Customer Reviews
Dull - By: Paul W, 25 Dec 2007 
Very, very dull & self-conceited. I agree totallly with the reviews of Brian MCartney & Johnboy257. Im very close to the end & cant wait to get there. Each time I think ' This has got to get better', it unfortunately doesnt. Have a read of Warren Fellowes book or read about Steve Willcox who has been serving a 31 year sentence in Thailand's Bangkwang prison for having 25 grams of category 1 drug found in the house he was living. That is a Journey to Hell!
If you watch prison break season 3 - By: M. D. Robertson, 10 Dec 2007 
This book goes into detail of the prison in prison break season 3 but with bells on.
If you thought the new sona prison was made up in someones mind for the show read this book & you will see there are real places like that out there.
DENIS'S THOUGHTS - By: Denis, 21 Jan 2007 After reading Brian's critical review of Journey to Hell, I thought that I ought to write & respond.
Donald has written a truly brilliant book. He writes about the 'offer' that was made to him in Malta & the horrors that he faced every day thereafter. He also writes about the letters he wrote, & the stance that he took against the brutal beatings dished out by the prison guards on a daily basis.
He lost a huge amount of weight, friends at home & in the prison, but always put others first. Brian writes that it is not as though the Mafia had pressed him into doing this; he also writes that compared to many other prison systems, Venezuela seemed relatively easy.
The Women's Institute or the local choir do not run £50 million worth of Cocaine from country to country; the death toll alone in the Venezuelan prison system makes it quite apparent that this is not an 'easy option', as Brian seems to suggest.
I suggest Brian should re-read Journey to Hell and, if after reading it, he still thinks Donald's sentence was easy, then he is clearly incapable of understanding what is made abundantly clear by the book; i.e. that it was a total nightmare from beginning to end.
I was with Donald from day one; I collected him from the airport in Crete in 1999. He did make a difference to the way that we were treated; & for sure, saved lives.
Excellent book - By: J. Kisseih, 28 Nov 2006 Donald has written a brilliant book - he writes in a very descriptive & honest (and sometimes even entertaining) way. It is a book which is very difficult to put down. Even though he was involved in the drugs trade no-one deserves this sort of treatment. Donald certainly paid the price for his mistake, but I wish him every happiness for the future.
NB. I find Brian McCartney's review very suspicious - read his review history & this is the first review he has ever written & he only read HALF the book. Read my review history & I have always commented on biographies. One wonders if Mr McCartney knows Donald in some way & has a case of sour grapes. In addition I have read biographies about people who have been in jail in places like Thailand & Donald's account is as horrific in many respects.
Thoughtful, well-written and honest - By: CrimeMan, 12 Nov 2006 Watching people have their lips sewn together as a prelude to execution, being caught in the middle of a prison gang war inolving guns, machetes & grenades, & trying to survive among murderous crack addicts & lunatic guards would be enough to send a man nuts, but Donald MacNeil kept a remarkable grip on his sanity in the madness of a Venezuelan prison. A yacht skipper who was hired in dubious cricumstances to "teach" a couple of shady blokes to sail in the Med, only to then be embroiled in a plot to cross the Atlantic & smuggle cocaine, MacNeil comes across as an intelligent, law-abiding man caught up in events that rapidly seemed to move beyond his control. There have been a glut of these "prison hell" memoirs recently & this is definitely one of the best: he doesn't sensationalise but his thoughtful detachment somehow makes the experiences more terrfying.
