The book is a pretty good read. It's interesting, and short chapters make for a faster pace. The narrative keeps our attention in part because we get one outrageous story after another. At times we wonder if something can get more outrageous, and it often does. Also, we get accounts of law enforcement and government corruption at various levels, corruption that enabled the drug trade. As the author argues, the cocaine cowboys did build up Miami at the time, and often officials welcomed the money.

The book presents quite the tale, a tale of excess, of fortunes made and lost, of crimes and justice. Fans of true crime books and fans of books on topics like mobsters and drug lords will likely enjoy it. I liked it; it does bring a decadent part of the 80s to life. I enjoyed reading it for its good pace, stories, and let's be honest, some of the outrageous moments.

(more detailed review on my blog)

I watched the movie Scarface for the first time before I read this book (I know, I'm late to the party!), but reading the true-story aspect to the cocaine trade was so insightful and unbelievable.

This was an interesting read. Definitely a sign of the times. I would definitely recommend this book especially if you like this genre.

HOTEL SCARFACE BY ROBEN FARZAD BOOK REVIEW
Hotel Scarface gives readers a detailed history of the cocaine market in Miami. In an entertaining fashion, Farzad educates readers on the many ways the cocaine trade contributes to the overall economy in Miami.

MUTINY – THE RISE & FALL OF THE HOTEL
This brings us to the hotel, the Mutiny. We learn of the rise & fall of the hotel. As the cocaine trade hits it’s stride, so does the popularity & prestige of the Mutiny. All the dealers frequent the spot. You’ve got have a membership, so it’s only the best of the best. There are actors, actresses, athletes & more. The classic movie, Scarface, even features a dance scene inspired by the Mutiny nightclub. Quickly, the hotel becomes an impromptu office for many of the drug dealers. Unbelievably, there are even phone jacks at each table so you never miss a drug deal.

As the market becomes saturated, things slow down. Many of the big dogs & kingpins go to jail. If you’re lucky enough to escape jail, chances are death is imminent. Almost overnight, the cocaine-fueled fast life comes to a screeching halt. With it, the stature of the hotel falls as well. For many, it’s a sobering reality.

THE VERDICT
I am Really Into This book! Hotel Scarface is a book about hustling, glamour & the reality of dealing drugs. I would place it in true crime and/or history category. If you’re a fan Scarface or Blow, you’re sure to love this novel. Even though this is a non-fiction book, Farzad brings so much life to the story. For me, Hotel Scarface reads as an entertaining fiction novel. It’s wild, unreal & even better because it’s true.

Special thanks to Roben Farzad & Berkley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami
by Roben Farzad

I saw on the blurb that this was the story behind Scarface, so I requested it from NetGalley… for my husband. But then, when he didn’t get around to reading it, I did. And it was, honestly, unexpectedly fascinating. Since I couldn’t be further from that world, I felt kind of like an alien reading about it. But Farzad does a terrific job pulling the reader in, even if I did need to use my slang dictionary to learn some of the less-familiar terms. There are dozens of compelling characters in this true story, making non-fiction read more like a thrilling Hollywood story.

For Goodreads:

Why I picked it — Because it sounded like something my husband and I might both find interesting, and I am trying to be more open to non-fiction (he always is).
Reminded me of… Scarface & The Godfather
For my full review — click here

A fascinating account of the underbelly society socializing at the Mutiny Hotel in Florida, also dubbed 'Hotel Scarface'. Whilst I found all of the stories and cast of 'characters' (I use quotes because they're real people) to be endlessly interesting, I didn't love the way that the author jumped around from person to person without really going into depth with anyone in particular. It really is a snapshot of a group of individuals who frequented the hotel to do some criminal activity as well as some of the police officers and federal agents who investigated it.

This book was fascinating, and also a little bit...scary...? for a girl who grew up far, far away from Miami and for whom the only exposure to that city in the 80s was sneaking out of bed late at night to watch "Miami Vice" (which, as it turns out, wasn't too far from how it really was, after all!). It kept my attention from the first page to the last, and although it definitely doesn't read like a fiction book, it pulled me in in much the same way fiction does.

Cocaine is, as a questionably great man once said, a hell of a drug.

Wow! This was a fantastic in depth look at Miami during it's "heyday" as the drug capital of the world.

It was crazy what those people were able to get away with.

I also enjoyed the history part of it, as well. The name dropping was off the charts. The Mutiny sounded like Studio 54 in New York City. We've all heard stories from there, but I've never really heard about The Mutiny and all this other stuff. Especially the plight of the Cuban exiles.

I can now add another subject to my trivia expertise list. Ha!

Thanks to Berkley Publishing Company and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami- by Roben Farzad is a 2017 Berkley publication.

Miami Vice? Al Pacino’s Scarface? Miami in the 1980s, was all that and more. You'll have to keep reminding yourself that this is no work of fiction. While the entire country suffered an economic downturn, Miami was hustling and bustling, its economy bursting at the seams, solidifying its ‘sexiest’ city reputation- all thanks to that high priced, highly addictive, white powder- Cocaine.

At the center of all the excitement, sat the Mutiny Hotel, situated on Bayshore drive. The hotel and club, was Miami’s version of ‘Casablanca’, with Burton Goldberg at the helm. This was the gathering spot for the Miami Dolphins football players, rock stars, party girls, drug smugglers and dealers and cops, alike.

Business was conducted at all hours of the day and night. The Cocaine, the money, the Dom- all flowed like water through the Mutiny in its heyday. The city was a war zone, with the highest murder rate in the nation, and the cops and judges were in the pockets of the drug lords- many of whom were household names, right alongside the celebrity clientele at the Mutiny. People from all walks of life, small time earners, and lower income Cuban immigrants, were suddenly flush with unimaginable amounts of cash, expensive cars, and all the rest.

It was a crazy time, and Mutiny Hotel became THE place to meet and do business for the notorious ‘Cocaine Cowboys.’

The book replays the drama that took place inside the storied walls of the Mutiny, featuring a large cast of characters, some of whom will sound very familiar, while others were mostly famous inside the confines of the drug industry. To help keep it all sorted, the author graciously provides a list of the major players the book is centered around.

I was not surprised by the number of celebrities that partied there, and while a few of the names mentioned will shock you, most of them won’t. Some may be moderately shaken by how many local athletes were participants, but you really shouldn’t be.

A few notorious regulars were Rick James, members of the classic rock group- The Eagles, and few politicians, popped in and out as well- maybe a famous Kennedy? – and of course, some cast members from the wildly popular television show, 'Miami Vice’.

One notorious dealer even landed a couple of guest spots on the show for providing the crew with trustworthy cocaine.

While the stage is set to look like everyone was having a good time partying, drinking Dom, visiting the fantasy suites, there was a lot more going on than meets the eye. The Cuban immigrant issues that settled into the city in the 1980’s and the political climate with Cuba, in general, roiled just as intensely as it did two decades prior.

While the events that were transpiring in Miami may have helped inspire the Al Pacino movie, ‘Scarface’, the movie was mostly shot outside of Miami, and the author will explain those details, but it mainly had to do with the fear of how Cubans would be portrayed in the film.

Still, many thought they recognized themselves or others they knew in the film, and weren’t particularly offended by it.


It’s crazy to think back on it all now. Everything detailed in this book would have made for great television and movies… which it did- but it was very real, very scary, and a very dark piece of Miami’s history. It was a dangerous situation, shocking to the core, as Americans watched it all play out in real time, but now with the benefit of hindsight, it seems even more insane and hard to believe.

This book makes an excellent companion piece to the documentary ‘Cocaine Cowboys’- (the producers of the documentary even provided the prologue for this book), if you have seen it. If not, I highly recommend watching it and reading this book, in no particular order, because both will provide incredible look back at this part of America’s history- Miami’s, in particular. FYI- the documentary is available with Neflix streaming.



Overall, this book focuses primarily on the Mutiny Hotel and the goings on connected to it, but also delves into the city’s history, political climate, Cuba, Columbia, and the drug smuggling superstars and how it all came crashing down.

The author did a great job of organizing the material and helping to put names with faces, so to speak,
and tells this riveting true crime saga in such a way, you feel like you are seeing these events unfold in front of your very eyes.

Even if you remember hearing all about Miami's drug trade on the news ad nauseam in the eighties, you didn’t get this inside version of events, believe me. You will feel the reverberations, get caught up in a bit of nostalgia, shake your head at the name dropping, and gasp in horror at the ruthless double crosses and killings. I can almost hear Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice theme song in my head as we speak.

This is an excellent true crime drama which will appeal to those of a certain age, but I highly recommend it for younger readers, too, who will get a bit of unexpected history behind the sexiest city in America. You will never look at the Miami skyline the same way again.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review Hotel Scarface by Roben Farzad. This nonfiction account of 1970’s-1990’s Miami begins with action. The book continues, highlighting certain characters of the time and tells everything honestly and boldly. I became overwhelmed with the money, drugs, violence and human degradation as I continued to read. It’s difficult to comprehend that this is reality and people’s lives. The notes at the end of the book state that a remake of Scarface will take place in 2017. The whole time I was reading this book, I visualized the original Scarface movie. 4 stars for a true account of crime in Miami!

This book starts off and grabs you by the shirt and shakes you out of it. The chapters are quick and intense, and most of reads in an episodic fashion that can easily see as cable show. The book is a fascinating account of a dark time in Miami's history and our country. The drugs that flooded our shores forever changed the nation and these pages tell the tale of the players in this most deadly of endeavors. The characters who are real are painted as such, in a realistic, three dimensional manner. They are vibrant and pop off the pages and its all a part of our past forever emblazoned on Miami's soul in blood and yeyo (cocaine). Truly a well written and engrossing piece of writing.

The book was well documented, but a little too dry for me. I'm sure everyone else will certainly enjoy it

They say truth is stranger than fiction and that certainly seems to be the case here! This book pulls no punches and lays out the gritty facts in a way that keeps the reader thinking this CAN'T be true! Can it?!

A fascinating read for lovers of true crime and history.

I loved it! True crime in the time of the "Mutiny Club" when there was not law or at a minimum the law had no clue. I would not want to live in this neighbor but I sure enjoyed reading about it.

Cocaine was booming in Miami in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Everyone who was anyone went to the Mutiny Club and Hotel to party with the drug kingpins. Everything and anything went at the Mutiny. This book is so detailed you feel like you are right there. This book shows the rise and fall of the Drug Trade in Miami. It shows you what happened to bring down the so popular Mutiny. Hotel Scarface was very entertaining and a good read. I would recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in the history of the drug trade in this timeframe. I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Cocaine's a hell of a drug. Hotel Scarface tells the story of the rise and fall of The Mutiny, one of the hottest places to be in the 70s and 80s when Cocaine trafficking & dealing became an economy of its own.

Naturally, it starts out with all of the excitement of obscene amounts of money falling into the hands of many Cuban exiles who had never experienced anything close to this kind of wealth before. There's money, drugs, celebrities, and eventually the violence increases and it's still exciting, but in a different way.

I enjoyed this book overall, and I appreciate the personal note the author brings in with his connection to Miami. However, I struggled at times to get through the book. In the beginning, it was almost too much excess for me. All I could think about was all the money being thrown around and here I am with my mountains of student loan debt, reading an advance copy for review because I don't have money to buy a copy of this book when it comes out. But you know, that's got more to do with me than it does the book. I'm choosing to let it depress me a little bit that I could pay for college and then get an advanced degree with the money that was spent on Dom Perignon in a few days at the Mutiny.

Of course, the focus is eventually taken away from the money as the story becomes more murderous as the law cracks down and informants are offered plea bargains. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that eventually the Mutiny becomes a shadow of its former self, as do the aging Kingpins and Cocaine cowboys who are behind bars.

If you have a specific interest in Miami during that time period, you will probably enjoy this book. I had no real knowledge of it and after reading this, I look forward to watching the documentary Cocaine Cowboys for a little more personal insight.

This is an excellent historical summary written in an active prose that reads like a novel. The first thing I did after finishing the book was to re-watch "Scarface." The style of writing provides a great deal of information without becoming dry. The descriptions of the Coconut Grove area are accurate and detailed. In addition to being extremely entertaining, the book can serve as a reference to an interesting and strange time in the history of the United States.

Let me start off by saying that the premise of this book is really interesting, and I was very interested to read the author's stories. However, I just could not get into this book and the way it was written.

I always finish books. I NEVER DNF, and I tried so hard to get into this one. I just couldn't do it, and I knew I had a zillion other books waiting for me and couldn't spend any more time on it. So, I had to put it down. Maybe I will pick it back up when I have more free time and a smaller list of books waiting to be read.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about the story of the Mutiny in Coconut Grove, the exclusive club and hotel that much of the crazy decadence and violence of the cocaine cowboy times behind the movie SCARFACE (1983) sprung from that is so memorable. The actual place has so many stories and people that inhabited it that it needed its story told about all that was going on there. My mind is still spinning with all of the things that were happening there then and for a long time after the 70's when the boatloads of Cubans were kicked out and showed up along with all of the waves of cocaine that became such a problem too. Not just anyone could get into the Mutiny. This was an exciting read if you like true crime and the Scarface movie, you really should give it a look! I was given an ARC by NetGalley and the publisher.

Hotel Scarface is a fascinating book of facts that reads like a Hollywood movie. The entire time reading, I was playing scenes of Scarface, The Godfather, Wolf of Wallstreet, and Good Fellas in my mind. While I had a little bit of knowledge of the cocaine hustle in Miami, I had no idea how much I actually didn't know. This book is chock full of facts, names, places, arrests, you name it. At times it was a little hard to follow and remember who was who, but Hotel Scarface was a fascinating read, nonetheless. It's hard to believe this was true life for the people involved.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.