Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance by Azam Ahmed.Read about the other entries on the list.
Fear Is Just a Word is a work of reportage so epic, its central story so devastating and vividly personal, that putting it down will be practically impossible for readers, not until the very last page. One evening in 2014, Miriam RodrÃguez got an anguished call from her eldest daughter, informing her that members of the Mexican drug cartel known as the Zetas had abducted her youngest daughter, Karen. What follows is a heartbreaking account of one mother’s stand for justice in a world gone mad, as Miriam channels her grief and rage into becoming part vigilante, part detective, part constitutional lawyer, and all avenging angel. Masterfully blending the personal and the political, Azam Ahmed’s true crime tale is absolutely electrifying.
—Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
--Marshal Zeringue