be afraid the story will go right over your head. Popular nonfiction, the kind you see on the new nonfiction table at big bookstores, should be readable for all (something I'll be testing with future reads like Barbarians at the Gate which is steeped in business terms and jargon, a topic I know embarrassingly little about). Bowden seems to effortlessly bring you along this fast-paced and jaw-dropping story. You will be truly amazed by the numbers, whether it be the volume of cocaine imported into the United States, the amount of money Escobar had amassed, or the lives lost in the brutality. I had a bit of a hard time keeping up with the cast of characters, seeing as there were so many players involved from the cartel, law enforcement, and the Colombian AND United States governments. However, as I read on I realized keeping track of each individual was unnecessary. Bowden seems to want the reader to become overwhelmed by the size and scale of Escobar and the efforts it took to bring him down, and he effectively does so.


This is an informative book set in an almost Wild West atmosphere where anything goes and the law doesn't seem to apply. Take a break from your typical happy ending fiction and try Killing Pablo.