Turning The Tide: One Man Against The Medellin Cartel Paperback – January 4, 2010

This was a great retelling of the events on Norman’s Cay with a scientific twist on the story. I know the basic events on Norman’s but I’ve never read this detailed of an account. It was exciting, scary, interesting and descriptive. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with interest in the Bahamas or the drug trade.

First of all, you have probably heard about Normans Cay from the now infamous Fire festival.This book helps fill in some information that the documentaries leave blurred.Pablo Escobar never owned Normans Cay, but a drug trafficker named Carlos Ledger (released from prison June 2020, with a net worth of 2.7billion) did own a lot of it.The book follows the misadventures of one Richard Novak, the man is a complete maniac. His constant poor decision makes for an amazing adventure even though it’s clear that the authors take a bit of artistic license with the story.This is 100% worth the read!

This book tells the story of one of the most audacious drug smuggling operations ever thought of- the take over of an entire island in the Bahamas by the Medellin Cartel, told from the perspective of one courageous citizen who was often there. As a retired DEA agent, and a sailor, who has been to Norman’s Cay, and seen the ruins of Ledher’s little empire, I found this book to be a very interesting and enjoyable read. It only got four stars because it could have been longer with more detail. Anybody heading to the Bahamas who wants to read some real life James Bond stuff that happened there, should pick it up.

It is difficult to put this book down, and especially when you realize that this is a true story of how one person was the catalyst for bringing down a key player in a drug cartel. This should really be made into a movie.

Richard Novak had a very good story about the operation on Norman’s Cay from an ordinary citizens view. However; he saw most of the operations on the island but not the behind the scenes operations. I couldn’t put the book down. I personally, didn’t really like Novak and didn’t agree how aggressive he was with the Bahamian government or his DEA agent he worked with. It was still a great read. I want to find a book that has Carlos Lehdar’s story behind the scenes on Norman’s Cay.

I have flown over Norman's Cay back in the day, but luckily didn't have to land, so this book was of great interest to me.It was worth reading, but with a lot of caveats. First off, this cannot possibly be a 100% true story if for no other reason that the exactly what happened and who said exactly what is only known by the people who were there, which does not include the author. Think more "docudrama". Second, some of these events are so absurd that they could not be found in a fictional novel, the editors would reject them as too absurd to be believed even in fiction.I'll detail a few:1. Richard Novack does not seem to know that his son has got a commercial pilot's license at FIT and bought an airplane at age 19 until he meets him after ignoring him for a year or two! I got a commercial license there and it would have taken some doing to finish that at age 19 and airplanes are a bit expensive for the average 19 year old.2. Richard Novack seems utterly obsessed with Norman's, despite there being about 1,000 other awesome places to dive all over the Bahamas.3. Why the hell didn't the Colombians just kill Novack? Colombian cocaine smugglers are not known for being shy about solving issues with a gun.4. Why would Novack keep going back to a place where pretty much the entire well-armed population of the island wanted to kill him?5. Why did Lehder even let someone who made no secret about wanting to clear all the drug runners off the island AND who admitted going to the police about it keep coming back to the island?6. Silly stuff like FIT migrating from Fort Lauderdale to Melbourne, Novak complaining his boat is too slow with a single 175 HP outboard and then the picture of him in the boat shows 2 outboards?

Very interesting reading about a different point of view to a Notorious drug smuggler.

In my opinion the way this guy writes is difficult to read. He will often add too many descriptive elements to a sentence and it becomes hard to follow. I know he's trying to embellish but I loose track of the real point and have to re read some paragraphs a lot. That's probably just me and my inability to stay focused. Having said that I do like the book and am enjoying learning about the history of Norman's Caye in a novel form. We are going to Norman's Caye in a few weeks and are looking forward to snorkeling the plane wreck.