American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

The criminal kingpins who run roughshod over our world with impunity come in many variations. The ones who people never assume anything about always hold shock value. Ross Ulbricht fits the bill. Floundering through his early 20s, he was brilliant but unfulfilled. He had met the love of his life, who was shocked by his meager living. In 2011, Ross developed the Silk Road website to market psychedelic mushrooms. This business would develop into a wholesale business where Ross oversaw a blooming dealer-to-user operation. The currency dealt was virtual, as Bitcoin was a blossoming method of payment. Ross would run his empire with the help of anonymous minions, cautious but occasionally dropping a nugget or two of information about his existence. The discovery of a pink pill in the mail snowballs into a widespread multi-agency effort to track down the elusive runner of the Silk Road site. Ross is paranoid, but is he paranoid enough to stay one step ahead of his pursuers?

American Kingpin weaves a multi-person narrative encompassing the pursuers and the pursued. The many characters who are highlighted are illuminating, and some are criminally flawed. The cat and mouse game that is ever present is pulse-pounding. The writing is akin to the best of mystery noir. Do not miss one word!