The Power of the Dog
Don Winslow
 The novel begins in 1975 with the main character Art Keller watching the opium poppy fields of the Mexican state of Sinaloa burn. The burning is done in preference to the use of Agent Orange. Keller has just begun his career as a DEA agent, coming over from operative work with the CIA, and a veteran of Viet Nam's Phoenix Program. Keller tells us that though there are similarities, this isn't Operation Phoenix but Operation Condor. Keller's career looks like it might end before it begins, until he works his way into the friendship of the Barrera brothers and Miguel Angel Barrera, referred to us as Tío (meaning Uncle/Valued Elder Patron). Tío sets it up so that Don Pedro Aviles, the main drug lord of Sinaloa, is assassinated, while giving Art Keller the credit for the drug lord's death during an arrest. Tío then leads the Sinaloa heroin traffickers into the modern age as the cartel's new leader.