Customer Reviews
Scary but true... - By: bloodsimple, 11 Jun 2008 
This a frightening but fascinating book, which brings together the keen-eyed journalism Glenny displayedin the 1990s, with a tale of the kind of organised crime that touches us all, whether we know it or not.
Glenny tours the world, & wisely does not try his hand at thriller-writing as he does so. The stories, & their contexts, are fascinating enough to be simply laid out before us. In each case, the most compelling parts are the history & analysis of how that kind of crime took off,in that place & that time. While there are undercurrents that are common throughout, what stands out starkly are the location & era-specific details of the conditions that allow major crime to flourish. I would have liked to have seen something more about how these national & international crime groups link together; however, given the amount of detail at his disposal, perhaps the author is saving this for his next book.
The level of detail is impressive, & the sources authoritative. Glenny has managed to bringin a tremendous amount of information, without leaving the reader feeling swamped & overwhelmed. The book should be compulsory reading for anyone aspiring to senior levels of government. Because what strikes this reader, is howin each case the myopia, stupidity, connivance & outright greed of governments have created the conditions for organised crime to grow & thrive.
Indepth Study - By: Paul Holland, 14 May 2008 
Misha Glenny delves deep into organised crimein this study of a post cold-war, globalised world. Indepth & at times utterly fascinating this book covers a wide blanket of criminals from the Balkans to India, from Colombia to Russia & beyond.
However the linkage between each criminal group is not evident & there is not a significant coherant argument concerning globalisation. On one hand he appears to advocate the legalisation of all drugs whilst on the other going into great detail concerning tobacco smuggling & counterfeiting & the negative effects this causes.
The pace is at times frantic & it is sometimes hard to keep up with the various names of individuals & groups which at times gives the book a disjointed feel.
However overall this is an incredibly well researched, valuable modern social history.
McMafia - powered by illegal drugs - By: Barry Tighe, 24 Apr 2008 McMafia is an argument for the legalisation of drugs. Without explicitly demanding such a thing, it gives the best possible argument for legalising all narcotics; that drug money is the engine of the McMafia.
Misha Glenny covers many more McMafia activities; cigarette smuggling, investment scams, slavery, fake goods, intimidation etc, but behind them all lies drugs & the massive profits they engender.
He points out that wein the west are largely to blame. We buy the fake DVDs, hire the slaves & turn a blind eye to the sweatshops. Mainly, we buy the drugs.
The author's point is that so long as the drug barons grow fat on human misery, so will the McMafia thrive.
A riveting read.
A dazzling exposition of modern organised crime - By: J A C Corbett, 22 Apr 2008 In McMafia, Misha Glenny meets some of the underworld's villains & scammers & puts a human face to the vast conspiracies which we hear so much about, but ultimately know so little. He is an entertaining, affable guide, a meticulous researcher and, it would appear, a brave journalist. He writes with candour, incisiveness & occasional humour. This is a very different work to his books on the Balkans, but the skills that made them such good books are muchin the evidence here as well.
Glenny takes us on a world tour of global crime: from the insidious backstreets of the ex-Soviet bloc, where James Bond-esque baddies lurkin every corner, to Nigeria, Brazil, Japan & China. Although the chapter titles - such as `The Future of Organised Crime' - suggest a thematic approach, it is more geographic than that, which actually makes it all the more readable.
My only problems are with the title - which suggests that the global underworld somehow replicates himself everywhere & is anodyne for it, when Glenny shows that it is not - & the lack of over-arching hypothesis - this isn't a book about the globalisation of crime, we are told at the end, when the preceding 400 pages would suggest that it is.
But as part travelogue, part social history this is nevertheless an excellent read. It is an urgent, compelling book, which I read over only a couple of days & would recommend to anyone with the vaguest interestin organised crime.
If you loved Freakonomics or Fast Food Nation, read this book - By: TomTom, 14 Apr 2008 If you've ever bought knocked off cigarettes or DVDs, taken recreational drugs or paid for sex then you're part of the problem. So says Misha Glenny as he takes us on a spellbinding tour from leafy suburban England where a housewife is mistakenly assassinated instead of her sister, through Bulgaria with its muscle men who would be funny if they weren't so scary, to the black market free for all created by sanctionsin the Balkans, to Russia, Africa, India, Israel, Europe, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, the US, Canada, Japan & China.
This is an amazing book that tells you how the fall of communism & the deregulation of the financial markets have coincided to create a crime bonanza; 20% of the world's GDP comes from illicit activity.
It's eye-poppingly good. Everyone should read it.
