Genre: Crime Drama | Author: Ashley Antoinette, JaQuavis Coleman | Release Date: 2009
The book was published by Urban Books. After Carter Diamond’s death, his son Carter Jones rises to lead The Cartel, unaware that his new love, Miamor, is secretly plotting revenge against him and his family.
Plot
A crime drama can be compelling when the narrative pieces are laid out with precision and depth. Unfortunately, The Cartel misses the mark by a wide margin. The story is riddled with clichés and predictable urban fiction tropes, offering little originality or fresh perspective. While a few twists did manage to catch me off guard, they were rare and unable to salvage the overall shallowness of the plot. The entire narrative is governed by three elements: sex, violence, and money, with nothing deeper or thought-provoking beneath the surface. There’s no real exploration of character beyond these superficial drivers, and no strong subplots or layered themes to keep the reader invested.
Potential existed—especially with the premise of Carter Diamond’s death and the power struggle that follows—but it’s squandered. The story feels rushed, with little interest in fleshing out its world or characters beyond archetypal behaviors. The ending was certainly shocking, but by that point, emotional investment was long gone. Poor decision-making by the characters made it hard to root for or even care about their fates. Sadly, while The Cartel had the opportunity to be a gripping urban saga on par with The Wire or The Sopranos, it falls flatter than the Thing in freefall.
Carter Jones and Miamor, the supposed protagonists, are unlikable, one-dimensional, and painfully cliché. Carter, despite being illegitimate and presumably distant from the Diamond empire, is somehow an instant drug lord who faces no real challenges. He’s written as the perfect man—always sharp, always decisive, always respected—without any real growth or flaws. It makes his story not only unrelatable but also incredibly boring. Miamor, meanwhile, is a deeply disappointing character, leaning heavily on the "sexy killer" trope without any personality or nuance to back it up. Her leadership of the Murder Mamas feels absurd when she and her crew act with such staggering incompetence.
Supporting characters like Breeze, Taryn, Money, and Mecca are no better. Breeze is a brainless socialite, Taryn is useless, and the twin brothers are nothing but hollow archetypes—one smart, one violent. There’s no emotional connection to any of them, and their lack of evolution across the story makes them feel more like caricatures than people.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Production
The writing by Ashley and JaQuavis compounds these problems. The dialogue and narration, filled with exaggerated street lingo, feel amateurish and unprofessional. It’s understandable to reflect the characters’ vernacular in speech, but the prose itself shouldn’t read like casual conversation. The result is writing that sounds silly, undermining any attempts at serious storytelling. Character interactions are shallow; henchmen blindly agree with orders, and even the infamous Murder Mamas are indistinguishable except for minor surface traits (e.g., one being Jamaican). Scenes that should be intense—like contract killings—often spiral into ridiculousness due to poor execution.
Ashley and JaQuavis’ writing style in The Cartel is some of the sloppiest I’ve ever encountered. The prose reads like an unedited transcript of bad street dialogue, littered with amateur phrasing, ridiculous lingo, and a complete disregard for quality storytelling. There’s no rhythm, no atmosphere, no sense of craft—just a lazy stream of words thrown together without care for structure or tone. Dialogue between characters is especially painful; every conversation feels robotic, cartoonish, and void of any real emotion or complexity. It’s impossible to take the story seriously when every character sounds like a walking stereotype with nothing meaningful to say. Characterization in The Cartel is one of its biggest failings.
The pacing is equally abysmal. Major plot points are rushed through with no buildup, while unimportant scenes drag on endlessly, bloating the book with filler that should have been cut. The authors have no grasp of how to develop tension, maintain intrigue, or layer in subplots for depth. The Cartel doesn’t have direction—it has random events stitched together with sex, violence, and clichés. There’s no real momentum, no emotional stakes, no payoff. It’s clear the authors were more interested in cheap shock value than actually building a compelling, cohesive narrative. In short, this book is an absolute mess.
The authors had the bones of a solid drama but squandered it through lazy writing, paper-thin characters, and a complete lack of polish. As it stands, The Cartel is less a gripping urban epic and more an exercise in wasted potential.
Rating: 1 out of 5
The Verdict
In the end, The Cartel (The Cartel, Book 1) is one of the most disappointing books I've ever read. With a predictable story, flat characters, and amateurish writing, it’s a frustrating waste of good potential. The Cartel (The Cartel, Book 1) deserves 1 out of 5. I cannot recommend it but I recognize that there is an audience for it, and they'll probably like. And to those fans I ask, "What the hell is wrong with you?"
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