surfer provides listeners genuine characters, a plausible plot, heart-rending moments of truth and terror (on and off the waves), and the soothing crooning of Ray Porter's voice as he adjusts our emotions with subtle shifts in timber. Don Winslow tapped into this familiar harmonic, placing characters and plot astride a big longboard so we could all ride the waves. So yes, it’s entertaining in its own way and it may actually be a love letter to the California surfing culture.There is a rhythm to this book's pacing, as if the sea's changing waves dictate its pace.

But it’s a hugely atmospheric crime novel and succeeds in that, with me anyway – a California girl (who managed to surf one time). But the background stories on various characters and the history of the setting undercuts the suspense and the story drags a bit – there’s also a huge element of comic dialogue and other antics so the suspense may not be entirely the point.

The story eventually gets to some good suspense with it’s attention grabbing Prologue, colorful but essentially violent characters, very short chapters with frequent cliff-hanger endings as well as alternating scenarios and points of view and a nicely twisted plot. Petra and Boone know this is not their stripper but if the cops want to believe it is well … Meanwhile, a woman later assumed to be the stripper Boone and Petra are seeking has been thrown off a balcony of a nearby motel – this is the Prologue – in what looks like a suicide but possibly a murder. One day a gorgeous attorney named Petra Hall shows up to hire Boone to locate a certain stripper who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances involving arson. Boone Daniels is a committed surfer and part-time private detective with a number of colorful friends and associates. It took me awhile to get into this book – several reasons – the setting is Pacific Beach, a San Diego area community where surfing has been a huge draw for generations. (#1 in the Boone Daniels series of 2 books) Dawn Patrol was on sale and so I took a shot.

“A Cool Breeze on the Underground” (1991), and have generally been entertained – they’re kind of fun except for The Cartelwhich is just flat amazing – a literary thriller of a very intense sort. I’ve read (listened to) a few of Don Winslow’s books over the years, staring with

The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow