#BlogTour ‘Son Of Escobar-First Born’ by Roberto Sendoya Escobar

About the book…

Pablo Escobar was the most notorious drug lord the world has ever seen. He became one of the ten richest men on the planet and controlled 80 per cent of the global cocaine trade before he was shot dead in 1993.

In 1965, a secret mission by Colombian Special Forces, led by an MI6 agent, to recover a cash hoard from a safe house used by a young Pablo Escobar culminates in a shoot-out leaving many dead. Escobar and several of his men escape. Only a baby survives, Roberto Sendoya Escobar. In a bizarre twist of fate, the MI6 agent takes pity on the child, brings him home and later adopts him.

Over the years, Pablo Escobar tries, repeatedly, to kidnap his son. The child, unaware of his true identity, is allowed regular meetings with Escobar and it becomes apparent that Roberto’s adopted father and the British government are working covertly with the gangster in an attempt to control the money laundering and drug trades.

Many years later in England, as Roberto’s father lies dying in hospital, he hands his son a coded piece of paper which, he says, reveals the secret hiding place of Escobar’s ‘missing millions’. The code is published in this book for the first time

My thanks to Bei at Midas PR for the blog tour invite and my gifted review copy of ‘Son Of Escobar:First Born’ by Roberto Sendoya Escobar

With a figure as deeply ingrained into the public consciousness as Pablo Escobar, for his legendary exploits and stories, this is an opportunity to see the person behind the myth, or, conversely, a embellishment of the legend.

It reads as a memoir, and an evocation of the late 1960’s and early 70’s, and the environment in which someone like Escobar could come to such prominence. Roberto’s father and adopted father could not be more different, despite the fact that they both dealt in money and had access to state secrets.

There appears to be a disconnect in the story telling, and a sense of jumping back and forth between events which happen in the same year, which adds to the impression that this is like listening to a conversation. Some embellishments must surely have been made for the parts of the book which concern Pat Whitcomb, Roberto’s adopted father, he ‘speaks’ with a terribly English affectation which may or may not have been how he talked, but made me think of vintage black and white movie stars.

The things which Roberto remembers about the secrecy in which he grew up is vividly recreated throughout the book, how he lived as a child aware that he could be kidnapped because of who his father was (Pat, not Pablo). It was not until he was grown up that he finally found out about the way his biological mother died, and even later again about his biological father’s financial legacy.

There is no sense of regret or wishing that he grew up in the world that Escobar created, and maintained throughout his lifetime. This was a man, remember, who not only provided at one point 80% of the world’s cocaine, but also posed with his son in front of the White House when he topped the FBI’s most wanted list.

Acknowledging where you came from is not the same as rejecting where you have been, and those that have put you there. There is a great deal of strength and humility which comes through Roberto’s writing. If you read this book, you might think that it is just crazy enough to actually be the truth. Since publication was announced, his claims have been challenged as a scam, however, who is to say that what Roberto has written is not what really happened?

His finishing flourish is to claim that the death bed code to the -witnessed by Roberto-missing millions of Escobar’s fortune, disclosed by Pat, is hidden in the book. Whether this is a grandiose claim or not, I imagine that many readers will turn back to page one, and begin hunting for a treasure that may be as elusive as that of D.B Cooper

About the author…

Roberto Sendoya Escobar lives with his wife in a remote finca on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca under his adopted name of Phillip Witcomb.

He works as an acclaimed fine artist, and his work sells for many thousands of pounds. He plans to donate a substantial percentage of profits from this book to charities which benefit young people.

Twitter @midaspr