Sunday 13 May 2012

TRUE CRIME REVIEW: At the Devil's Table - William C Rempel

Release Date: 10/05/12

SYNOPSIS:

Would you risk your life to save your soul? Colombia in the 1990s was a country on the brink. A weak government battled in vain against billion-dollar cocaine cartels, run with cold-blooded violence by warring gangsters Pablo Escobar in Medellin and the Orejuela brothers in Cali. Countless innocent lives were torn apart. One such life was Jorge Salcedo's, a part-time soldier and respected business and familyman, who lost a childhood friend to Escobar's blood feud. His military connections lead him to a secret meeting with the Cali cartel, sworn enemies of Escobar, where he was offered the chance to help take Pablo out. With mixed feelings, he agreed. Once inside, Salcedo rose to become head of security for one of the principal godfathers, struggling to preserve his integrity as he was cast deeper into the mire. Then came an order that he could not obey and could not refuse; where the only way out was to bring down the biggest, richest crime family of all time. And so begins a heart-pumping roller coaster ride that has to be read to be believed. Secretly aided by DEA agents, Salcedo must help capture his fugitive bosses and save the life of a witness targeted for murder. Death is always a misstep away. Salcedo remains in hiding in the United Sates, but has revealed his experiences in full explosive detail to the only reporter who has ever had access. This is his remarkable story and a gripping piece of true crime.


REVIEW:

There are times when you want to find out a little more about real crime but aren’t quite sure on how to do this, whether its waiting for the memoirs of old criminals who’ve finally decided to spill the beans or delving into the stories of those who solved the cases, it always leaves you with a dark shadow over your shoulder wondering what is not only missing but how they’ve glorified what they do. Add to this, the writing style is usually pretty straight forward and you can be left wondering why you'd delve here when you could be enjoying a crime thriller.

What William’s writing does is bring the best of both worlds to the table, he has a talent for getting to the truth writing it from how he saw it, relying on first hand account and then added a thriller style to the overall writing that made it compulsive reading. Its not for the faint hearted and to be honest some of the stuff in here is very dark but as a reader I love having something like this out there as it shows what can be done to tempt and taunt you all at the same time. A great read all in and one I’m pleased I took the time to.

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