Few stories have been covered as consistently over the last few years as the mind-boggling violence in Mexico. After a while, the glut of pieces just start to blend together into a big, insane, tragic mass. But Patrick Radden Keefe broke that pattern last week with his masterful breakdown of the drug cartel business model in the New York Times Magazine. I’ll avoid further superlatives; really, just read the thing if you haven’t already. And then dive into the rest of the stories below, all of which were published over the last few years as violence in Mexico skyrocketed, and all of which also found ways to stand out.