Cartel Wives by Mia Flores and Olivia Flores

          This is quite a hard book to review as I did find myself frequently questioning the veracity of the information - I am an eternal sceptic it must be said.  I just kept wondering if the Flores Twins had decided to become informants because they knew the net was closing in on them and this was the only way they could protect their families or if they really had experienced some sort of Damascene moment.  Whichever way it happened they did become informants and their respective wives wholeheartedly believe that it was an altruistic act.

Olivia and Mia Flores certainly do not shy away from showing themselves in a less than flattering light in sections of the book.  They both know that they have made bad choices in the past and they both seem to believe that Peter and Junior have been their salvations to a better life.  Not a wealthier life as this has all been lost or clawed back by the Federal Government as it was all proceeds of crime but a spiritually better life.

I would be very interested to read the accounts of Peter and Junior about these years in their lives and compare and contrast with their wife's impressions.  The twins are almost sanctified by their wives and it is very hard for someone from a country not torn apart by drug wars and cartels to rationalise the situations they were all in.  Yes, a lot of these situations could have been avoided by making better decisions but they didn't so here they find themselves and I do wonder if some sort of gloss has been put on the story, a patina to show two (extremely) high ranking drug dealers as loving family men in the run up to their release from jail in the early 2020s.

You can't help but compare this to the accounts authored by Nicholas Pileggi of the New York Mafia.  Unfortunately, this volume comes off less well against that comparison and I cannot really pout my finger on why.  They are both tales of extreme violence juxtaposed with a strong moral code when it comes to interpersonal relationships and family.  Somehow we can inhabit Pileggi's world in a way that we cannot with this more modern telling from the Flores ladies.

I have ended up feeling somehow ambivalent about this book.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.