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

Title of Work: American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
Author: Nick Bilton
Format:
Published: 2017
Started:
Finished: 2026-03-19\

Posted: Goodreads
Rating: 4/5

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The way this is written makes it go down (up?) like a whole bunch of teeny tiny lines of true crime coke downloaded from shady corners of the 2013 internet and laid out neatly in front of you.

You know it can’t be nearly as good as the reviews claim but you’re up at 2am for the second night in a row hoovering just one more 3 page chapter. Okay just one or two more and I’m actually done. Or I could lean all the way in and finish the damn thing tonight, deal with sleeping tomorrow.

An addicting and surprising account of a critical point in the early 2010s internet. Overdosing teens and “untraceable” billions in drug money confounded world intelligence agencies and hauled in plenty of media coverage at the time. But this not so distant chapter of internet history seems to have faded from our collective memory. It flared up and was snuffed out, never affording nearly as much cultural attention as the viral expansion of algorithmic social media feeds or the morbidly captivating Trump circus which have sieged our receptors for over a decade now. For this, it still feels fresh and novel in a way that most internet dramas simply can’t.

I love stories where you can watch the snare slowly closing on a criminal who is crafty and resourceful but ultimately done in by their own arrogance.