Triple Crossing

This is a fine effort for a new novelist who is actually an experienced international reporter. It's well written, with a pretty believable plot and a lot of action.

One thing that really improves the reading experience for me is when I learn something about an unfamiliar subject. I've lived in the Chicago area for nearly 25 years, which is quite far away from the border with Mexico, and am not as conversant about the issues related to border security and drug issues in that part of the country as I should be. Triple Crossing delivered a real education (assuming it's credible) on those subjects.

I liked the fact that the characters were developed throughout the book. The main character starts out as a neophyte border patrol agent and goes show more through an incredible journey while keeping his core values relatively intact. Other key players are introduced and, through their actions, are likewise developed and, by the end of the story, you feel like you know them all pretty well. The dialogue, which to me can make or break a book, was well-done. Although the corruption, crime and political issues presented were disgusting and for a while it seemed like they were all insoluble, the conclusion was quite satisfying.

The only issue I had with the book was with the writing style. As mentioned previously, I thought it was written pretty well, but it seemed rather choppy at times. It was always propulsive and did sort of match the pace of the action, but other writers (Robert Wilson, for example) have covered similar ground a little more smoothly. This isn't a big criticism, though, and I highly recommend this book. show less

A very slow start - to the point where I spend probably a week reading the first 100 pages (or so). And then finished it in one night. Once the story picks up, it actually works quite well. I usually do not have issues with slow starts - I am patient enough in my reading. But I need to see the building of the story at least getting started. Here the first pages could not keep my attention... or make me want to finish the book. The only reason I actually finished it was that I liked the premise... and at one point I actually wanted to see how bad this idea can be mishandled by the author. Thankfully it turned out that the book is not bad at all.

Meet Valentine. He works on the border between USA and Mexico (on the California side) and he show more tries to be as honest as he can. Except that everyone around him is corrupt and ready to do the worst possible things for money. And one day Valentine slips - not for money, not to impress someone - his moral compass simply does not allow him to let something go. The biggest problem of course is that he gets caught... and in order to keep himself out of jail, he makes a deal to get integrated into a Mexican drug cartel.

That's the point where the story gets a bit unbelievable - the person that proposes the deal falls in love with our young hero almost immediately. Having a beautiful woman running the whole thing might happen; having her actually fall in love that easy was a stretch. Especially when this becomes important for the plot. But if someone can overlook this and chalk it down to coincidences, the story can work.

And the story from that point forward is as fast paced as the whole novel should have been -- Valentine is in Mexico, the US and the Mexican authorities go from trustung him to distrusting him and back a few times; same happens with the cartel owners.

The novel is full with border scenes - both from the Mexican/American border and from the Triple Border in South America. The name of the novel is a play on both the borders crossings and the betrayals between people. And Rotella knows what he is writing about - he had been a journalist at the border for a long time.

The book has its strong moments and once it gets going, it is enjoyable (if someone is ready to close an eye in some cases). I liked the author style (for the most part) and considering that this was his first fiction book, some of the problems are understandable.

3.5 stars out of 5 for the book and I just found one more author to keep an eye on.... and I think I will be looking up his non-fiction book as well. show less

As a journalist, Rotella tells it the way it is, straight talk, all facts about life south of the border. A Pulitzer finalist, he found many stories he could never fully substantiate, tales all fascinating but unprintable for a newspaper. Taking all these fables, gossip, innuendo, and rumors, he works them into a border story the likes of which you have never read and treats us to his debut novel.
Valentine Pescatore, a wannabe street punk from Chicago is given one last chance to straighten up his life and with the help of an uncle, has found his way to the Border Patrol. In his personal life he is a loose cannon; his supervisor’s a dirty cop and life is an alcohol-fueled thrill-a-minute. He receives a warning after he is suspected of show more chasing a cholo into Mexico, but finds himself given a reprieve if he rats out his supervisor.
Pescatore finds himself in a gunfight and ends up driving his wounded supervisor to the underworld bosses in Mexico, but once there can’t leave. He goes undercover, joining in the illegal activities and reaching out to agents in the US—when able—to let them know he is alive and working from deep inside the organization.
As the story progresses, we are introduced to the triple border, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the heart of all smuggling, where Arabs and Chinese mix into the flow and money of illegal activities as they move up through Central America hitting the border we are all more familiar with.
With his life in jeopardy, Pescatore does his best to keep the blurry lines between right and wrong straight as he works to keep his cover. Suspecting he is playing the double-agent game, his superiors make arrangements to setup the gangsters; everyone comes in guns blazing. The final scenes will drop your jaw in amazement.
Rotella treats us to a wild ride into unfamiliar territory with the ferocity that the cartels hand out on the streets of Mexico; brutal, punishing, and final. show less

valentine pescatore is a rookie border patrol officer. he wants to do a good job and is very tenderhearted with some of the illegals. he even gives them money for food. his boss, however, is very cruel to the detainees. valentine gets in trouble and finds himself helping isabel puente in trying to take down a mexican crime family.

good story line, with a look into the border patrol and also the working of a crime family. i found it a little slow in places but overall a very good read.

The border seethed on the edge of his sleep. Haunting him. Disembodied faces surging up out of the riverbed at him.

I picked this book up from the library because I was approved for the sequel on NetGalley. Recently I haven't had much time for reading but whenever I had a chance to pick this book up I was engrossed in the story. I do have to say that if you plan on reading this book and don't know some Spanish you might want to have Google translate handy (it doesn't have too much Spanish in it but there are phrases here and there).

This book follows two men who are on opposite ends of the U.S. Mexico border. Both are just trying to do their jobs the best that they can. Valentine Pescatore, a US border patrol agent, finds himself in a show more drug lord's crew and always in fear for his life and Leo Mendez, the chief of a Mexican police unit, finds himself on a journey to finally take down the drug lord. Their paths cross at times and they don't know whether they can trust the other just as readers don't know who to trust.

I alternated between liking both Valentine and Leo and being annoyed with both of them. There were certain parts in this book that I really didn't know who was trustworthy. I did feel sorry at first for Valentine but then felt he was too comfortable in the drug lord's gang. I felt that his romance with Isabel Puente sprang up too fast but am interested in seeing where it goes. For most of the book I felt Leo was a bit naive and too hard-headed. When he started to take matters into his own hands was when I really started to like him.

It is evident that Sebastian Rotella has knowledge of the region and culture covered in this book and that made it a richer story. The events towards the end will really get your heart racing and at times leave you wondering where everyone's loyalties lie. This was a great start to this series and I look forward to reading more about these characters. show less

As a journalist, Rotella tells it the way it is, straight talk, all facts about life south of the border. A Pulitzer finalist, he found many stories he could never fully substantiate, tales all fascinating but unprintable for a newspaper. Taking all these fables, gossip, innuendo, and rumors, he works them into a border story the likes of which you have never read and treats us to his debut novel.
Valentine Pescatore, a wannabe street punk from Chicago is given one last chance to straighten up his life and with the help of an uncle, has found his way to the Border Patrol. In his personal life he is a loose cannon; his supervisor’s a dirty cop and life is an alcohol-fueled thrill-a-minute. He receives a warning after he is suspected of show more chasing a cholo into Mexico, but finds himself given a reprieve if he rats out his supervisor.
Pescatore finds himself in a gunfight and ends up driving his wounded supervisor to the underworld bosses in Mexico, but once there can’t leave. He goes undercover, joining in the illegal activities and reaching out to agents in the US—when able—to let them know he is alive and working from deep inside the organization.
As the story progresses, we are introduced to the triple border, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the heart of all smuggling, where Arabs and Chinese mix into the flow and money of illegal activities as they move up through Central America hitting the border we are all more familiar with.
With his life in jeopardy, Pescatore does his best to keep the blurry lines between right and wrong straight as he works to keep his cover. Suspecting he is playing the double-agent game, his superiors make arrangements to setup the gangsters; everyone comes in guns blazing. The final scenes will drop your jaw in amazement.
Rotella treats us to a wild ride into unfamiliar territory with the ferocity that the cartels hand out on the streets of Mexico; brutal, punishing, and final. show less

As a journalist, Rotella tells it the way it is, straight talk, all facts about life south of the border. A Pulitzer finalist, he found many stories he could never fully substantiate, tales all fascinating but unprintable for a newspaper. Taking all these fables, gossip, innuendo, and rumors, he works them into a border story the likes of which you have never read and treats us to his debut novel.
Valentine Pescatore, a wannabe street punk from Chicago is given one last chance to straighten up his life and with the help of an uncle, has found his way to the Border Patrol. In his personal life he is a loose cannon; his supervisor’s a dirty cop and life is an alcohol-fueled thrill-a-minute. He receives a warning after he is suspected of show more chasing a cholo into Mexico, but finds himself given a reprieve if he rats out his supervisor.
Pescatore finds himself in a gunfight and ends up driving his wounded supervisor to the underworld bosses in Mexico, but once there can’t leave. He goes undercover, joining in the illegal activities and reaching out to agents in the US—when able—to let them know he is alive and working from deep inside the organization.
As the story progresses, we are introduced to the triple border, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the heart of all smuggling, where Arabs and Chinese mix into the flow and money of illegal activities as they move up through Central America hitting the border we are all more familiar with.
With his life in jeopardy, Pescatore does his best to keep the blurry lines between right and wrong straight as he works to keep his cover. Suspecting he is playing the double-agent game, his superiors make arrangements to setup the gangsters; everyone comes in guns blazing. The final scenes will drop your jaw in amazement.
Rotella treats us to a wild ride into unfamiliar territory with the ferocity that the cartels hand out on the streets of Mexico; brutal, punishing, and final. show less