MIAMI OUTLAW:
KID TO KINGPIN
In a searing examination of modern society’s thirst for drugs and the folly of the official drug war, THE MIAMI OUTLAW: KID TO KINGPIN mixes meticulous historical research, investigative reporting, and anthropological detail to illuminate the origins of a few young men’s quest for riches and their willingness to do almost anything to get them. In doing so Sherouse sets them within a landscape of South Florida’s other societal woes in the years just after Vietnam. The result is a tour de force of history and storytelling combined with a plaintive cry for understanding. The author is revealing a story he helped create, he nurtured the protagonist in the beginning of a lifelong journey that led to his envelopment in the criminal underworld of three continents.
Sherouse’s prose does exactly what the best historical or anthropological writing does—it takes the familiar and shows us another side; it takes the unfamiliar and lets us see inside. His scope is omnivorous—Sherouse is dazzling in his research and due-diligence. This is a book about connections between people and culture, people and history, people and the transnational economy. Sherouse pulls together expanding threads of a vast story and what emerges is disquieting.
Part history, part mystery, part memoir, part mea culpa; THE MIAMI OUTLAW: KID TO KINGPIN, weaves a spellbinding tale of avarice and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery disposition of truth, betrayal, and human nature. It is an epic filled with a poignant sense of discovery in a coming of age tale gone awry: a true American tragedy.
In a searing examination of modern society’s thirst for drugs and the folly of the official drug war, THE MIAMI OUTLAW: KID TO KINGPIN mixes meticulous historical research, investigative reporting, and anthropological detail to illuminate the origins of a few young men’s quest for riches and their willingness to do almost anything to get them. In doing so Sherouse sets them within a landscape of South Florida’s other societal woes in the years just after Vietnam. The result is a tour de force of history and storytelling combined with a plaintive cry for understanding. The author is revealing a story he helped create, he nurtured the protagonist in the beginning of a lifelong journey that led to his envelopment in the criminal underworld of three continents.
Sherouse’s prose does exactly what the best historical or anthropological writing does—it takes the familiar and shows us another side; it takes the unfamiliar and lets us see inside. His scope is omnivorous—Sherouse is dazzling in his research and due-diligence. This is a book about connections between people and culture, people and history, people and the transnational economy. Sherouse pulls together expanding threads of a vast story and what emerges is disquieting.
Part history, part mystery, part memoir, part mea culpa; THE MIAMI OUTLAW: KID TO KINGPIN, weaves a spellbinding tale of avarice and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery disposition of truth, betrayal, and human nature. It is an epic filled with a poignant sense of discovery in a coming of age tale gone awry: a true American tragedy.
“There is a certain intimacy to knowing Alex. Much of who he is and what drove him – he kept locked away. Expressive and emotive, funny and very occasionally brutal, he is 100% dependable. We look at his formative years from my view as best childhood friend in the rapidly changing Miami of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and later in an expanding criminal web that reached from South America to the Caribbean, up to the Midwest.” – Scott Sherouse.
From seventh grade, through 12th grade – in six years of wrestling – Alex lost one match. He was the first kid in Florida to be undefeated state champ in 10th grade!
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About the author, SCOTT C SHEROUSE
Rotary Foundation International, Ambassadorial Scholar in 1999. Scott Sherouse received a PhD in Sociology and an MA in History from Florida International University, and taught at Miami Dade College. Scott grew up in Miami, and is now a United States Merchant Mariner, SuperYacht Captain.
"A defining literary piece for Miami"
Told from the perspective of a Miami Native, this story goes where no other Miami story does.
"A must read if you simply love to read"
Sherouse is a wordsmith, and it shows through beautiful, captivating, and relevant language.
"A true gem on history of South Florida and more"
For a place that everyone dismissed as dead and it's now one of the world's hotspots, this is fitting.
"Read it before you watch it!"
The Miami Outlaw Kid to Kingpin story is episode after episode of great story telling. Coming to your screen sometime soon.