• El Narco

  • The Bloody Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels
  • By: Ioan Grillo
  • Narrated by: Paul Thornley
  • Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (772 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
El Narco  By  cover art

El Narco

By: Ioan Grillo
Narrated by: Paul Thornley
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.72

Buy for $20.72

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The world has watched stunned at the bloodshed in Mexico. Thirty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped in town squares. The United States throws Black Hawk helicopters and drug agents at the problem. But in secret, Washington is confused and divided about what to do. "Who are these mysterious figures tearing Mexico apart?" they wonder.

What is El Narco?

This book draws the first definitive portrait of Mexico's drug cartels and how they have radically transformed in the last decade. El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands from bullet-ridden barrios to marijuana-growing mountains. And it has created paramilitary death squads with tens of thousands of men-at-arms from Guatemala to the Texas border. Journalist Ioan Grillo has spent a decade in Mexico reporting on the drug wars from the front lines. His piercing book joins testimonies from inside the cartels with first-hand dispatches and unsparing analysis. The devastation may be south of the Rio Grande, El Narco shows, but America is knee-deep in this conflict.

©2012 Ioan Grillo (P)2012 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"Grillo’s book is terrific - full of vivid front-line reporting; diverse interviews; a sense of history; a touch of social science; clarifying statistics; and realistic reviews of what might be done to improve things, none of it easy. It is essential reading." (Steve Coll, NewYorker.com)

What listeners say about El Narco

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    472
  • 4 Stars
    190
  • 3 Stars
    75
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    18
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    392
  • 4 Stars
    143
  • 3 Stars
    83
  • 2 Stars
    29
  • 1 Stars
    47
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    461
  • 4 Stars
    144
  • 3 Stars
    55
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    15

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book ruined by bad narration

What did you love best about El Narco?

Interesting, engaging and well-documented history of Mexican narco-trafficking.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I tried hard to overlook the narration, but it was so distracting that I have to say it ruined the experience, and I gave up. The narrator read a journalistic, non-fiction work as if it were a novel, with a breathless, dramatic voice entirely inappropriate to the genre. To make matters worse, he pronounces many of the Mexican place names and words with a Castillian accent (pronouncing "c" as "th"), then, inexplicably, completely mispronounces some of the most important Mexican Spanish words, even by Castillian standards ("Gualalupe" as "gwadaloop"). I hope this book is recorded by a different narrator so I can try it again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Assassinate the Narrator

What disappointed you about El Narco?

Bad, bad narrator. He reads as if this were poetry, not a serious work of nonfiction. And he's an *annoying* poet, relishing each sentence as if it were a work of art, and pausing dramatically between them so all the beauty has time to sink in.

I don't think I'm going to be able to finish the book. I'm not sure I'll even manage to finish the first chapter.

Would you recommend El Narco to your friends? Why or why not?

No. The narrator ruins it.

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Thornley’s performances?

I would sooner kill myself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A NOBY Nominee

Is there an award like the Razzie for worst audio performance? Maybe a Nails-On-Blackboard award? A NOBY? If so I would like to nominate Mr. Paul Thornley’s performance in this book.

Although he is a professionally trained actor, I can honestly say I’ve heard more vocal variation and feeling from a prerecorded message than he delivers here.
This book may contain the secrets of the universe but I’ll never know --- it was too painful a listen.

One thing that puzzles me. From the time the narration is complete to the time the book is purchased, how many people listen to it for quality? Three? One? None? None would be my guess for this book because no hearing person could listen to it and say “Yep, this one is good to go”

If I were the author and had spent months researching, writing and re-writing a book that actually made it to publishing and THEN had it swept under the rug by dreadful narration, I’d be more than upset.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The narrator make listening a chore

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

It is a good history

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Thornley???s performances?

Not if he read the same way. He finishes every sentence at a whisper. You can have the volume uncomfortably loud so you can hear the whole sentence, or strain to hear the end of the sentence at normal volume.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good book, not so good narration.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Narrator difficult to follow..sentences start boldly and end in a whisper. Is he trying to add some drama with this tactic?

What was one of the most memorable moments of El Narco?

The introduction, if I had been able to folllow the narrator.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Difficult to hear because of the modulation changes in his voice. I have listened to many Audible books and never have experienced such poor quality.

What character would you cut from El Narco?

It is hard to say, I quit trying to listen to the book at the end of chapter 2.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Narration is...woof

If you are going to narrate a book about Latin America, why pronounce words with a Catalan accent? Thornley speaks like an American college kid that spent 5 months studying abroad in Barcelona and now thinks they are cultured and that everyone pronounces an s, c, or z with a “th”....Thiudad Juareth?...come on man.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very informative

If you could sum up El Narco in three words, what would they be?

I never knew all this went on.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There wasn't any one main character in this particular book.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator could have added some inflection to his reading and I think his pauses were a little bit too long.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent overview

This is the book I was looking for when I bought "Murder City" and was disappointed with the lack of factual information.
Just this morning the news reported four reporters have been killed by the Zeta cartel in the last week. This book informs the reader about, what, where, and why, to an amazing degree of detail on this frightening and very current state of chaos south of our border. It is tragic and building up into a huge mess that will affect us all sooner or later.
I found it well written, well read and very interesting.
I highly recommend it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Another irritating narrator

Generally informative despite the hyperbolic, irritatingly breathless narrator and frequently jarring disjointed construction. Worthwhile though sometimes tedious.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Hardcore Book, a Must Read

The narrator is very good.

The work is great, like 5-Stars great. You get a detailed explanations of the origins of Narco culture in Mexico. How Mexico affects Central America. How Mexico took the lead role from Colombians.

The book also covers how countries like Honduras have tried, suffered, and have failed to defend their border and nation from the ravages of the Narcos.

Very interesting for me, the book gets into the details of Narco culture. From the pseudo religious orders, to amateur Narco movies, to death worship, to savage adolescent murderers like the sicarios.

I bought another Ioan Grillo book right after

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful