If you have a good sense of humour and a few hours to kill, the narration alone makes this audiobook enjoyable. Quite frankly, it's that bad, it becomes funny. Written by Irish plumber come drug mule, Paul Keany, you’d expect the writing to be a little ropey, yet this was written with the help of an actual journalist, so Im unsure why it is this bad - but that's not the only thing bad about this book. At the start, I thought ‘If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime’, which sounds unsympathetic, but Paul's character does little to enable the reader to sympathise or understand this nightmare predicament.
The book starts with Paul's trip to Venezuela, explaining that he lost his plumbing business in the recession, which sounds dreadful, but I can't understand how you'd think becoming a drug mule (knowingly) would ease the issue, or that you'd get away with it? idiot. Paul mentions recreational cocaine use as part of his weekend lifestyle choices, so I expect he knew dealers already.
Having failed to smuggle a suitcase with 6 kilos of cocaine out of Venezuela, and being busted at the airport, our hero (he really thinks he is) smuggles cocaine INTO the Venezuelan jail, Los Teques, so he can deal for prison cash. He also brews illicit alcohol, gets into fights, snorts cocaine daily (his words) and befriends a band of fellow criminals, which at times, makes this nightmare prison sound like a holiday camp (this is where the audiobook narration becomes laugh out loud funny).
Throughout this book, Paul Keany talks about morality, choices and karma, and having based this book on his prison diaries, his real-life ending is karma all on its own. Paul Keany died of a cocaine and alcohol induced heart attack in 2021 at age 58, which is karma in its purest form, I'd guess, quite like that cocaine he tried to smuggle into Ireland. No sympathy whatsoever.
If you want a good drug mule, true crime story (with a hint of the Irish), I'd suggest 'You'll never see daylight again' by Michaela McCollum. instead.
www.ryanoxleywriter.blogspot.com
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