Turning The Tide: One Man Against The Medellin Cartel

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.

Wonderful book! Fascinating story as well. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a true story and not a fictional thriller. I think that is a comment on how well paced, well structured and well written the story is. With true stories, no matter how exciting the tale, they can sometimes end up being a little dry to read. Not so with this book. It's a page turner from beginning to end. (Note to Hollywood studios, producers etc. This would make an AMAZING movie.)

very interesting true story. I sincerely enjoyed the details of the druggies of that time. Very enjoyable reading.

So crazy, it feels like a fictional story sometimes. But, this story is too wild to be published as a novel .

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!

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?

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.

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.

I bought this book because I heard about what happened on the island, and the story interested me. I took it on holiday, but didn’t expect that it would be such an enjoyable read. Recommended.

good book if you like reading about cartels and one of escobars main summglers

good read

I just finished reading Turning the Tide today, and all I can say is that it tells the story of an outsider’s fight to banish a cartel from Norman’s Cay. Richard Novak was very much an outsider—he owned no house or land on the island—yet one day he decided to take on Carlos Lehder and his associates, who were using the island to transport drugs. While Novak’s motives may have been admirable, I found him to come across as a rather boring and irritating figure throughout the book—an old man determined to dismantle Lehder’s well-established operation on the island. In many ways, the book exists because of the extraordinary events that unfolded there, rather than because Novak himself is an especially compelling protagonist

Thriller unbelievable especially if you have been there