Synopsis
Chronicles DEA agent Craig Lovato's pursuit of Howard Marks, a graduate of Oxford and a former British intelligence agent who for twenty years smuggled drugs into America
Reviews
Eddy and Walden, coauthors of The Cocaine War , tell the gripping tale of a five-year battle begun in 1985 to bring a drug kingpin to justice. Howard Marks, a Briton of intelligence and charm who specialized in transporting marijuana and hashish all over the world and in laundering drug money, traveled so extensively that he was dubbed Marco Polo. His more-than-worthy opponent was American Craig Lovato of the Drug Enforcement Agency. Lovato tracked Marks and overcame bureaucratic lassitude, ineptitude in inexperienced drug agents, wrangling between U.S. and U.K. government agencies, moles within the DEA, and ultimately played a major role in Marks's receiving a 30-year sentence. The authors present the contest between the two men as a highly dramatic chess game. Fast-paced, riveting reading. Movie rights to Zenith; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A cop's hunt for a drug dealer resembles a ``marathon chess game'' in this surprising look at one battle in the war on substance abuse. Howard Marks was an ex-hippie, Oxford grad, and former British Intelligence agent who turned into an elusive pot-peddler whom police never expected to catch--until DEA agent Craig Lovato made finding him his life's obsession. What ensued was a cat-and-mouse caper of surveillance and counter-surveillance that digressed into ``a senseless Hollywood comedy.'' Eddy and Walden (co-authors, The Cocaine Wars, 1988) galvanize a potentially uninspiring tale of police forensics with an ironic twist: Marks emerges as a drug- trafficker you love to hate, while Lovato comes off as petty, simplistic, and cruel. They are played off as perfect alter egos, with Marks the more philosophical and, in some respects, more ethical character who sells only pot because he believes it harmless. The authors flout sensationalism and self-righteous anti- drug rhetoric by not taking sides and by leaving the dichotomy between good and evil, in this case, uncomfortably ambiguous. Their account often suggests a drug-seller's travelogue of exciting places and ingenious dodges as they trace Marks's international sales scheme. There are even sad and sensitive first-person passages by Marks and his cronies recounting how they got involved in their racket. In fact, the life of the drug world's ``Marco Polo'' seems downright mundane when travel takes a back seat to daily survival. In this context, the exaggerated press headlines deeming Marks an ``evil genius'' and ``Lord Supergrass'' seem all the more ludicrous. Fast and smooth, and daring to show that even drug-dealing has a human face. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Eddy and Walden coauthored the exciting The Cocaine Wars ( LJ 7/88), among the most comprehensive books about the dangers of the cocaine trade. Here, they turn their investigative talents to the story of Howard Marks, the Marco Polo of the title, a charming and extremely bright Oxford graduate who made a fortune smuggling cannabis, and his nemesis, intrepid DEA agent Craig Louvato, who spent years and traveled the world in pursuit of Marks and his cohorts. This adventurous, sprawling tale is filled with exotic locales, police and courtroom drama, and heroes and villains (with many of the actors falling somewhere between); the authors have made it all easier to follow by including a list identifying the major players and by heading each small section with the location in which the events occur. Interspersed throughout are the words of Marks himself, who seems a very likable criminal; readers may end up, to some extent, pulling for both the hunter and the hunted. Highly recommended for all crime collections.
- Sally G. Waters, Stetson Law Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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