Read The Mastermind Drugs Empire Murder Betrayal Evan Ratliff 9780399590412 Books

Product details Hardcover 480 pages Publisher Random House (January 29, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0399590412

The Mastermind Drugs Empire Murder Betrayal Evan Ratliff 9780399590412 Books Reviews

• As an investigative reporter, Evan Ratliff deftly uncovered the dark organization of Paul Le Roux, a megalomaniac driven by crackbrained grandiosity and fueled by paranoia. Le Roux had created encryption code that the NSA could not break. He leveraged his technical brilliance to exploit ambiguities in the U.S. drug laws, and he enlisted thousands of legitimate pharmacies & doctors into a complex, opaque network. They prescribed millions of doses of painkillers as a result of Le Roux’s sophisticated and relentless email spam solicitation.
  Obsessed with power and greed, Le Roux used a twisted combination of financial incentives, psychological control and death threats to expand his empire into gold, illegal drugs and arms deals to rogue states. He ultimately ruled a vast empire ranging from North Korea to Somalia from his safe haven in the Philippines—where he controlled the police and judiciary.
  Ratliff weaves this journey into an incredible story. Just when you think it can’t get more bizarre, it does.
• I was intrigued by this non-fiction story after reading the prologue, and indeed the first few chapters are riveting. Paul Leroux is a devious mastermind who helped fuel the opioid epidemic in the US. The way in which he skirted the laws and laundered his money were genius because it was almost legal. The author makes a very good case that had Leroux continued in that vein, instead of breaking all the way bad, he would have been a celebrated billionaire.
  
  This is a fast read, though, I read it over a weekend, and look forward to the TV documentary...some day.
• This book has it all -- a brilliant criminal mastermind, a cast of sometimes-bumbling mercenaries, a dogged DEA agent, and a trail of blood that Ratliff follows from the Philippines to Israel to Brazil to a nondescript bureaucratic office in Minneapolis. Reads like a thriller, but it's all, unfortunately, totally true. A terrific book.
• This is one of THE best books I have ever read. Wonderfully written, and you just will not believe some of what you read, but it's true! I could not put this book down. Paul Le Roux is a true monster, as evil as they come. But this book. You won't regret it!
• Perhaps scholarly and determined erudition best describe this manuscript of events so connected to one man's brilliance, corruption and savagery as they evolve into years of ruthless dominion over relentless crimes from the allure of power, wealth and sex.
  No, you won't find any quotes from the likes of Ben Franklin or Billy Graham in these pages. Author Evan Ratliff recounts his four years of inquiry and source materials from individuals on six continents in nearly 400 pages of events that "really happened". Events such as drug and gun running, murders for vengeance and for hire, extortion for pecuniary needs, and much more where page turning becomes another adventure into human greed and other familiar receptacles.
  A sociopath is defined as one lacking conscience with attendant defective mental or emotional disturbances. Was the protagonist and central character in The Mastermind, Paul Leroux, sociopathic in his daily routines? Readers will likely consider this a rhetorical question as they absorb the sequences in these chapters.
  Umbriago
• I have enjoyed Evan Ratliff on the Longform podcast, so before this book came out I suggested my local library purchase it, and they did. I borrowed it immediately and read it over a weekend; engrossed enough to ignore all of my typical weekend activities. It is a bonkers story, well researched and well presented. It's good enough that I decided to buy the book to support the author, and read it again. I look forward to the film version, and whatever else Mr. Ratliff produces in the future. You should buy this book.
• Ratliiff’s fabulous reporting and accessible writing has resulted in a truth is stranger than fiction crime tale that will keep you engrossed to the very end.
• Le Roux a/k/a "The Mastermind" is basically a Bond villain, and this book unfolds like a great espionage/crime thriller. It's hard to believe this is real life, but the author obviously spent many hours researching the story to accurately capture every detail. Definitely worth a read, for fiction and nonfiction fans alike.