Book Review: Hotel Scarface

Roben Farzad, Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami. New York: New American Library, 2017. ISBN: 9781592409280.

Genre: true crime

Subgenre: history, mobsters, drug lords, city history

Format: e-book galley

Source: NetGalley

 

I thought I had written this review already, but it turns out I did not so I am posting it now. 

The book takes us back to the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s in Miami, Florida. The book looks at The Mutiny at Sailboat Bay, a club and hotel where the cocaine cowboys of the time gathered, conducted business, and partied in the most decadent ways possible. Anyone who was anyone sooner or later came to The Mutiny. It was not only criminals but also cops-- both good cops trying to catch the criminals and bad cops doing business with the criminals--, Cuban exiles, Colombians, politicians, and various celebrities. The club helped inspire pop culture like the film Scarface with Al Pacino and the hit television show Miami Vice. The author draws on interviews, documents, and research to bring this era of Miami excess to life. Fans of true crime books will likely enjoy this one. 

After the preface, the book has 55 chapters. This may sound like a lot, but the chapters are short. This makes for easy reading. Each chapter tells a small part of the story, often looking at a specific person's point of view. All the chapters then present the full story. The book also includes a cast of characters so readers can keep track of the players. In addition, there is a section of photos. In this note, the author discusses how he did his research; for a librarian like me that part was interesting too. The notes provide citations of the many sources used including primary and secondary sources. 

As a kid of the 80s, I admit this book appealed to my nostalgia. Miami Vice back then was a cool show, but I knew little of the cocaine boom and the drug runners that inspired it. For me, the book expanded the view of that era, and I learned more of that history. It also reminded me of events I did know about but had not thought about for a while. 

The book is a pretty good read. It's interesting, and short chapters make for a faster pace. The narrative keeps our attention in part because we get one outrageous story after another. At times we wonder if something can get more outrageous, and it often does. Also, we get accounts of law enforcement and government corruption at various levels, corruption that enabled the drug trade. As the author argues, the cocaine cowboys did build up Miami at the time, and often officials welcomed the money. 

The book presents quite the tale, a tale of excess, of fortunes made and lost, of crimes and justice. Fans of true crime books and fans of books on topics like mobsters and drug lords will likely enjoy it. I liked it; it does bring a decadent part of the 80s to life. I enjoyed reading it for its good pace, stories, and let's be honest, some of the outrageous moments. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

This book qualifies for the following 2023 Reading Challenge: 

Note: This book is published by an imprint of Penguin Random House, one of the four publishers suing Internet Archive that I am actively boycotting. However, I read this and wrote the review prior to March 27, 2023 when I started the boycott. I will not, however, share the review on social media.