Books of the year: Life on the Vegas Strip is tough, and Blaize recounts it in all its bust-shifting, hair-pulling, nail-snagging glory. ... her ear for snappy dialogue is indisputable and it's hard not to giggle along.

Sometimes a girl just wants to immerse herself in pure escapism...This tale has it all. A totally engrossing and fun read

Sensational and seductive - book of the week

scorching hot...four stars

Anyone who has been a fan of Jackie Collins' Vegas novels will certainly find plenty to enjoy in Ambition with its vibrant characters, glamour and entertaining plot. It's pure escapism, and a brilliant antidote to today's money conscious economic climate.

Vulliamy is the ideal foreign correspondent to analyse the phenomenon. He knows the border well and was one of the first to report on the murdered women of Ciudad Juárez. He also refuses to find easy answers to difficult questions. While some commentators have made glib assumptions about the Mexican propensity for brutality, Amexica shows that the crushing power of the multinationals in a low-wage economy is a key factor

Ed Vulliamy provides a brilliant, rigorous analysis

With a great sense of timing, Vulliamy now comes out with the most vivid book so far published in English on the bloody calamity that has been visited on Mexico's northern border lands... The author has done a great deal of painstaking work in investigating and describing the blood-soaked frontier and the political cross-currants in both regions... it stands that this is a fascinating introduction to the bloody last act of the "war on drugs", which must surely soon pass unlamented into history

This absorbing odyssey along the Mexican-American border gives pause for thought to anyone who ignores the side-effects of cocaine...Vulliamy's reporting is faultlessly brave ...the scenery and characters he meets are brought alive with vividness and intensity'