cover image American Desperado: 
My Life—From Mafia Soldier 
to Cocaine Cowboy to 
Secret Government Asset

American Desperado: My Life—From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset

Jon Roberts and Evan Wright, read by Mark Bramhall and multiple narrators. Random House Audio, unabridged, 13 CDs, 16.5 hrs., $45 ISBN 978-0-307-70464-1

Jon Roberts was perhaps the most infamous and powerful man in the United States at one time, but most people have never even heard of him. In this fascinating and scrupulously detailed account, Roberts’s life—from his days as head of the drug cartel in Florida to his time as an assassin in Vietnam—is for the first time revealed to the world. This gripping audio edition is read by a large, gifted cast of narrators, including Mark Bramhall as Roberts, Erik Davies, Mark Deakins, Kirby Heyborne, Thomas Vincent Kelly, and Jonathan McClain. Bramhall’s standout performance is stern and composed, well capturing Roberts’s cool exterior. When an audiobook is this good, listening becomes a compulsive act. A Crown hardcover. (Nov.)