Cartels and Combinations

by Mike McPheeters

Mike McPheters, author of Agent Bishop, is back with the harrowing account of a Mexican-American family caught in the crossfire between the Vultures, a dangerous drug cartel, and US Homeland Security. Based on a true story, Cartels and Combinations proves the reality of latter-day evil and how we can find protection and peace in heeding the words of ancient and modern prophets and apostles alike.

Genres: Fiction, Lds Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2010

Reviews

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting an action book, along the lines of a Clancy, what I got was a combination of philosphy, political ideology, spiritual conversion, redemption with a sprinkling of action and a drop of romance (just a drop).

From all indications, the book was written as a way to put across an ideology regarding the drug cartels and closing the border. The opinion was put across, but it seemed very preach about it. In addition, it tried to be so many things that it never did any of them very well:
-I wasn't convinced polictially.
-I didn't feel that I have a much better understanding of how the cartels work.
-I felt the spiritual conversion aspects were a little cheesey, of course the main female character is struggling with ther spirituality, and adversity helps change it, but I didn't feel a part of the conversion.
-Action was lacking, there were only two real action sequences, both of which wrapped up quickly.
-And romance (spoiler alert) - why does everyone go with stockholm syndrome? - Realistically, I didn't feel the romantic connection between Frederico and Elena - Honestly some how in 5 days, they just like each other becuase the speak the same language? There was no chemistry, and no development leading to romance there.

In summary, while the book wasn't bad, it might be better targeted at younger readers. I felt the subject had a lot more to offer than what I got, and went away disappointed.

[Lauren Mauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of pros and cons. It’s very easy to see way someone may really like this book, and think that the writing was amazing. Although, it is also very easy to see why someone might hate it and not recommend it to anyone. I have to admit though, that I was not a big fan of this book.
This book was good for many reasons. I really liked how the author was able to thoroughly describe every character and get you attached to them. I also liked how he really explained how Mexican drug cartels operated. It seemed like he didn’t leave out a single detail when it came to that, which made the book cool and terrifying all at the same time. Since I am LDS, I did not mind how much the author referred to the Mormon Church, but I can also see how some people may not like that. I can tell that Mike McPheters really put a lot of thought into writing this book.
On the other hand, this book was terrible for a lot of reasons. First of all, the writing was not very good. Sometimes, it was really hard to follow the story because of the structure of the book. The dialogue was also very stiff, and they were very boring to read. I think another reason I did not like this book is because I was expecting something very different. I was hoping to see a lot of action and adventure, when, in reality, the book only had three or four action packed scenes which all wrapped up quite quickly. I also thought that the book was pretty cheesy. The storyline was pretty unbelievable, and the romance within the book was very unrealistic. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[Craig · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty lame and cheesy. I do not recommend this book. The author's purpose is to spotlight the devastation caused by the Mexicoan drug cartels, comparing them to the secret combinations spoken of in the Book of Mormon. True enough. Unfortunately, the fictional story he contrives to portray this reality is highly improbable, jerkily concocted (with frequent ill-conceived and untimely flashbacks), packed with trite phrases, and filled with inconsistencies (ie., two Mormon missionaries serving in Sinaloa, Mexico, in the time-frame given return to Mission headquarters in "Mexico City" [these are different missions]; a Mexican drug lord in his "early thirties" has two [adult] sons who are arrested and imprisoned in So California; etc). Worst of all, the book is poorly written - very pedestrian. Granted, the subject matter is worthy of our attention, but a lot more thought and effort could have been invested in a good plotline and story before publishing, thus eliciting a much more compelling response from the reader. Perhaps a few writing classes would have helped. I gave it one star because had I given it none (which I believe it deserves), it would appear I would have not rated it at all.

[Sunshine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bonneville Publisher, shame on you for publishing such a poor piece of literature. I have tried to think of redeeming qualities that I could write about this book. I can't think of any. The characters are as flat as a pancake, this author has NO talent for writing fiction what-so-ever (maybe try your hand at non-fiction), the plot, storyline and overall concept were beyond unrealistic. Perhaps if I had known better the religious/political nature of this book I would have read it with a different perspective, but as it is, I didn't finish it after reading about half I had had all I could take.

[Becky S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book if you want to know about drugs, secret combinations and the fruits of Mexico. Since it was a novel I had to keep reminding myself it was made up but the guy that wrote it worked with this stuff in the FBI so there is still the question of how much of it is true. It was well done and I'm glad the ending was happy for one family even though the problem in general is continuous.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little preachy, but considering the point of the book, it was understandable. It also had a few writing problems that could have been resolved with more thorough editing. However, the story was very interesting. It made me want to hear Mike McPheters tell his FBI stories in person.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I purchased the book, I was hoping that it was based on a true story. I'm sure it's based on Mr. McPheters' experiences as an agent, but as a fictional story it fell a little short. There is too much opinion (even if I agree) and the characters are not as shocking as the author would hope. All in all not a bad read - but not something I'll be talking about.

[Tana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was interesting. I enjoyed reading about the issues we have and the story was decent enough. However, the writing isn't the best I have read.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea for the story was good, the writing was not. I'm also pretty sure the author didn't have an editor.

[Sharon the Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little heavy on the political agenda it seemed. Interesting though, and really made me think.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book group selection.
Simply awful.

[Trevor Parker · Rating 1 out of 5]

The topic is interesting and the story has potential. But for me, it is terribly written. Very dull and formulaic. I gave up a little over half way through it.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually ended up liking this a lot more towards the middle and end than I did in the beginning. I think the beginning has to provide a lot of background information in order to understand the full story. The full story ended up being great, and a happy ending always helps.
The cons for me were that I was expecting something more realistic. There is no way this whole story ends up happening in real life. Drug dealers don’t become fruit producers! I also thought the “lessons” were a little preachy and politically driven. But again, the fictional story aspect of this was great and very entertaining.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cartels And Combinations by Mike McPheters

When Mike called me a few weeks ago to ask me if I would be interested in reviewing his upcoming new fiction novel, I was very excited, as he had called me last year to ask my assistance in setting up a Fireside in my Stake here in Kennewick WA and to ask if I'd be interested in reviewing his first book Agent Bishop: True Stories From An FBI Agent Moonlighting As A Mormon Bishop. One interesting sidenote to mention is that a retired police officer in my ward, our SA Rep, also helped set that Fireside up since he worked with Mike when they both lived in Pendleton, Oregon and that Mike was Don's Bishop.
Anyway, Mike has hit a homerun with his first novel. This riveting novel is an eye-opener to the world of drug cartels and drug lords and how and why they do what they do. This novel is based on a true story.
Elena Guzman, almost 18 and about ready to go off to BYU-Idaho, isn't so gung-ho on her parents Mormon faith. While standing at a Youth Conference to bear her testimony, she feels a warm feeling as she shares her feelings. A few hours later, while her grandfather is sharing the family history with her, a drug cartel abucts her and whisks her away deep into Mexico. Elena learns how her Uncle Ruben and another relative, who work in the orchards and being treated by two white teen brothers. These brothers felt that the Mexicans should not be getting the jobs that the white people should be getting. The Mexicans could actually get paid more in the US than in Mexico and Ruben and Hector would work hard.
Elena's father, Enrique, is a DA and has been working very hard in convicting these drug traffikers and sending them to prison. Enrique's nephew, Tito, son of Ruben, takes over The Brotherhood, promising his father to run the business without shedding any blood. The competition is The Vultures, the head drug lord having been kicked out of The Brotherhood by the Crocodile, who dies, leaving Ruben to take over.

The reason Elena has been taken is due to El Gordo's three sons being in jail in San Diego, so Elena is being held in exchange for releasing his sons. Federico, one of The Brotherhood, has infiltrated into The Vultures, has promised to look after Elena and to help her escape.

Before Ruben dies, he has Tito attend a meeting with other drug lords and he, along with Ruben feel uncomfortable with all the secret oaths, signs and secret combinations that these evil men are doing because they are doing Satan's bidding. Tito had never committed any murders, as he felt that was wrong. Ruben's nephew Miguel had served his mission in Mexico and he invited Miguel and his companion to visit and have dinner and having them there was foreign to him, but he started reading parts of the Book of Mormon and had Tito read a few highlighted scriptures while he was on his deathbed. Tito's sister was so impressed with what the Missionaries had to say and how they acted, she became baptized.
How Enrique, his FBI friends and Tito are able to rescue Elena, is a surprising turn, so won't spoil the ending and aftermath for you. Mike has a great way of implementing very unique, but viable solutions to the drug trafficing and illegal immigration issues. We need to work together as a nation to train and educate the illegal immigrants in their countries.

This novel will make you look at issues with a better perspective, esp since this novel was written by one who knows his subject only too well.

I received this book from Cedar Fort, though indirectly from Mike.

Published by: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Date Published: November 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59955-487-7
239pp

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the 2015 Reading Challenge: A book you started but never finished

This book sounds more interesting than it is. Not that it’s a horrible book, but neither is it one I have an interest in reading again. It was just okay.

This book has some of the pitfalls of LDS fiction—namely, the Spirit comforting characters in a way that destroys all the tension I felt as a reader. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the Holy Ghost comforting characters, but it needs to be done in a way that still leaves the fate of the character/situation in doubt. I mean, there was one point in the book where a character was told the fate of Elena and I stopped caring at that point, because the ending had been given away. I still finished the book, but that was more of because I was curious how everything would play out, and not because I was emotionally invested.

Another flaw was the rushing of scenes/events. This happens near the end of the book, where a scene is happening and then suddenly a big twist/event is shoved into a paragraph, and if you blinked you would miss it. It felt like the author was in a hurry to finish the book and didn’t want to take the time to let the event happen.

Also, there were some bits towards the end of the book that just… It wasn’t necessarily preachy (though, it kind of was), but it felt like the author was trying to insert in a big epiphany he had had, except for the fact that I felt like the epiphany was super obvious and it just made all of the characters seem stupid… I mean, who would have guessed that the secret combinations in the scriptures correlate to the secret combinations of gangs? Seriously. I don’t remember a time I hadn’t made that connection.

With characters, there were some interesting ones, but there were also ones who I forgot who they were because they didn’t stand out at all, but I was expected to remember them when they entered into the story again… Though, it didn’t matter too much that I was confused as to who they were, because they never did much in the story.

I didn’t realize how much negative I had to say about this book… Despite all of these flaws, there were interesting characters and I enjoyed the book enough to finish it. I do wish I had been in Elena’s head a little bit more, since she’s the one who goes through the biggest character arc and so is one of the more interesting characters (once you get past how annoying she is in the beginning).

I also liked how the romance was handled in this book, in that it wasn’t a huge focus, but what you saw of it was kind of sweet.

The flashbacks/backstory stuff was interesting, though I wish there had been a little less of it, as I felt like it shifted the focus off of the main plotline a little too much. Still, it was nice to see how all of the characters fit together and to see how much the present was influenced by the past.

The ending was satisfactory, though some of the falling action felt… I don’t know. Like the author was trying to build up tension, but it wasn’t there because you weren’t really in anybody’s head. Then the last chapter of the story was unnecessary and left me feeling a little confused. If the book had ended on the previous chapter, it would have been that much better.

So, even with all of the problems I had with this book, it’s certainly not the worst of LDS fiction, and it kept me interested enough to read until the end. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it to anyone, but if you’re thinking about reading it, I don’t discourage you either.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As noted by other reviewers, the plot isn't believable, but that would be okay because it's nice to have a thriller without all the profanity and sex too often contained in thrillers (especially James Patterson). Yet Lee Child has great thrillers without the profanity and sex, so it can be done (and many of his plots aren't believable, either, but who cares?). My problem with this book is more with the horrible dialog. I know other reviewers say the "facts" aren't realistic, but I thought there was some interesting commentary about the drug wars in SoCal and Mexico. I don't go for the fundamental Book of Mormon analogy made, though; it seems to me that the greater danger of combinations is among the elite in the U.S., including bankers, financiers, and lawyers, who collude for their own self interest to the detriment of the country as a whole. Immigration hasn't always been illegal in the U.S. For that matter, wouldn't Lehi's family be considered illegal immigrants? They even had to go without fire in the wilderness to avoid the people who didn't want them there.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not as good as McPheters' previous autobiographical narrative, "Agent Bishop". McPheters obviously is NOT a novelist, and his attempts at fiction and dialog were so stiff and artificial that it was hard to get past them. That said, it was interesting to learn more about his take, (based on personal experience), on Mexican Drug cartels and illegal boarder trafficking, etc. I wonder if the cartels truely take the secret combination oaths of the ancients, but it is an interesting premise, and the escalating conditions in Mexico are frightening. The novel contained an awfully lot of soapbox extreme Mormonism ideas, which were ok if you took it with a grain of salt and knew where he was coming from. But they could be either inflamatory or offensive to readers who took everything he said as gospel.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I intentionally haven't read any other reviews yet. I knew this book wasn't highly reviewed with I started reading, but I didn't know why. I wasn't sure how many stars to give it, but overall I liked this book.

I actually really enjoyed this book most of the time. It did jump around to past events throughout which threw me off at first, but once I got into it it didn't bother me.

Warning--the last paragraph could be considered a spoiler.

I wasn't a fan of how the book ended, though. Chapter 27 was not in keeping with the rest of the book. I generally don't like it when books don't quite finish the story for you, but I'd prefer that to having everything gift wrapped with a perfect little bow on top.

[Angela]

There were a lot of different back-stories and plotlines at the beginning, so it took me a bit to get into it, but overall I liked it. I like the comparision between drug cartels, sex trafficking, etc and the secret combinations of bad guys in the Book of Mormon. It seemed a bit far-fetched at times to have the antagonists using the same phrases as those in the Book of Mormon and to have them say specifically that they were handed down by Kishumen and Gadianton themselves, but it's LDS fiction, and LDS authors like to do that sort of thing. I really liked the "The Sunday School Class" and the other chapter that specifically address the comparison.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I preface this with, had I know how religious this book was, I never would have entered to win it. I felt that this book, while an interesting pretence, was very preachy. Coming from an oppressed religious background (though not Mormon) I do instantly take offence to anything that seems should be preached from a pulpit and not in a book. I liked some of the story, and the premise was good, but if it was just a story that let me come to my own conclusions rather than feeling beat over the head with McPheeters religious agenda I would have enjoyed it more.

[Shirlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mike McPheters also wrote the book "Agent Bishop: True Stories from an FBI Agent", Moonlighting as a Mormon Bishop. In this book he writes about the border conflicts with Mexico. A young Mormon woman is abducted by members of a drug cartel, who hold her as ransom for the return of the sons of the cartel's leader.
The story details how drug cartels are infiltrating our country's border with illegal drugs.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Exciting! A co-worker read this and highly recommended it. She was right: it is very exciting and chilling. Actually flat out terrifying. But this is the world we live in. This is a novel, but I'm sure reflects the world that the author has dealt with in his career. He gives us hope as well, and through his characters shows how good people go from A to Z: how they go from good to the point of no return, and how to come back. Well worth reading!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is tempting to pick apart different aspects of this book. But, overall I liked the story, and because of that the flaws are easy to push aside. Mexican borders problems and drug cartels are not things I have read about and are not something I know much about, is it was interesting to get a perspective on these issues.

It is published by Bonneville Books and definitely has a strong LDS perspective. That isn't a bad thing, just something to keep in mind.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book on First Reads and totally enjoyed this story. It is so depressing to read about the drug culture that continues to thrive, no matter WHAT law enforcement does to thwart it. It was nice to read a story where good vs evil wins.......even if it was make believe. Definitely recommend this book if you enjoy crime stories.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book at my mom's house it was really sad and interesting about the drug cartels in Mexico and America. It's about a young Mexican/American girl and her family some good and some bad guys in her extended family. It starts with the prejudices in the past and hard work that made her dad an attorney and her undlce a drug dealer. I didn't not finish it yet but I want to :)

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written and thought out. But it does give a picture of drug cartels and their formation in Sinaloa, MX. The daughter of the judge (that puts drug gang members in prison) is kidnapped and held for ransom until some gang members are released from jail. And so the DEA, FBI, SWAT, and whoever else has an acronym name is mobilized to get her. Can you see what is coming?

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. His experience in the FBI lends credence to his philosophy and while the book is interesting and makes some good points, I don't totally agree with his Forward. I'd really like to know just how much is fact and how much fiction. Yes, I know the story is fiction but how much fact feeds into it.

[Joe Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted an LDS action book but got more of an opinion of the immigration laws facing America and the typical argument of we need illegal immigrants to so our farming because Americans won't do it for cheap. There were conversations about democrats allowing immigrants Into the country for more votes.

I liked the book once I got used to the style. Good thoughts from an LDS perspective.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There's so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it behooves none of us to speak ill of the rest of us."

"Churches are hospitals for sinners not havens for saints. ...the gospel is the ambulance that takes us to the hospital to be healed. We need to share that ambulance...not judge who should ride and who shouldn't."

[Kimberly Van De Graaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book. It was a very simple read but I think that Mike Mcpeheters is right on in what is going on with the drug war in Mexico. He should know being a retired FBI agent!