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    Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami
    Unavailable
    Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami
    Unavailable
    Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami
    Audiobook9 hours

    Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami

    Written by Roben Farzad

    Narrated by Jonathan Davis

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The wild, true story of the Mutiny, the hotel and club that embodied the decadence of Miami's cocaine cowboys heyday—and an inspiration for the blockbuster film, Scarface...

    In the seventies, coke hit Miami with the full force of a hurricane, and no place attracted dealers and dopers like Coconut Grove's Mutiny at Sailboat Bay. Hollywood royalty, rock stars, and models flocked to the hotel's club to order bottle after bottle of Dom and to snort lines alongside narcos, hit men, and gunrunners, all while marathon orgies burned upstairs in elaborate fantasy suites.

    Amid the boatloads of powder and cash reigned the new kings of Miami: three waves of Cuban immigrants vying to dominate the trafficking of one of the most lucrative commodities ever known to man. But as the kilos—and bodies—began to pile up, the Mutiny became target number one for law enforcement.

    Based on exclusive interviews and never-before-seen documents, Hotel Scarface is a portrait of a city high on excess and greed, an extraordinary work of investigative journalism offering an unprecedented view of the rise and fall of cocaine—and the Mutiny—in Miami.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 17, 2017
    ISBN9780525498667
    Unavailable
    Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami

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    Reviews for Hotel Scarface

    4/5

    16 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 4/5
      Wow! This was a fantastic in depth look at Miami during it's "heyday" as the drug capital of the world.It was crazy what those people were able to get away with. I also enjoyed the history part of it, as well. The name dropping was off the charts. The Mutiny sounded like Studio 54 in New York City. We've all heard stories from there, but I've never really heard about The Mutiny and all this other stuff. Especially the plight of the Cuban exiles.I can now add another subject to my trivia expertise list. Ha!Thanks to Berkley Publishing Company and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
    • 5/5
      What an excellent read! Hotel Scarface is the story of the "Mutiny Club", a hotel/club/restaurant in Miami. It's set in the 1980's, running up to the present day. The Mutiny Club was the nucleus of the 80's cocaine scene, and of the "Cocaine Cowboys". Think "Miami Vice", "Scarface", and the "Godfather". Then add in anti-Castro patriots, the Marielitos from Cuba, the Columbians (including Pablo Escobar), the Iran-Contra fiasco, Manuel Noriega, Janet Reno, and a whole host of professional ball players, actors, and politicians. All of those frequented, or had connections to, the Mutiny Club. It's just an amazing story. And handled so well. At times, just the amount of names and characters can seem overwhelming, but if you take a breath and think a bit, it's not hard to follow. You want to just keep plunging ahead, because it's such an exciting story, but you really need to slow down and savor it a bit to get the full effect. Farzad fleshes out the characters well, so you get the sense that you are there with them (and that's a scary thought). The story goes beyond the Mutiny Club itself, into broader settings, worldwide, but the author manages to keep tying the story back to the Club itself. I was fortunate (????) enough to meet several of the characters myself, not on their level, but during my career in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The descriptions of the manner and bearing of the "drug lords" is spot on. As is his descriptions of the lesser players, and especially of the Mariel Cubans. I think I could write a book myself, just on my experiences with these people. And, finally, the ending. Not to spoil it, but Farzad describes well the zeal with which the Federal government goes after these people in court. As they well learned, once the Fed's decide they want you, it's curtains for you. It's just a matter of time. As you can tell, I really, really enjoyed this book. More than most of the other 60-odd books that I have read and reviewed this year. I highly recommend this one!
    • 4/5
      Holy hell was this an exciting and interesting book. True Crime doesn't get more "fun" than this. Hotel Scarface traces the origins of the Cocaine Cowboys in South Florida, their quick rise, the blizzard of users in Miami, and the amazingness of The Mutiny at Sailboat Bay. The Mutiny was where all the drug lords, smugglers, vixens, celebrities, and dirty cops hung out and my lord, to have been a fly on the wall there. The Mutiny was the hub in the early days of cocaine and even the movie, Scarface, models itself off The Mutiny and the eccentric characters there. The cast of characters in this nonfiction history is extensive and can get a little overwhelming at times, but it is definitely worth getting through because this book is full of bizarre little tid bits and over the top lifestyles that could of course not be kept up forever. Extensively researched, wonderfully written, and compelling as hell, this is a must read!
    • 3/5
      Fascinating material, but poorly written and organized. An Opportunity squandered.
    • 4/5
      Living in Florida for a total of 12 years and visiting my sister, who lives in Miami. I’ve always wondered what it’s early day story was.
      I was excited to read about its history in the late 70’s and 80’s. I knew Miami was the vibe for the rich and famous, just didn’t know how intergrated the rich and famous and the drug lords were.

      Hotel Scarface was intriguing— the ins and outs of the world of drugs, and controlling the realm of greed and excess, the way the people who worked for the Drug Lords lived. Their life was hazy, dangerous and fluid.

      Roben Farzad did a fantastic job at researching the history of Miami- the inside look at the players, the Mutiny and its role in the world of Cocaine conspiracies and death. I’ve been to the Mutiny and so reading about its history was a eye-opening experience. Miami Vice- the television show has nothing in this book.

      Thanks, Penquin First to Read for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.
    • 3/5
      The book opens up with a litany of celebrities who partied at and sometimes wrote about the Mutiny Hotel located in Miami’s Sailboat Bay. It shows how sex and drugs attract not only the rich and famous, but criminal activity, which brings in law enforcement. The book touches on political relationships with Cuba and the refugees who fled to Miami when Fidel Castro took control of the county. It also explores the various way drugs enter the country and how infighting allowed prosecutors to turn caught suspects into witnesses. There are sections where the author strings quotes and examples together to make a point. Overall, it was interesting but very superficial.I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
    • 4/5
      Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami- by Roben Farzad is a 2017 Berkley publication.Miami Vice? Al Pacino’s Scarface? Miami in the 1980s, was all that and more. You'll have to keep reminding yourself that this is no work of fiction. While the entire country suffered an economic downturn, Miami was hustling and bustling, its economy bursting at the seams, solidifying its ‘sexiest’ city reputation- all thanks to that high priced, highly addictive, white powder- Cocaine. At the center of all the excitement, sat the Mutiny Hotel, situated on Bayshore drive. The hotel and club, was Miami’s version of ‘Casablanca’, with Burton Goldberg at the helm. This was the gathering spot for the Miami Dolphins football players, rock stars, party girls, drug smugglers and dealers and cops, alike. Business was conducted at all hours of the day and night. The Cocaine, the money, the Dom- all flowed like water through the Mutiny in its heyday. The city was a war zone, with the highest murder rate in the nation, and the cops and judges were in the pockets of the drug lords- many of whom were household names, right alongside the celebrity clientele at the Mutiny. People from all walks of life, small time earners, and lower income Cuban immigrants, were suddenly flush with unimaginable amounts of cash, expensive cars, and all the rest. It was a crazy time, and Mutiny Hotel became THE place to meet and do business for the notorious ‘Cocaine Cowboys.’The book replays the drama that took place inside the storied walls of the Mutiny, featuring a large cast of characters, some of whom will sound very familiar, while others were mostly famous inside the confines of the drug industry. To help keep it all sorted, the author graciously provides a list of the major players the book is centered around. I was not surprised by the number of celebrities that partied there, and while a few of the names mentioned will shock you, most of them won’t. Some may be moderately shaken by how many local athletes were participants, but you really shouldn’t be. A few notorious regulars were Rick James, members of the classic rock group- The Eagles, and few politicians, popped in and out as well- maybe a famous Kennedy? – and of course, some cast members from the wildly popular television show, 'Miami Vice’.One notorious dealer even landed a couple of guest spots on the show for providing the crew with trustworthy cocaine. While the stage is set to look like everyone was having a good time partying, drinking Dom, visiting the fantasy suites, there was a lot more going on than meets the eye. The Cuban immigrant issues that settled into the city in the 1980’s and the political climate with Cuba, in general, roiled just as intensely as it did two decades prior. While the events that were transpiring in Miami may have helped inspire the Al Pacino movie, ‘Scarface’, the movie was mostly shot outside of Miami, and the author will explain those details, but it mainly had to do with the fear of how Cubans would be portrayed in the film. Still, many thought they recognized themselves or others they knew in the film, and weren’t particularly offended by it. It’s crazy to think back on it all now. Everything detailed in this book would have made for great television and movies… which it did- but it was very real, very scary, and a very dark piece of Miami’s history. It was a dangerous situation, shocking to the core, as Americans watched it all play out in real time, but now with the benefit of hindsight, it seems even more insane and hard to believe. This book makes an excellent companion piece to the documentary ‘Cocaine Cowboys’- (the producers of the documentary even provided the prologue for this book), if you have seen it. If not, I highly recommend watching it and reading this book, in no particular order, because both will provide incredible look back at this part of America’s history- Miami’s, in particular. FYI- the documentary is available with Neflix streaming. Overall, this book focuses primarily on the Mutiny Hotel and the goings on connected to it, but also delves into the city’s history, political climate, Cuba, Columbia, and the drug smuggling superstars and how it all came crashing down. The author did a great job of organizing the material and helping to put names with faces, so to speak, and tells this riveting true crime saga in such a way, you feel like you are seeing these events unfold in front of your very eyes. Even if you remember hearing all about Miami's drug trade on the news ad nauseam in the eighties, you didn’t get this inside version of events, believe me. You will feel the reverberations, get caught up in a bit of nostalgia, shake your head at the name dropping, and gasp in horror at the ruthless double crosses and killings. I can almost hear Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice theme song in my head as we speak. This is an excellent true crime drama which will appeal to those of a certain age, but I highly recommend it for younger readers, too, who will get a bit of unexpected history behind the sexiest city in America. You will never look at the Miami skyline the same way again.