Excellent. I tore through this like prime Charlie Sheen with a pure 8 ball. Vast scope, unrelenting action and shocking moments of real history.
In many respects this is like a modern 'Godfather', high level storytelling with fictional characters portraying real events. This time focusing on the Mexican cartels & the US security apparatus.
I know the history and the lore having been both a keen follower and having written my undergrad thesis on the subject many years ago.
The most outlandish parts of this book may shock people, but are based on real events. Yes those children were murdered like that. Yes the church was involved in the corruption of the Mexican government by the cartels. Yes the CIA did all of those things. Yes, they still go on...
Away from the story and reality I found the only weak points of the book to be the characters and one plot device. The protagonists are not quite perfect, being analgams of real people perhaps does this. And the strangest one is the main plot device, a hooker who happens to be present at all major events over a 20 year multi-country story. Exciting, but the only unrealistic part of the work.
In this respect I am directly comparing with his far newer 5* 'Da Force'. His writing, character building and style have all improved over the years, good for him!