The Final Score - Don Winslow

 A couple of years ago Don Winslow announced he was retiring from writing (to spend more time excoriating Donald Trump, if I remember right).   Turns out he only retired from writing novels.   Short novels, which is what he calls the six pieces here, he still writes and publishes.

I am an enormous fan - but lost a little faith with The Force and couldn't get on with the City trilogy.   But the Cartel trilogy is unsurpassed in modern crime literature.  I loved Savages and the surfer crew in The Gentlemen's Hour.   More recently I thoroughly enjoyed his masterly continuation of Trevanian's Shibumi (Satori).   All of these, I believe, are reviewed on this blog.   So I was never not going to pick up The Final Score on the offchance it was more like the Winslow who had once blown me away.

And boy, is it just!   Every single one of the six a winner.  Even better, 'The Lunch Break' is a return for Boone and his surfer crew.   For me the sextet starts really well with 'The Final Score' itself and gets better with each story thereafter.  'The Lunch Break' is fifth of the six and the final, longest story, 'Collision', is so good, it could be an outtake from The Cartel.   In case I have inferred there is something retrospective going on here, let me be clear: these six short novels are fresh, entirely original, in some instances going further in technique than Winslow has gone before.  'True Story', for example, is a dualogue between two wise guys who aren't even given names, who nevertheless bring the mob world to life in banter alone and deliver a powerful twist in the tail.

An absolute treat from start to finish.   Thank you, Don.

City on Fire - Don Winslow

 City on Fire is the first in what Winslow says will be his swansong trilogy.   A year or so ago Winslow announced he was ceasing to be an author in favour of full time political activism.   in fairness, he does both equally well.

Winslow has always been fundamentally a series writer.   He began with a series and his greatest achievement has been his Cartel trilogy, which certainly brought him prominence on this side of the Atlantic.   It is how me and most of my friends found him.   Is City going to equal Cartel?   Hard to say.   It is certainly a major achievement and clearly has the potential to become a masterpiece.

Winslow openly says it is a take on the Iliad.   Instead of Troy we have Winslow's birthplace, Rhode Island.   Instead of hero warriors we have ruthless mobsters, Italians, Irish, and African American.   We begin with the arrival of Helen - or in this case, Pam, an out-of-town beauty spotted enjoying the beach.    Pam unwittingly causes the break-up of old alliances.   Hitherto, the Irish and the Italians have kept to their distinct patches and the black mobsters are purely fringe players.   Rivalry over Pam changes all that.   Paulie Moretti wants her but the useless Liam Murphy wins her - and corrupts her.

Danny Ryan is our Achilles.   His father was once a major player in the game but became a drunk after being dumped with Danny by his showgirl mother.   The Murphys took over the docks and associated rackets.   Danny is now married to Terri Murphy.   He isn't given a seat at the top table.  He doesn't mind, he doesn't particular want to be a mobster.   But then Pat Murphy, the son and heir, is taken out in revenge for Paulie Moretti...   Terri falls pregnant, gives birth to the first Murphy grandson, then falls ill...

The characterisation and plotting are, as always, superb.   We never really know what is going to happen next or how characters will repsond.   Winslow has given himself an epic canvas and fills every inch.   The prose is nowhere near as punchy as in earlier works like Savages or Gentleman's Hour; that would be tiresome in an epic.   Instead it is terse but polished, always pitch-perfect.   I was enthralled, beginning to end.   A top writer on top form.

The Gentlemen's Hour - Don Winslow

 The other day Don Winslow announced on Twitter that he's retiring after he completes his current City on Fire trilogy.  There will be no new novels published, but thankfully there are plenty of not-so-old novels just appearing on this side of the Atlantic.  Take this, for example, from 2010, the follow up to The Dawn Patrol.  The Gentlemen's Hour is what happens immediately after the Dawn Patrol on the surf off Pacific Beach, San Diego, California.  It is when the forty-somethings take over from the thirtyish surfer dudes.

Boone Daniels (brilliant name) is on the cusp.  A former cop turned PI, he is getting a little old for the Dawn Patrol.  A new generation is coming up.  Maturity calls - the need to do something with his life, to earn some money, perhaps even start a new relationship.  Since his longtime squeeze Sunny left to ride the pro surfer circuit Boone has been flirting with Petra (Pete) Hall an upmarket British attorney, though he can't quite bring himself to seal the deal on account of old loyalties and fiscal inequalities.

But then Petra offers him a job.  The prestigious practice she works for has taken on the case of Corey Blasingame, the racist skinhead who killed the San Diego surf guru Kelly Kuhio (K2) with a single superman punch.  Much against his better judgement Boone takes the gig.  After all, what can he do?  There are five eyewitnesses to the crime and Corey confessed straight away, no excuses, no explanation.  It's the refusal to explain that causes Boone the problem and sets him against his best bud Johnny Banzai, the cop who took the confession, and the rest of the Dawn Patrol.

Meanwhile Boone picks up another job courtesy of a regular at the Gentlemen's Hour, a millionaire who wants Boone to keep tabs on his wife who might be indulging in a little extramarital fun and games.  It's the sort of work Boone despises but, hey, he needs the money.  And this time it's not the Dawn Patrol he finds himself up against.  It's the Cartels, their expert torturer Jones, and the full weight of corporate California.

It's all pure Winslow - the modern master at his very best.  All present tense and taut as a tripwire.  I loved every second.