The Bluegrass Conspiracy

An Inside Story of Power, Greed, Drugs, and Murder

By: Sally Denton

Narrated by: Kate Mulligan

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

When Kentucky blueblood Drew Thornton parachuted to his death in September 1985 - carrying thousands in cash and 150 pounds of cocaine - the gruesome end of his startling life blew open a scandal that reached to the most secret circles of the US government. The story of Thornton and “The Company” he served, and the lone heroic fight of State Policeman Ralph Ross against an international web of corruption, is one of the most portentous tales of the 20th century.

©1990 Sally Denton (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wild Story

Wild story, with a lot of different players. Certain points can be a bit dry, whild others don't even seem real.

Great storyline, interesting.

A well done piece in some interesting characters in the history of KY and the drug world.

Good story if you're from the area

Good book if you are from the area but the narrator is horrible. If you cannot pronounce the county of Kentucky in which the story takes place you are in trouble. Horrible southern accents that are stereotypical but not factual.

Great story, no so great accent

Story was interesting and all new to me. But the attempt at the southern accents distracted me some. Worth a listen for sure.

Decent Story...Performance, meh...

Government/law enforcement corruption is always distressing for me to read about because I was a former prosecutor. Denton paints a picture of rampant corruption on a local, State, and Federal level -- so rampant that it made me wonder whether she overplayed her hand somewhat. I'm not convinced that her hero was as heroic as she portrayed or that her villains were quite so villainous. But something was definitely amiss here with many of the characters in this true story.

I powered through this book nonetheless. The reader, however, made it more difficult because after the first couple of gaffes I was distracted from the story since I was listening for performance miscues. I should have written down the half dozen or so examples but I didn't. However, toward the end of the book the author was describing how crimes can involve a moral wrong or can simply be illegal without being immoral. True enough, and the word that describes this distinction is "turpitude". But the reader mis-read the word "turpitude" .... she said "turp-ti-tude". Now, maybe that seems like a picky example, but after a few of those oddballs it gets distracting. I found myself wondering, "Did the author actually write that?" or "Did the reader not hear herself say that?" or "Why did the editors not catch that?" Anyway, I was busy with these thoughts and I ended up having to go back and listen again for content. Exasperating!

Great book!

I was born and raised in Lexington so I was very interested in the story. The narrator was one of the best I’ve ever heard.

Like everyone else says. Narrator disrespects.

Any Kentucky native, current or past resident will feel very disappointed. It’s common to Kentuckians that city and town names get mispronounced. However, most of the wrong mispronunciation is merely a cultural slang difference. That is not the case in this books narration. She completely strikes out. Fayette County become Fyatte County as if she believed the place to be French. I am no writer, or avid reader. I dreaded English literature in school. I just enjoy a good story, especially true history stories based in my home state and area. Like most others I am just disgusted with the narrator. However the author did a great job.

Ok

Great story, but more than a few assumptions were made in order to sell some books.

Convoluted Conspiracy

This was an account of corruption in Kentucky, including drugs, smuggling and murder. A convoluted story, you need notes to keep up with all the players. The main protagonists are Drew Thornton, a well heeled Kentucky former military and police officer who became a drug smuggler and his nemesis Ralph Ross a good cop trying to catch bad guys who got blindsided along with way. It also included corruption in the Lexington, Kentucky police force and drama with the feds as well. A number of other readers have noted the mispronounced words and lack of authentic dialect in the audio book version. I have to agree. The narrator Kate Mulligan sounded like she was reading from a script. The rote and dull tone could put you to sleep. An interesting read. The afterward gave a follow-up about the major players. The book didn't really end, it just stopped.

interesting listen

The corruption is on such a large scale, it is probably so much worse than that today.