Kilo

Life and Death Inside the Secret World of the Cocaine Cartels

By: Toby Muse

Narrated by: Alex Wyndham

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Join the deadly journey of cocaine, from farmer to kingpin.

Meet Maria. Maria doesn’t see herself as a criminal. She’s just a farmhand picking the crops that never lose money: coca.

This is Cachote. He prays to the Virgin of the Assassins that his bullets find their target. If he misses, he’ll have to answer to the cartel who pay him to take out their enemies.

Pedro works the coca labs. But this laboratory is hidden deep in the jungle and he turns coca leaves into coca paste, a step just short of cocaine.

And finally, here is Alex. Alex is a drug lord and decides where the drug goes next: into Europe or the US. And he wields the power of life and death over everyone around him.

In Kilo, Toby Muse takes us deeper into the mechanism of the drug trade than ever before, following a kilo of cocaine as it travels from its origins to the street. On the ground in the drug war for over a decade, earning the trust of those involved on all sides, Muse takes us with him through the endless blood-soaked horror and economic logic, at every level of the journey of the world’s most alluring and dangerous drug. We come to meet and ultimately understand the tainted personal psychology and motivations of each player in this dark El Dorado. 

But there are no winners here. Anyone who tries to hold the power of the ‘white goddess’ cocaine is ultimately undone, violently stripped of their humanity, their souls and their lives in this endless, pointless dance of death.

©2020 Toby Muse (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Excellent story, horrible narration

Brilliant book, but the narrator puts on a horrible strained voice when impersonating third parties. It seems everybody in Colombia is an 80 year old asthmatic according to the narrator. Very off putting and distracting.

fantastic and the audio makes it even better

I loved how this book was not only informative but also had such vivid language and descriptions. It zeroed in on specific people on each leg of the journey, making the glance into this world feel almost too intimate and raw

An insightful 360 look at Columbia’s underworld.

While there has been much coverage of the traffickers themselves in modern media this book, while taking a look at them, also accounts for the other people in the supply chain that are often ignored.

It was interesting to hear about the farmers of the coco plant and how the crop and the war on drugs has effected how they must love now.

The one note was in the readers performance. His accents towards the end were a bit annoying but nothing that majorly detracted from the material, he’s good for 95% of the book.

Great story but could do without the accents

Really interesting way to tell the story of the cocaine trade but slightly spoiled by the narrator adopting this weird laryngitic voice when speaking the words of Colombians

Insightful Account

Toby has done a great job giving us an insight into the world of Cocaine and the stages of its life, from the coca farmers to the ordinary peoples noses.

I knew quite a bit about this part of the war on drugs due to reading and watching documentaries on the subject but this audiobook brings it all into one story at a decent pace.

I quite enjoyed Toby’s style of writing no part of the story seemed to drag which was good. I read and listened to this at the same time and the audiobook has a bit more information and story…was the missed stuff in the book needed, yeah in my opinion it did.

The narration was great and pronunciation was perfect, would listen to the narrator again on another audiobook.

Highly recommended to anyone wanting to know why the war on drugs is a losing battle, an insight into to process of leaf to a Londoners nose. This explains it all detail by detail.

Well done Toby for this great piece of writing.

Interesting

I know little about the cocaine trade and this book filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. It was an interesting, rather than a riveting listen, though I felt the end was rather flat as I wanted to finish the journey of the drug to the streets of London or New York.

Brilliant!!

Absolutely brilliant book, totally gripping. I couldn’t stop listening. The Narrator grated slightly in areas, but certainly wouldn’t put me off downloading.

Excellent really enjoyed the cultural run-down

Really great cultural rundown from coca lab to Pacific Coast and all the nightmares in between. Palabra.

Get submerged into the world of Cocaine production

Amazing book, brilliantly written, you feel like you were on the journey with the writer! Amazing, just amazing!
I would highly recommend this book!! The narrator brings the book to life.