The Gentlemen's Hour

Boone Daniels, an ex-cop who is now a private eye, is torn between his loyal surfing crew and the woman he loves when he finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. Winslow's compelling story is brought to life in a stellar reading by Holter Graham. As Daniels, Graham is as cool and sure-sighted as an experienced wave rider on a warm summer morning in San Diego. Never hurried, Graham delivers a relaxed, steady performance that allows the tension to build when a local surfer hero is murdered and another surfer is accused of the crime. Winslow's writing is descriptive yet slightly minimalist, much the same as Graham's underplayed delivery as he brings to life a seedy side of the Southern California surfing scene. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

June 20, 2011
The laidback calm of the Southern California surfing community of Pacific Beach boils over violently in Winslow's fast-paced sequel to The Dawn Patrol (2008). Surfer dude PI Boone Daniels reluctantly takes on two cases. First, fellow board rider Dan Nichols suspects his wife, "an eleven on a California scale of ten," is cheating on him and wants Boone to spy on her. Worse, Boone's new slow-burning flame, lawyer Petra Hall, wants him for the defense of 19-year-old Corey Blasingame, tied in with the Rockpile Crew, a surfing gang with a neo-Nazi skinhead agenda, from up the coast. Corey is accused of the beating death of surfing legend Kelly Kuhio, "Uncle K" to Boone, who worshipped him as a kid. Dumped headfirst into a dark ocean of "localism," Boone must also contend with surfers trying to keep their beaches for themselves and threats from the Mexican cartels. The title refers to the "second shift on the daily surfing clock" after the dawn patrol. Winslow ensures there's nothing "gentlemanly" about the action.