RaveThe Washington Post...thoughtful, deftly written ... Ratliff recognizes that Le Roux, despite his over-the-top heinousness, is at base an uninteresting figure. He focuses instead on the workings of his empire ... a fascinating chronicle, especially when Ratliff turns to the many ways poor nations serve as spillways for the dark excesses of rich ones ... penetrating—and more interesting [than Shannon\'s book Hunting Le Roux] ... Ratliff has produced a sharp and critical examination of the entirety of the case.
Jonathan Green
PositiveNew York Times Book Review\"One senses at points that Green wants to reach for novelistic flourishes, but he’s restrained by better impulses. The book reconstructs events long past and Green is bound by the available sources, mainly investigative records and interviews with members of the gang. Rather than try to compensate for the material he’s missing, he bets on plain language and diligent documentation, and allows his sources’ unfiltered remembrances to take center stage. The result is as straightforward an account of the sordid tedium of gang life as exists anywhere ... Green captures a level of detail that marks this work as exceptionally authentic ... Green is sympathetic, but does not seek to make them more intriguing than they are. In so doing, he shows... Murder may not be interesting. But it surely is important.\
Alfredo Corchado
PositiveThe Washington PostHis narrative makes clear that U.S. immigration policies have long been rife with contradictions and prone to backfire, and that migrations tend to proceed regardless, following their own highly complex logic. They are events with their own story line, with a beginning, middle and, perhaps, an end. The latest story of Mexican migration spans about four decades, and this roughly coincides with Corchado’s career reporting from both sides of the border. In Homelands Corchado tells two stories at once—that of his life as a bicultural, naturalized American reporter and the larger saga of a migration surge that occurred at the same time. The approach mostly works because Corchado’s personal reflections genuinely inform the broader issues ... Corchado’s progressive leanings and preoccupation with cultural identity mercifully leave light traces on his narrative. Mostly, he reports rather than pontificates ... Corchado’s stabs at poetic language sometimes fall short, and some digressions are confusing. But his book explains broad trends with engaging ease.
