
Who is Don Winslow? One of the top crime fiction writers alive today! I’m so excited about my new find. I downloaded a digital review copy of CITY ON FIRE a couple months ago. I thought my husband might enjoy it. He loved it. The other day I was browsing my digital reader and came across CITY ON FIRE. I started reading and hours later I had to force myself to put it down so I could go make dinner. OMG!
Winslow immediately pops you smack dab into this amazing crime novel. We’re at the beach in Rhode Island with a group of young people who are just out having a good time. Everything is great until a strange gorgeous young woman, a stranger, walks out of the water and into the lives of these people who are all part of the Irish mob. Winslow tells his readers that this woman is Trouble and is going to change everything. Pam is that woman and she’s much more than just trouble. She is the beginning of the end of their world as they’ve known it.
If you’re a fan of The Sopranos, you are going to flip over CITY ON FIRE. The gangsters, the time period (80’s and 90’s) and the language. This novel has it all.
I’ve just listened to a pod cast with Mitchell Kaplan interviewing Don Winslow. You may wish to listen so I’ve set up a link. https://lithub.com/don-winslow-is-hopeful-for-the-future/?mc_cid=cbb53a9d74&mc_eid=606adbe40e
CITY ON FIRE is the first of a trilogy. Now I have to wait until April for the next segment, then on to the following April for the end. But it will be worth it.
Winslow is well acquainted with both the Italian and the Irish mobsters in Rhode Island. He lived among them.
Murder, mayhem, moral dilemmas, New England crime wars, old grudges, and a cast of characters that propel this story along to it’s heart-stopping end. But it’s only the end of the first part. Ha.
Winslow tells his story through amazing dialogue. He idolized Elmore Leonard and Charles Wilford. I have read them each extensively over the years. He has learned his trade the old fashioned way. He was not always a writer but, he always wanted to be one. He persisted even though manuscript after manuscript was turned down. He worked as a PI in Hell’s Kitchen years ago. He has lived and worked in Africa. What a background.
It would be easy to give the story away. I will not do that and so I am not giving you much info. I promise you will find yourself totally lost in the pages immediately. And wanting more as you close the last page.
My review copy was provided through NetGalley by William Morrow, the publisher, all in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this book is worthy of ten stars. It’s a keeper. It’s amazing. Just go buy it!