The Death And Life Of Bobby Z

Don Winslow has worked as a movie theatre manager, a production assistant, and as a private investigator. In addition to being a novelist he now works as an independent consultant in issues involving litigation arising from criminal behaviour. His novels include The Kings of Cool, Savages, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, California Fire and Life, The Power of the Dog, The Winter of Frankie Machine and The Dawn Patrol. In 2012 Savages was released as a blockbuster film.

Small-time crook Tim Kearney is given the chance to win his freedom by impersonating big-time crook and drug lord Bobby Z. The problem is everyone seems to be after Bobby Z: the Mexican drug lord Bobby's partner stitched up, Bobby's partner himself who wants to keep the money he stole from Bobby. The other problem is other people seem to be after Tim himself: the Hell's Angels whose friend he killed in prison, the DEA agent who set him up as Bobby Z in the first place, and the hispanic gang leader whose death he may inadvertently have caused. Tim/Bobby has to run the the gauntlet of assasins with Bobby Z's 6-year-old son in tow. But with the net closing and the bullets flying, and witha bit of help from a street crazy, Tim finally gets where he needs to be and manages to find the freedom he is looking for.

The Kings of Cool

The much-anticipated prequel to the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Savages.

[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer.  He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I’ve read.  He’s been honing it for years.

Packing more of an emotional heft than Savages, it’s written in the leanest prose possible, with a single-word paragraph being nothing unusual but managing to say more than you’d expect.

A brilliant, hypnotic novel…A considerably more ambitious book than Savages, seeking to map out not only the history of Savages’ weird love triangle, but also to cast a panoramic eye over the whole history of the drug trade in California from the 1960s onwards. And Winslow fulfils those ambitions fantastically well, with a stylistic swagger and bucketloads of empathy to go with a scintillating, perfectly executed crime-novel plot…Delivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you’re ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel.

An epic prequel to Don Winslow's Savages . . . Winslow writes the kind of books that Tarantino might- if he had a heart.

American author Don Winslow is so good at capturing LA slacker speak…[His books] are always superb and The Kings of Cool – a new prequel to the brilliant Savages may be his best yet

THE HIGH-OCTANE PREQUEL TO SAVAGES 
 
In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twentysomething best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. 
 
This is the story of how Ben, Chon and O became the people they are. Spanning fifty years forward from 1960s Southern California, The Kings of Cool is an intergenerational epic of drug dealers and crooked cops, friends and lovers, blood and death - and a young generation's future inextricably linked with their parents' history. 
 
A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon and O to choose between their real families - or each other...

Savages

A brilliant thriller that pits young, independent marijuana kingpins against a Mexican cartel

This is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on autoload. Winslow's stripped-down prose is a revelation

Rejoice - Don is back on the drugs ... Winslow has few equals

Winslow  on rip-roaring form, his most stylish, pacy and blood-soaked novel yet ... A brilliantly clever game of cat and mouse ... Vibrant, stylish and captivating ... A true thriller

Savages is a wild ride...The language is limber and lean, the pace adrenalin-fuelled and the killers downright terrifying ... Will linger with you long after the final page

A frighteningly convincing depiction of big-time drug cartels at work

Utterly impossible to put down. Savages is, bar none, the best novel I have read in years

Christopher Reich, author of Rules of Deception

...a thoughtful, prescient satire on the war on drugs, packed with neat twists and funny-horrid set pieces.  The characters stay with you, too

Savages  [. . .] is both a gripping heist story, and a remarkably astute history of organised crime in Orange County, from the 1960s to the present.

Part-time environmentalist and philanthropist Ben and his ex-mercenary buddy Chon run a Laguna Beach-based marijuana operation, reaping significant profits from their loyal clientele. In the past when their turf was challenged, Chon took care of eliminating the threat. But now they may have come up against something that they can't handle-the Mexican Baja Cartel wants in, sending them the message that a "no" is unacceptable. When they refuse to back down, the cartel escalates its threat, kidnapping Ophelia, the boys' playmate and confidante. O's abduction sets off a dizzying array of ingenious negotiations and gripping plot twists that will captivate readers eager to learn the costs of freedom. 
 
Savages is an adrenaline-fuelled novel by a master thriller writer at the very top of his game.

The Gentlemen's Hour

The new novel from Don Winslow, author of The Dawn Patrol

Boone Daniels, a laid-back private investigator, gathers with his surfing buddies on Pacific beach. There's no surf, but the Dawn Patrol are out in force regardless...it's what they do. Having no work to do, and no real reason to go to the office, Boone stays for the second shift on the daily surfing clock - the Gentleman's Hour; and ends up taking on a hated matrimonial case. But that soon becomes the least of his worries. 
 
When The Sundowner, a symbolic icon of the San Diego surf scene, sees a murderous dispute between a young surfer and a member of the territorial Rockpile Crew, the painful truth that violence is seeping into the surf community can no longer be ignored. So when asked to help on the defence by current love interest Petra Hall, Boone knows there will be outrage from both the community, and the rest of Dawn Patrol. 
 
As the two cases overlap in unexpected ways, an isolated Boone finds himself struggling to stay afloat as the water gets deeper...and more deadly.

The Dawn Patrol

Part classic crime fiction, part San Diego surf culture, part 'Super Friends' - this is the stunning new novel from Don Winslow ('so good you almost want to keep him to yourself' Ian Rankin)

It's no mean achievement to make the world of surfing fascinating to confirmed landlubbers . . . Slowly builds to a moving, lethal climax that will take your breath away

Winslow creates ripping plots . . . Convincing characters, an exotic setting . . . Winslow knows exactly when to pile on the pressure

Might be the best summertime crime novel ever

Heartbreaking . . . Could be a breakthrough for Winslow

One of the most entertaining beach books of this - or any other - summer . . . [A] rocketing thriller

Colossally cool . . . Captures the essence of Southern California itself: forecast sunny and clear, with an undertow of darkness

At a time when many successful crime and thriller writers produce a book a year, Don Winslow stands out. He is one of the best

If you've never read Don Winslow, start now

Don Winslow is the kind of cult writer who is so good you almost want to keep him to yourself

Boone Daniels is a laid-back kind of private investigator. He has sleuthing skills to burn but is rarely out of his boardshorts, and with a huge Pacific storm approaching San Diego, Boone wants to be there to ride the once-in-a-lifetime waves with his buddies in the Dawn Patrol. Unfortunately he's just landed a case involving one dead and one missing stripper, but with the help - or hindrance, Boone thinks - of uptight lawyer Petra Hall, he's determined to wrap it up in time for the epic surf. 
 
But all sorts of trouble follows with Hawaiian gangs and trafficked Mexican girls, as the case turns dark and personal, raising ghosts from Boone's troubled past and dragging in Sunny and the rest of the Dawn Patrol. The currents turn treacherous on land and at sea as the big swell makes landfall, and Boone has to fight just to keep his head above water...

The Winter of Frankie Machine

The stunning new novel by the acclaimed author of The Power of the Dog ('so good you want to keep him to yourself' Ian Rankin), bought for the movies by Robert de Niro, who plans to play Frankie himself.

Praise for The Power of the Dog: 
No one since James Ellroy has conveyed the morally troubled heart of the American dream with such savage aim... A future classic.

The first great dope novel since Dog Soldiers thirty years ago. It's frightening and sad, with a superbly sustained intensity. A beautifully compressed vision of hell, with all its attendant moral madness

A damn good read. If you've never read Don Winslow, start now

It is impossible in a few words to do [it] justice... It's a huge book, both in size and scope

It was hard to see how Winslow could top his excellent 2006 novel The Power of the Dog, but he's done it ... Masterful

Smoothly oiled, superbly assembled . . . A traditional mob tale on steroids

A gripping thriller . . . Like his book's central figure, Mr. Winslow is good at what he does

Graceful . . . Wonderfully imagined . . . Winslow's story explodes with . . . gritty realism

Smart, staccato . . . A reading experience of sustained intensity, with appealingly sleazy characters and an Elmore Leonard-like snap in the dialogue

Winslow is a sensational writer ... Won't disappoint under any circumstances

Action sequences that put your heart into your mouth ... Vegas nights, floating orgies, shakedowns and shootings galore all feature in this superb novel ... The ending will blow you away

Frank Machianno is the guy, a late-middle-aged ex-surf bum who runs a bait shack on the San Diego waterfront. That's when he's not juggling any of his other three part-time jobs or trying to get a quick set in on his long board. He's a beloved fixture of the community, a stand-up businessman, a devoted father to his daughter. Frank's also a hit man. Well, a retired hit man. 
 
Back in the day, when he was one of the most feared members of the West Coast mob, he was known as Frankie Machine. Years ago, Frank consigned his mob ties to the past, which is where he wants them to stay. But a favour called in by the local boss is one Frank simply can't refuse, and before he knows it he's sucked back into the treacherous currents of his former life. Someone from his past wants him dead, and he has to figure out who, and why, and he has to do it fast. The problem is that the list of candidates is about the size of his local phone book and Frank's rapidly running out of time...

Isle Of Joy

Author of The Power of the Dog

New York: Late 1958 
 
Walter Withers had given the best years of his life to the CIA, setting honeytraps and reeling in the victims of his plots. But Withers has returned to his hometown for an easier, safer life as a Private Investigator. 
 
Manhattan in the late Fifties is alive with new possibilities, new sounds and new faces, including young presidential hopeful Senator Joe Keneally. Withers is assigned to bodyguard Keneally's girlfriend at a society gathering: a simple enough job. But next morning, she's dead - and Withers is the prime suspect. 
 
To clear his name, Withers must take on his old masters from the CIA, as well as J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, all of them determined to set Keneally up. And Withers, expert hunter, becomes another disposable victim of the trap closing in on the Senator.

The Power of the Dog

Don Winslow's break-out novel. A hugely ambitious, page-turning thriller of power and revenge, in the tradition of the Great American Novel. 
 
'This is Winslow's masterpiece (so far) and should have a place on every crime freak's bookshelf. Superb!' Independent on Sunday

The Power of the Dog throws shadows a mile long. Fearless, humane, aesthetically fervent, it's also passionate, unapologetic, gorgeously written and unquestionably authentic.

Don Winslow is the kind of cult writer who is so good you almost want to keep him to yourself.

The first great dope novel since Dog Soldiers thirty years ago. It's frightening and sad, with a superbly sustained intensity. A beautifully compressed vision of hell, with all its attendant moral madness.

A damn good read. If you've never read Don Winslow, start now.

It is impossible in a few words to do [it] justice ... It's a huge book, both in size and scope.

'Breathtaking' JEREMY CLARKSON 
'Winslow's masterpiece (so far) ... should have a place on every crime freak's bookshelf. Superb' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 
_______________________ 
A brilliant page-turning thriller of power and revenge on the front lines of the drug war. 
 
Drug lord Miguel Angel Barrera is head of the Mexican drug federación, responsible for millions of dollars worth of cocaine traffic into the US and the torture and murder of those who stand in its way. His nephew, Adan Barrera, is his worthy successor. 
 
Art Keller is a US government operative, so determined to obtain revenge for a murdered colleague that his pursuit of the cartel veers dangerously towards an obsession outside the law. In a brutal world filled with striking characters, from a high class prostitute to an Irish hitman and a charismatic Catholic priest, everyone is in search of some kind of salvation - or damnation... 
 
Don Winslow's masterpiece is not only a page-turning thriller but also a rich and compelling novel in the league of James Ellroy or Don DeLillo. 
_______________________ 
The Cartel, the blockbuster sequel to The Power of the Dog, is also available.

California Fire And Life

A smoking, smoldering threat of a book that flickers and flames and inevitably goes inferno . . . Cover to cover, it is hot, hot, hot

The best crime thriller of the year . . . Mixes two parts of Elmore Leonard with an equal portion of Carl Hiaasen to form an irreverent, ribald hybrid of a thriller that's pure fun

[Winslow finds] a dark, sinister lyricism in the forensics of fire

A jazzy California thriller . . . Think Philip Marlowe if he were still sleuthing - and had taken up surfing

The woman on the bed had died in the fire. Pamela Vale, aged 34. She had been beautiful, and had been heavily insured. Her husband showed little grief. Her children seemed terrified. Insurance investigator Jack Wade is sure he knows what happened. All he has to do is to gather the evidence to prove it. And Wade is the best there is: fires talk to him, tell him exactly what happened, and how. But not everyone shares Wade's belief that the woman was murdered. California Fire and Life is ready to pay out Nicky Vale's claim on his wife's accidental death and the destruction of their house. As Wade fights the decision, as he gathers more evidence, he begins to uncover a world of corruption where nothing is quite what it seems, a world where it's not fire that talks, but money. . .

Don Winslow

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. This is the War and Peace of dope-war books. Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’s got the jazz-dog feel of a shot of pure meth.

Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Don Winslow is one of the most exciting and well-researched crime writers of modern times. The Cartel is a masterpiece of storytelling.

Astoundingly ambitious…Draws on real events and people as it chronicles Mexico’s drug wars…Masterfully organised and teeming with memorable characters, it is unlikely to be bettered this year.

Don Winslow has done it again. The Cartel is a first rate edge-of-your-seat thriller for sure, but it also continues Winslow’s incisive reporting on the dangers and intricacies of the world we live in. There is no higher mark for a storyteller than to both educate and entertain. With Winslow these aspects are entwined like strands of DNA. He’s a master and this book proves it once again.

A magnum opus coming in June from Don Winslow, who is to the Mexican drug wars what James Ellroy is to L.A. Noir. It's a long-awaited sequel to one of his greatest, The Power of the Dog.

Ten years ago Don Winslow published The Power of the Dog, essentially the Godfather of the Mexican drug wars, an epic, blood-drenched tale of greed and murder. Now he’s returned with a sequel, The Cartel, which may well be the most relentlessly bleak and corpse-strewn crime novel ever written….Winslow brilliantly brings to life the savagery of the conflicts between rival cartels and also the heroism of the ordinary folk, mostly women, who dare to fight back. The Cartel is unforgettable and genuinely tragic.

You don't have to read Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog to get swept away by The Cartel, its ripped-from-the-headlines sequel, but you should. You should try to get your hands on everything Winslow's written, because he's one of the best thriller writers on the planet. You've read the headlines about the decapitations in Juarez, the kidnappings in Mexico City, the mass graves and battling cartels and corrupt politicians and police, the daily casualties of the Mexican-American drugs wars, which made you second-guess that Club Med vacation. An epic, gritty south-of-the-border Godfather for this time.

[A] riveting expose of a modern tragedy where the fast pace of the thriller narrative never stumbles over the painstaking attention paid to detail and background… his most powerful writing to date…As a reader, it's natural to want to immerse yourself again and again in the world Winslow depicts. But this, the author reminds us, is not wholly fiction: The Cartel is dedicated to a long but necessarily partial list of journalists murdered or "disappeared" during the period covered in the book…[Winslow is] a thriller writer of remarkable moral depth.

Don Winslow's astoundingly ambitious The Cartel blew everything else away in 2015. For once the overused label "epic" can justifiably be applied to this polyphonic chronicle of Mexico's drug wars, teeming with memorable incidents and characters.

A huge, sprawling, violent mess of a novel, it is brutal and painful to read at times, and is a real eye-opener about the difficulties that society faces in that part of the world.

War and Peace for Mexican-American drug trafficking.

Epic and ambitious, so mind-bendingly-well-executed…The Cartel by Don Winslow is awesome in the proper definition of the word…A monumental achievement…Essential reading…Undoubtedly a future classic.

This superb thriller stands comparison with television’s The Wire.

A truly epic, globe-spanning, ultra-violent masterpiece of a book.

This is a powerhouse of a novel from an author who understands the most subtle nuances of his subject matter, and may be one of the most essential crime fiction books of 2015.

Winslow's masterly sequel to The Power of the Dog continues his epic story of the Mexican drug wars. This exhaustively researched novel elucidates not just the situation in Mexico but the consequences of our own disastrous 40-year "war on drugs".

This brutal, epic crime novel about the feud between and obsessive US drug agent and a wily Mexican cartel leader is thicker than a kilo of coke and even more addictive. It’s an utterly brilliant tale of power, corruption and bloody revenge. Love US TV boxsets? This is even better.

A white-knuckle drug war thriller

__________________________ 
From the bestselling author of the acclaimed The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping true-to-life epic, ripped from the headlines, spanning the past decade of the Mexican–American drug wars. 
 
It’s 2004. DEA agent Art Keller has been fighting the war on drugs for thirty years in a blood feud against Adan Barrera, the head of El Federación, the world’s most powerful cartel, and the man who brutally murdered Keller’s partner. Putting Barrera away costs Keller dearly – the woman he loves, the beliefs he cherishes, the life he wants to lead. 
 
Then Barrera gets out, determined to rebuild the empire that Keller shattered. Unwilling to live in a world with Barrera in it, Keller goes on a ten-year odyssey to take him down. 
 
The Cartel is a true-to-life story of power, corruption, revenge, honour and sacrifice, as one man tries to face down the devil without losing his soul. 
__________________________ 
 
'Sensationally good' LEE CHILD 
'Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted' JAMES ELLROY 
'A gut-punch of a novel... an absolute must-read' HARLAN COBEN

Don Winslow

Praise for The Cartel

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. **This is the War and Peace of dope-war books.** Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

**Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.**

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. **This is the War and Peace of dope-war books.** Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

**Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.**

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. **This is the War and Peace of dope-war books.** Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

**Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.**

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Books by Don Winslow

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Praise for The Cartel

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. This is the War and Peace of dope-war books. Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. This is the War and Peace of dope-war books. Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. This is the War and Peace of dope-war books. Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.

The Cartel is a gut-punch of a novel. Big, ambitious, violent and widely entertaining, Don Winslow's latest is an absolute must-read.

Books by Don Winslow

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. **This is the War and Peace of dope-war books.** Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

**Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.**

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. **This is the War and Peace of dope-war books.** Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

**Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.**

Don Winslow delivers his longest and finest novel yet in The Cartel. **This is the War and Peace of dope-war books.** Tense, brutal, wildly atmospheric, stunningly plotted, deeply etched. It’ ...

**Sensationally good, even after the near-perfection of The Power of the Dog. Less of a sequel than an integral part of a solid-gold whole.**