Roadmap to Hell: Sex, Drugs and Guns on the Mafia Coast - Softcover

Barbie Latza Nadeau is an American journalist in Rome, working for Newsweek, The Daily Beast and CNN. For more than two decades she has covered crime in Europe, Italian politics, the Vatican, the refugee crisis and women’s issues. Her previous book about the murder trials of Amanda Knox, Angel Face (2010), was adapted for film by Michael Winterbottom (The Face of an Angel, 2015), starring Kate Beckinsale as a journalist based on Barbie herself.

“This is a terrifying and heartbreaking book. So many of the world’s most alarming issues converge on one street to the south of Naples: enforced prostitution (slavery), human trafficking and the refugee crisis, the Mafia, the drug and arms trade and Jihadi terrorism. Nadeau connects them, showing us a vast, organised economic system and everything required to maintain it: a willingness to exploit desperation, unimaginable brutality and, crucially, the indifference of the “clients," the authorities ... and the rest of us. And then she introduces us to the girls themselves - and to the extraordinary women who try to help them, their compassion pervading the entire story. I will find it difficult, from now on, to contemplate today’s world without thinking about what goes on in Castel Volturno.” (―Colin Firth)

“Barbie Latza Nadeau dissects the intricate relationship between those who make a living from organized crime, terrorism and sex trafficking with an astute understanding of the Italian culture that allows it to prosper. The book takes you through the seedy world of prostitutes and their clients, introduces you to nuns and saviors and exposes one of Italy's darkest secrets.” (―Michael Winterbottom, filmmaker, Welcome to Sarajevo, The Road to Guantanamo, A Mighty Heart)

“Barbie Latza Nadeau takes you on an exhilarating ride through Italy's dark underbelly. She shines a stark light on a grimy world populated by Nigerian druglords, Italian maffiosi, dirty cops and voodoo doctors -- as well as an unlikely hero, the fearless Sister Rita. An incredibly thorough, alarming and highly readable piece of investigative journalism.” (―Tina Brown)