MYSTERY/THRILLER
The Roadie Cartel: A Novel Phillip J. Kriz | Hildebrand Books 403p, e-book, $20.99, ISBN 978-1-956-90676-9
“The music business and the cartel follow the same mantra,” declares the narrator of this epic-length debut. “The hungry dog will find a way to eat.” The Roadie Cartel more than lives up to that claim, as Kriz—who has spent years as a tour “tech” for major recording artists—imagines a frighteningly plausible scenario: what if arena-scale touring, and by the music industry itself, were monopolized by a single company as a front to distribute cocaine? Kriz spins a wild story in which, working with a Mexican drug cartel, the best roadies in the biz, in the early 1970s, take over the infrastructure of touring, from hauling equipment to arena ownership to the merch table—which, naturally, offers a perfect setup for money laundering. In the decades since, TRC Enterprises grows ever more powerful, developing cutting-edge techniques for smuggling, like how to “hydrocainize” the white powder into T-shirts and other tour swag.
The hefty novel kicks off with a classic thriller opening, as narrator Wyatt laments the tragic fate of her father, one of the two Czech brothers who founded TRC with a Mexican drug lord. It’s 2009, and Wyatt, raised to believe she is a foundling, vows to expose the cartel in video diaries uploaded to the newish world of social media, while urging viewers to help find the one cop bold enough to take action. Pages in, Wyatt faces great danger, but then Kriz winds the narrative back, letting Wyatt reveal the cartel’s history.
Readers hoping for the twisty thriller suspense promised by the opening pages should temper expectations. Instead, Kriz offers an indepth, often fascinating, sometimes exhausting account of how such a business would grow and operate, tracing the history back to Wyatt’s great-grandparents, only catching up to Wyatt’s present after hundreds of pages—and doing so somewhat inconclusively. Still, the novel is an inventive, convincing what-if attentive to the logistics of drug running, empire-building, and why roadies, above all else, must be on time.
Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: B+ | Marketing copy: B+