THE EXTRADITIONIST

A private attorney who defends extradited drug cartel bosses, Benn Bluestone angles for "the mother of all scores" that will enable him to quit the racket.

Benn, who wears the double "n" in his name like gaudy cufflinks, has made a handsome living doing morally compromising work. "A master of the universe of the white-powder bar," he lives the high life, with ready access to beautiful women and high-priced drugs. But as much as he loves playing this dangerous game, and the $1 million checks that come his way, he is worn down by its intense pressures—which 20 years ago led him to shoot two men in a luxury resort in Colombia. When a case involving the mysterious and notorious Mexican drug king Sombra comes his way, he thinks his ship has come in. But a series of killings and surprising reveals leave Benn fearing for his future. Drawing on his own 30-year career as a first-call criminal lawyer for cartel chiefs, Merer knows of what he writes in his first novel. He tells his story with energy, assurance, and a wealth of insider believability. But with its less-than-compelling or even likable protagonist and not enough thrills to justify its 400-plus pages, the book never transforms fact into fiction the way Don Winslow's gut-punching drug novels do. These pages may prove a solid blueprint for a film or TV series but don't bode well for possible future installments in the series.

A kind of roman à clef set in Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Miami as well as New York, this tale of a cartel lawyer is capably told but lacking in page-turning excitement.