Chemical Cowboys by Lisa Sweetingham

5 stars
nonfiction

The DEA's Secret Mission To Hunt Down a Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin

And, honestly, that's just the beginning.

Okay, so I have to be honest. When the email came about this one, I wasn't sure I was interested. But hey, I'm all for reading a wide variety, so what the heck. I also thought it was a novel. Go figure.

Anyway. It came and it didn't look like a novel. Sure enough, it's nonfiction. Hmm, I thought, does that make me more or less interested? I wasn't sure. So I started it with some trepidation.

And stayed up until 2 am reading the first half. I was that sucked in. I actually had to force myself NOT to read it the next day because I had a whole ton of other stuff to do and I knew if I opened Chemical Cowboys I would get NONE of it done.

Sweetingham's style is captivating, and you can tell she's put in the work on research. She absolutely makes all of the players come alive, from the low-life dealers to Bob Gagne, the DEA agent who first started chasing Ecstasy.

Ecstasy is such an odd drug. It's like the drug for people who don't do drugs or something.

I loved this quote from Gagne:
"They'll do two hits of X, a couple bumps of K [ketamine, another club drug], a capful of GHB," Gagne says, "but they're concerned about air pollution, water pollution, and won't go into a Burger King or McDonald's. But come ... Saturday night they're like the chemical cowboys."

We live in a very weird world. And the nightclub scene is not something I understand. (Of course, I don't drink, so that could have something to do with it.) Reading about the Club Kids was somewhat disturbing. The idea that people would want to live like that... wow.

This is a really great read. So well done that it sucks you in, period. You have no choice in the matter.

And hey, it'd make a great gift if you forgot Father's Day. (You know who you are.)

This is a Virtual Book Tour book, so you can find more at Virtual Book Tours.

TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR A GUEST POST FROM LISA SWEETINGHAM!!!!!!