The Mastermind: Drugs, Empire, Murder, Betrayal

Paul Le Roux is a Zimbabwean-born software coder who might have built the Uber of prescription painkillers—exploiting the complexity and anonymity of the internet to create a massive business in the gray area of the law—but, out of boredom, greed, or a sadistic thirst for power, eagerly stepped from the gray into the black, building an international network of drugs, weapons, and murder. Ratliff followed his case for years, trying to trace his network as federal agents were doing the same, and his story—which he narrates himself in the audiobook—has the depth of detail and character that only comes from deep reporting and understanding. At its heart, though is a hole the size of Paul Le Roux, who is so blandly evil he's nearly dull; what fascinates are the lesser characters drawn into his orbit, for good or ill, and the frightening ease with which he can construct his nearly borderless criminal empire. —Tom (Download the audiobook from our partners at Libro.fm.)