The Dawn Patrol

Don Winslow's surfing thriller weaves a compelling murder mystery like a boarder cutting in and out of a massive corkscrew wave. Narrator Ray Porter opts for a subtle, underplayed performance, delivering effective plot twists without giving them away and, thankfully, avoiding any of the stereotypical portrayals that abound in dozens of other surfer stories. There are no "dude's" or "totally radical's" to be heard here (a style of slang that protagonist Boone Daniels casually refers to as "surfbonics"). Ultimately, Porter displays a knack for creating tension with little more than an underlying, and seemingly undetectable, shift in tone that resonates somewhere deep in the imagination of the listener. A true thriller! L.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 28, 2008
Ex-cop turned PI Boone Daniels lives to surf, as do the rest of the Dawn Patrol, who gather every morning on the beach just north of San Diego, Calif.—Hang Twelve, Dave the Love God, Johnny Banzai, High Tide and Sunny Day—in this terrific thriller from Winslow (The Power of the Dog
). Boone works his PI job just enough to keep his near idyllic life afloat, but before Winslow's done with him and he's back on his board, he'll have weathered some heavy seas and taken some perilous falls. Dan Silver, owner of Silver Dan's strip club, may have burned down his own warehouse to collect on the insurance money. When the insurance company hires beautiful lady lawyer Petra Hall to sue Silver, she turns to Boone to do the detective work. If all this sounds mildly comic, it is, but it's also dark, violent and plenty serious as Winslow keeps raising the stakes, as well as the waves, for all involved. Author tour.