Rating: 
Summary: Good versus Evil
Review: A decent read but not exactly a page turner. The book doesn't get exciting until about two-thirds into it. If you want a quick summary here it is:
Pablo is the worst criminal the world has ever seen. He lives in Colombia and sends more cocaine to the USA than the middle-east sends oil. He is hunted down by a samll team of US covert ops. and easily corruptable Colombian police and military figures. But, trying to locate Pablo using contemporary tactics are not proving effective. Pablo needs to be shifted off balance. To do this, the US assembles an illegal team of indigenous vigilantes called "Los Pepes". Soon afterward, Pablo's organized business operations come to a standstill. Pablo's lawyers, assasins, friends, business associates, and family members begin showing up dead. This undoubtedly causes Pablo to become unsound, causing him to slip up and make traceable phone calls to express his anger and contempt. He is then located and used for target practice. Adios Pablo.
After reading the book (finished it on Dec 27th, 2004) I felt that some of these tactics might work against Osama and Al Zaquari. Or perhaps these tactics are in the works and we will never know about them until years later after both of them are dead.
BlackHawk down was a much better read, as the previous reviewer mentioned. Cheers to Bowden!
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book from Mark Bowden.
Review: Bowden is a great writer. I like his style. I read Black Hawk Down in two days, and I read this book in the same time. If someone wants an intensive read, these are both great reads. Anybody will realize the outcome of this book. It is the killing of an evil man. In this book though, you also see the debate between people about the methods used in the killing of this evil man. There are some that will only use civilized, lawful means. Others will use means that will destroy the evil using the methods used by the evil men. I think we face the same problem today with Osama. How do we destroy evil using the methods of the civilized world. Bowden relates the stories of Los Pepes, and the use of methods to take apart the infrastructure of Pablo Escobar's empire.
This is a great book. For those wanting a great read for several days, this would be a great read and a great addition to your library.
Rating:
Summary: Viva Columbia! Pablo is dead!
Review: Having just finished Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo", I find myself somewhat a jumble of emotions. I think that my feelings most resemble those of DEA Agent Joe Toft, who wonders, when all is said and done, if killing Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar was such a good thing. After reading Bowden's gripping, wonderfully written piece, I must confess to seeing Toft's point.
Bowen follows briefly Escobar's life, his rise to power as drug lord of Medallin in the 1980s, and his eventual fall from grace and into his role as public enemy number one. Through this, Bowden's tells us about the impact, both good an ill, Pablo had on Columbia, from murdering politicians and rivals, to building ballparks for his hometown. Bowden never makes any over pronouncements of Escobar's evil. He simply tells us what Pablo did, and lets those appalling actions speak for themselves.
Bowden's examination of the internal politics of Columbia, first attempting to appease Pablo, then resolving to kill him, is also fascinating. The injection of the United States is even more so. In the perfect world, killing men like Pablo would be the common solution.
However, it's not a perfect world. Bowden makes points of just how down and dirty the forces out to kill Pablo got, including making use of former associates and rival drug lords. Further, the removal of Pablo did nothing to stem the flow of drugs into the US, and other drug lords filled the void.
"Killing Pablo" alternatively appalled, amused, and angered me. Anyone wanting insight into the drug war, cover operations, and simply good recounting of history would enjoy this immensely.
Rating:
Summary: Glad he is dead
Review: I finished this book in just under 2 days. If you want an easy "disturbing" read about an evil guy, this is the one. The end of the book is given away in the title, but its still good.
Rating:
Summary: Reading Pablo
Review: I picked up this book because I really liked Black Hak Down. This book is written in the same style that made BHD a great book. There is great attention to detail, personal portraits of the characters, and an ever-evolving storyline. My exposure to Pablo Escobar before this book was just a brief understanding that he was a drug dealer from way back. Other than that I could not tell you much about the guy. But after reading this book, I have a much better understanding of the man and why the U.S. wanted him neutralized. Great read. Quick read. Must buy.
Rating:
Summary: Reading Pablo
Review: I picked up this book because I really liked Black Hak Down. This book is written in the same style that made BHD a great book. There is great attention to detail, personal portraits of the characters, and an ever-evolving storyline. My exposure to Pablo Escobar before this book was just a brief understanding that he was a drug dealer from way back. Other than that I could not tell you much about the guy. But after reading this book, I have a much better understanding of the man and why the U.S. wanted him neutralized. Great read. Quick read. Must buy.
Rating:
Summary: Evil man down
Review: Of course, after reading Black Hawk Down, you naturally have to go look for more books by Bowden. He has a way of writing that isn't totally neutral but not biased, it's intriguing and clear. There's no flowery prose in his writing but it's certainly not dry, it's exciting and real. The story of a thug who terrorized a country is amazing, how does a guy get a country to live in fear? well, simple. Be ruthless. Someone giving you a problem? Kill his sister. Still bothering you, blow up his house. Still? Kill him. Government? Kill the judges. Not giving up? random car bombs. Still after you? bribes... just wow. anyways, not telling all here, but this guy was something, and it's not surprising that he lasted for so long. I thought the book was really engrossing, eye opening and exciting. Though I did think the end was a little dragged out, it was a very good read.
Rating: 
Summary: I have A.D.D.
Review: This book is very interesting in that it will bring you step by step through what was goin on in columbia and how life in the country is very unstable. Be cautious however. Mark Bowden makes this book into a history book. A very cool history book in that it talks about drugs, fame and riches; yet boring in the way it was written.
Mark goes into detail about how Pablo was givin the opportunity to do what he acomplishes, I suppose I was expecting more of a narrative rather than documentation. It was hard to comprahend what goes on in this book.
I suppose you need to be in the right audience. I was looking to be entertained by this story, and to a certain extent I was, but this book was honestly made to inform people. Hope you enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This book was a great read. I had always been interested in the story about Pablo's rise and fall, and this book was very well written, and informative.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting argument against the drug war
Review: This book, inadvertently, I suspect, is really an argument against the drug war. By now a cliche, this line of thought postulates that, were drugs like cocaine not criminalized in the states, there would be no or little incentive for murderous thugs in Latin America to risk murder and lengthy prison times getting the drug in this country. Thus, one could argue, quite blithely, that, had the American government wised up and attempted to regulate drug trafficking like any other international business, many of the unsavory elements of the business would depart for greener (more illicit) pastures. The natural consequence of this, of course, would be that millions of dollars otherwise spent on futile attempts at interdiction and eradication would be spent elsewhere, and many of the thousands of people killed both in the United States and Latin America over the past 25 years would instead be alive. Would that it were true that the United States could hew to the lessons learned in the alcohol trade: once alcohol was legal again in the United States and it became a regulated drug sold only to people legally eligible to buy it, the violence associated with it declined precipitously. In fact, the only violence associated with alcohol use today is domestic violence and drunk driving. Those violent acts, while of course tragic to all those involved in them, are far fewer and far less bloody than the gang wars initiated by Al Capone and his antogonists. That the same lesson applies in the drug war is sad. On another note, a number of reviewers on this site have mentioned many apparent parallels between the hunt for Pablo Escobar and the hunt for Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. While it is true that, superficially, there are parallels, such as the US government deciding that its national security in all three instances was at risk with these monsters operating openly, it is nonetheless an unfair comparison. Relatively few Colombians liked Escobar, and he never had the legitimacy of the state behind him, as did Hussein. Given all that, this is an excellent account of the travails leading up to, and concluding with, the execution of Escobar.
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