What do you think?
Rate this book
Boone Daniels #1
The Dawn Patrol
From the bestselling author of Savages (now an Oliver Stone film).
As cool as its California surfer heroes, Don Winslow delivers a high velocity, darkly comic, and totally righteous crime novel.
Every morning Boone Daniels catches waves with the other members of The Dawn Patrol: four men and one woman as single-minded about surfing as he is. Or nearly. They have "real j-o-b-s"; Boone, however, works as a PI just enough to keep himself afloat. But Boone's most recent gig-investigating an insurance scam—has unexpectedly led him to a ghost from his past. And while he may have to miss the biggest swell of his surfing career, this job is about to give him a wilder ride than anything he's ever encountered. Filled with killer waves and a coast line to break your heart, The Dawn Patrol will leave you gasping for air.
303 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2008
491 people are currently reading
3281 people want to read
About the author
Don Winslow
111 books7,419 followersDon Winslow is the author of twenty-one acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestsellers The Force and The Border, the #1 international bestseller The Cartel, The Power of the Dog, Savages, and The Winter of Frankie Machine. Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone. The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border sold to FX in a major multimillion-dollar deal to air as a weekly television series beginning in 2020.
A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 611 reviews
June 30, 2023
STRAWBERRY FIELDS
”Big Wednesday – Un mercoledì da leoni” di John Milius, 1978. Direi che dei tre protagonisti, Gary Busey è quello che è andato più lontano. Ma nessuno dei tre ha avuto una carriera brillante come questo film.
Il surf, sia come sport che come filosofia di vita, è lontanissimo da noi: non abbiamo l’oceano, non abbiamo quelle onde - e neppure quelle spiagge (epperò, a Roma, in una piccola traversa a senso unico della circonvallazione Gianicolense c’è un negozietto dentro un garage che vende assi da surf!).
Ciò nonostante, lo conosciamo bene, ci è familiare, come tutto quello che riguarda gli US: gli yankees hanno sempre usato il cinema per colonizzare il mondo, esportando e rendendo vincente il loro lifestyle, l’ideologia, la filosofia dei vincenti, e certo anche lo sport, surf incluso.
Il primo pensiero va ovviamente all’immarcescibile ‘Big Wednesday’, seguito a ruota, o forse battuto sul filo di lana, da “Point Break”.
E dopo il cinema, la musica: quindi, vai col surf pop e surf rock, surf music in genere, amata anche da Tarantino (cinema e musica chiudono il cerchio).
Keanu Reeves e Patrick Swayze protagonisti di “Point Break”, the one and only, di Kathryn Bigelow, 1991. Gary Busey ritorna come il capo dell’agente infiltrato Reeves.
In questo romanzo, le pattuglie dell’alba sono due: quella composta dai protagonisti, novelli moschettieri, tutti per uno e uno per tutti, autentici surf addicted, splendidi esemplari di essere umani dai muscoli lunghi e scolpiti, cuore d’oro e nickname un po’ cazzoni (Boone, il protagonista tra i protagonisti, Hang Twelve, che ha dodici dita dei piedi con le quali rimane incollato alla tavola, Johnny Banzai, Dave the Love God, più bello e rimorchione di gesù, High Tide, Sunny Day).
L’altra pattuglia è formata da un gruppo di bambine messicane fra gli otto e i quattordici anni, che appaiono all’inizio nella nebbia del mattino in una scena che non si dimentica: giovanissime schiave bianche vendute come prostitute, stanno andando incontro ai loro clienti, e vivono nei campi di fragole, come nella versione acida della canzone psichedelica dei Beatles.
”Drift – Cavalca l’onda” di Ben Nott e Morgan O’Neill, 2013, con Sam Worthington, è un film sul surf da non ignorare.
Ma non è certo, o non è solo, un romanzo sul surf: prima di tutto è un noir, con il classico occhio privato che indaga, prende le botte ma non demorde, pieno di rimorso sofferenza e compassione per il dolore umano.
La ficata è che l’investigatore privato, oltre a essere un ex poliziotto, è un dio del surf, nato e cresciuto sull’oceano, nelle onde, dentro l’acqua.
Non completamente rincretinito da sole sabbia e sale, visto che passa ore a leggere i classici della letteratura sdraiato sul divano di casa (villino a palafitta sull’oceano).
Ha fretta di risolvere il caso che gli è stato assegnato perché su San Diego sta per abbattersi una mareggiata di quelle mitiche e imperdibili, di quelle che cambiano la vita, in grado di farti capire qual è il tuo preciso posto nell'universo.
È bravo Winslow a innovare il classico, a scegliere un tono apparentemente scanzonato per trattare temi nerissimi, a mischiare il surf, l’amicizia, l’amore, l’indagine, la violenza, il sangue.
Ma le mie pagine preferite sono quelle dove racconta la storia della California del sud, come è nata e sviluppata, dando basi solide e realistiche alla sua storia di surf e sfruttamento.
Don Winslow
”Big Wednesday – Un mercoledì da leoni” di John Milius, 1978. Direi che dei tre protagonisti, Gary Busey è quello che è andato più lontano. Ma nessuno dei tre ha avuto una carriera brillante come questo film.
Il surf, sia come sport che come filosofia di vita, è lontanissimo da noi: non abbiamo l’oceano, non abbiamo quelle onde - e neppure quelle spiagge (epperò, a Roma, in una piccola traversa a senso unico della circonvallazione Gianicolense c’è un negozietto dentro un garage che vende assi da surf!).
Ciò nonostante, lo conosciamo bene, ci è familiare, come tutto quello che riguarda gli US: gli yankees hanno sempre usato il cinema per colonizzare il mondo, esportando e rendendo vincente il loro lifestyle, l’ideologia, la filosofia dei vincenti, e certo anche lo sport, surf incluso.
Il primo pensiero va ovviamente all’immarcescibile ‘Big Wednesday’, seguito a ruota, o forse battuto sul filo di lana, da “Point Break”.
E dopo il cinema, la musica: quindi, vai col surf pop e surf rock, surf music in genere, amata anche da Tarantino (cinema e musica chiudono il cerchio).
Keanu Reeves e Patrick Swayze protagonisti di “Point Break”, the one and only, di Kathryn Bigelow, 1991. Gary Busey ritorna come il capo dell’agente infiltrato Reeves.
In questo romanzo, le pattuglie dell’alba sono due: quella composta dai protagonisti, novelli moschettieri, tutti per uno e uno per tutti, autentici surf addicted, splendidi esemplari di essere umani dai muscoli lunghi e scolpiti, cuore d’oro e nickname un po’ cazzoni (Boone, il protagonista tra i protagonisti, Hang Twelve, che ha dodici dita dei piedi con le quali rimane incollato alla tavola, Johnny Banzai, Dave the Love God, più bello e rimorchione di gesù, High Tide, Sunny Day).
L’altra pattuglia è formata da un gruppo di bambine messicane fra gli otto e i quattordici anni, che appaiono all’inizio nella nebbia del mattino in una scena che non si dimentica: giovanissime schiave bianche vendute come prostitute, stanno andando incontro ai loro clienti, e vivono nei campi di fragole, come nella versione acida della canzone psichedelica dei Beatles.
”Drift – Cavalca l’onda” di Ben Nott e Morgan O’Neill, 2013, con Sam Worthington, è un film sul surf da non ignorare.
Ma non è certo, o non è solo, un romanzo sul surf: prima di tutto è un noir, con il classico occhio privato che indaga, prende le botte ma non demorde, pieno di rimorso sofferenza e compassione per il dolore umano.
La ficata è che l’investigatore privato, oltre a essere un ex poliziotto, è un dio del surf, nato e cresciuto sull’oceano, nelle onde, dentro l’acqua.
Non completamente rincretinito da sole sabbia e sale, visto che passa ore a leggere i classici della letteratura sdraiato sul divano di casa (villino a palafitta sull’oceano).
Ha fretta di risolvere il caso che gli è stato assegnato perché su San Diego sta per abbattersi una mareggiata di quelle mitiche e imperdibili, di quelle che cambiano la vita, in grado di farti capire qual è il tuo preciso posto nell'universo.
È bravo Winslow a innovare il classico, a scegliere un tono apparentemente scanzonato per trattare temi nerissimi, a mischiare il surf, l’amicizia, l’amore, l’indagine, la violenza, il sangue.
Ma le mie pagine preferite sono quelle dove racconta la storia della California del sud, come è nata e sviluppata, dando basi solide e realistiche alla sua storia di surf e sfruttamento.
Don Winslow
August 7, 2018
I’m a middle aged, bald, pasty white Irish American living in the southeastern US and with a suburban desk job. I could get a sunburn standing in front of an open window. I’m about as far from “surfer” as you can be.
Physically.
But mentally, spiritually, DUDE, I am there.
I like Don Winslow, like the way he writes. He can put words together like a party girl dances: he knows what he’s doing, he’s having fun, attractive and energetic but laid back, making it look easy. Sexy but not slutty; beautiful in a provocative manner – his prose is like a subtle wink over a glass of Scotch.
This was as cool as a March morning (and yes, I lifted that line right off the pages). Winslow introduces us to his surfer private investigator Boone Daniels. And as great a name for a hero this is (competing with Neal Stephenson’s Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash) there is also a character named Sunny Day. Like most of Winslow’s writing that I have read, he fills this book with a host of fun and realistic characters and many of these have cool surfer nicknames like Hang 12 and Dave the Love God.
Boone is first a surfer but you’ve got to eat between the waves and so he took his experience as a police officer and got himself a PI license, taking just enough cases to pay the bills – mostly. What Boone lacks in ambition he more than makes up for in peer recognition and he’s a local legend in the San Diego beach community.
When he picks up a new case for an insurance trial he finds himself mixed up in more than he expected and Boone’s SoCal cool is put to the test.
Winslow’s writing is again first rate and he tells a great story. A ubiquitous theme in Winslow’s writing is loyalty to family, of the blood and the extended kind, and this ideal is well placed in the tight knit surfing community.
Another very good book from Winslow and this might be a good introduction for a new reader to discover his work.
Physically.
But mentally, spiritually, DUDE, I am there.
I like Don Winslow, like the way he writes. He can put words together like a party girl dances: he knows what he’s doing, he’s having fun, attractive and energetic but laid back, making it look easy. Sexy but not slutty; beautiful in a provocative manner – his prose is like a subtle wink over a glass of Scotch.
This was as cool as a March morning (and yes, I lifted that line right off the pages). Winslow introduces us to his surfer private investigator Boone Daniels. And as great a name for a hero this is (competing with Neal Stephenson’s Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash) there is also a character named Sunny Day. Like most of Winslow’s writing that I have read, he fills this book with a host of fun and realistic characters and many of these have cool surfer nicknames like Hang 12 and Dave the Love God.
Boone is first a surfer but you’ve got to eat between the waves and so he took his experience as a police officer and got himself a PI license, taking just enough cases to pay the bills – mostly. What Boone lacks in ambition he more than makes up for in peer recognition and he’s a local legend in the San Diego beach community.
When he picks up a new case for an insurance trial he finds himself mixed up in more than he expected and Boone’s SoCal cool is put to the test.
Winslow’s writing is again first rate and he tells a great story. A ubiquitous theme in Winslow’s writing is loyalty to family, of the blood and the extended kind, and this ideal is well placed in the tight knit surfing community.
Another very good book from Winslow and this might be a good introduction for a new reader to discover his work.
June 6, 2016
Maybe it’s my landlocked Kansas nature, but I don’t get surfing. Paddling out into the ocean on a board seems like a lot of work just to get drowned or beaten to death on rocks or eaten by some kind of huge sea creature. Plus, fish pee and poop in the ocean so the whole thing is really just a big toilet. But to each their own, and one of my favorite crime writers, Don Winslow, has had several of his characters surf so I’m more than willing to read about it when he’s telling the tale.
Boone Daniels is a seemingly laid back surfer in southern California who spends every minute possible on the beach with his group of friends nicknamed the Dawn Patrol. Boone is a local legend not only for his surfing ability, but for being an all-around good guy who acts as an unofficial guardian to the people in his community. He used to be a cop but now he runs a surf shop and occasionally does just enough private detective work to keep him a couple of payments behind on his bills.
Boone and the Dawn Patrol are excited that an undersea earthquake has sent a monster set of waves rolling their way that will arrive in two days. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for surfers, but Boone’s plans get interrupted when a beautiful but pushy and ambitious lawyer insists on hiring him to find a missing stripper who is a key witness in an insurance fraud arson case that‘s going to court the next day. Boone hopes to locate her before the big waves roll in. Unfortunately, a sleazy strip club owner and the local pot kingpin don’t want her found, and the whole things turns into a mess that puts Boone at odds with the police and the Dawn Patrol.
I enjoyed this one, especially the Boone character. While he seems like a beach bum with no bigger concerns than the next wave and who isn’t any more complicated than his belief that all food is better served on a tortilla, he’s actually a smart guy haunted by the case that drove him off the police force.
This isn’t as powerful or dark as some of other Winslow books like Savages or The Power of the Dog, but it’s still a first rate crime story written in his conversational tone and laced with humor. This one also explains surfing techniques and history in such a fun way that even a landlubber like myself was entertained and interested. Even if it is set around the filthy dangerous ocean...
Boone Daniels is a seemingly laid back surfer in southern California who spends every minute possible on the beach with his group of friends nicknamed the Dawn Patrol. Boone is a local legend not only for his surfing ability, but for being an all-around good guy who acts as an unofficial guardian to the people in his community. He used to be a cop but now he runs a surf shop and occasionally does just enough private detective work to keep him a couple of payments behind on his bills.
Boone and the Dawn Patrol are excited that an undersea earthquake has sent a monster set of waves rolling their way that will arrive in two days. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for surfers, but Boone’s plans get interrupted when a beautiful but pushy and ambitious lawyer insists on hiring him to find a missing stripper who is a key witness in an insurance fraud arson case that‘s going to court the next day. Boone hopes to locate her before the big waves roll in. Unfortunately, a sleazy strip club owner and the local pot kingpin don’t want her found, and the whole things turns into a mess that puts Boone at odds with the police and the Dawn Patrol.
I enjoyed this one, especially the Boone character. While he seems like a beach bum with no bigger concerns than the next wave and who isn’t any more complicated than his belief that all food is better served on a tortilla, he’s actually a smart guy haunted by the case that drove him off the police force.
This isn’t as powerful or dark as some of other Winslow books like Savages or The Power of the Dog, but it’s still a first rate crime story written in his conversational tone and laced with humor. This one also explains surfing techniques and history in such a fun way that even a landlubber like myself was entertained and interested. Even if it is set around the filthy dangerous ocean...
April 5, 2020
“Dawn Patrol” by Don Winslow has all the classic elements of hardboiled mystery fiction. It has the former police officer private detective working out of a battered office with few, if any, clients. It has the local bar where he hangs out. It has the stripper on the run from the local hoods. It has the PI sort of cooperating with the local authorities, but running off on his own because protecting the stripper means skirting the rules and regulations. It has the crew of thugs intent on getting past him.
But, underneath this basic plot line, Winslow does something a little different and this is what sets this book apart and makes it a must- read. He sets this book in sunny, beachy, Pacific Beach (“PB”), San Diego, in the world of the “Dawn Patrol,” that crew of surfers who rise in the early dawn to complete their most important mission of catching the best wave. And, Winslow fills out the story with a cast of characters known primarily by their nicknames, besides Boone Daniels the sometime-PI, there’s Hang Twelve (who really truly has twelve toes to hang onto his board), Dave the Love God (who lifeguards), Sunny Day (whose goal is to be the first female professional surfer to truly surf the monster waves), High Tide, and others.
Winslow weaves into the plot not only the backstory for each of these characters, but a history lesson of San Diego and of the surf culture, going back to the king of surfing, George Freeth, and the Crystal Pier in San Diego. The book describes the development of the counterculture of surfing in the early sixties and the guys who eschewed the 9-to-5 jobs to live in barely functioning shacks, ready to catch the earliest wave. The book also tells the story of how California has changed from the empty highways and burger joints to strip malls and suburban developments and how all but a few dot-com millionaires have been priced out of living near the beaches that spawned the surfing life.
It is a story not just of a lone PI, but of California changing and developing from Beach Blanket Bingo and the Beach Boys into something far different, more crowded, more expensive, and there are hints here that all is not right with the world as beneath the sun and the surf, there is a world of desperate people living in cardboard and tin roof lean-tos in the canyons and gullies, having somehow crossed the border, only to find themselves taken advantage of yet again.
There is an innocence here in the burger joints and bars lining Pacific Beach and Mission Beach, but it is stained with a dirty world that threatens to invade Paradise.
But, underneath this basic plot line, Winslow does something a little different and this is what sets this book apart and makes it a must- read. He sets this book in sunny, beachy, Pacific Beach (“PB”), San Diego, in the world of the “Dawn Patrol,” that crew of surfers who rise in the early dawn to complete their most important mission of catching the best wave. And, Winslow fills out the story with a cast of characters known primarily by their nicknames, besides Boone Daniels the sometime-PI, there’s Hang Twelve (who really truly has twelve toes to hang onto his board), Dave the Love God (who lifeguards), Sunny Day (whose goal is to be the first female professional surfer to truly surf the monster waves), High Tide, and others.
Winslow weaves into the plot not only the backstory for each of these characters, but a history lesson of San Diego and of the surf culture, going back to the king of surfing, George Freeth, and the Crystal Pier in San Diego. The book describes the development of the counterculture of surfing in the early sixties and the guys who eschewed the 9-to-5 jobs to live in barely functioning shacks, ready to catch the earliest wave. The book also tells the story of how California has changed from the empty highways and burger joints to strip malls and suburban developments and how all but a few dot-com millionaires have been priced out of living near the beaches that spawned the surfing life.
It is a story not just of a lone PI, but of California changing and developing from Beach Blanket Bingo and the Beach Boys into something far different, more crowded, more expensive, and there are hints here that all is not right with the world as beneath the sun and the surf, there is a world of desperate people living in cardboard and tin roof lean-tos in the canyons and gullies, having somehow crossed the border, only to find themselves taken advantage of yet again.
There is an innocence here in the burger joints and bars lining Pacific Beach and Mission Beach, but it is stained with a dirty world that threatens to invade Paradise.
August 12, 2022
“Everything tastes better on a tortilla.”
THE DAWN PATROL is a decent crime thriller, and an excellent read for the beach, especially with its myriad scenes dealing with the ocean, waves, beaches, and surfing.
The text follows Boone Daniels, a private investigator, and former cop (a bit of a motif for this genre) and his friends who compose a daily morning surf crew, the “Dawn Patrol” as they call themselves. The set up is pure crime thriller, and the plot is contrived, but Don Winslow does a nice job of creating a plotline that interweaves the stories of this group of friends into one thru line.
Despite its summer sun tone there are some very heavy topics covered (child sex trafficking). But with the sun and sweat in your eyes and the too expedient ending it comes across as a little less serious than the subject matter warrants. I am not sure how I feel about that.
Quotes:
• “The ocean feels heavy, swollen, pregnant with promise.”
• “Boone believes that a wave is God’s tangible message that all great things in life are free.”
• “Your development isn’t just arrested, it’s been arrested, tried, and summarily executed.”
• “…time is money if you actually make money. If you don’t, time is just time.”
• “Some stories have to be earned.”
• “The ocean healed him-slowly and not completely, but it healed him.”
• “You love something, it hurts when you lose it.”
• “The devil doesn’t give you easy choices.”
• “So he’s pissed at her but attracted to her at the same time. What is that?”
• “Doing things you love, in a place you love, with people you love…that’s what life is, what it should be anyway.”
With its very short chapters and quick pace, I found that I was not all that aggravated by some of the book’s contrived conclusions and too convenient plot points. It’s fast paced, fun, and the bad guys pay a price. It is perfect for beach reading.
Mr. Winslow wrote a sequel to this book. I will read it on a beach someday.
THE DAWN PATROL is a decent crime thriller, and an excellent read for the beach, especially with its myriad scenes dealing with the ocean, waves, beaches, and surfing.
The text follows Boone Daniels, a private investigator, and former cop (a bit of a motif for this genre) and his friends who compose a daily morning surf crew, the “Dawn Patrol” as they call themselves. The set up is pure crime thriller, and the plot is contrived, but Don Winslow does a nice job of creating a plotline that interweaves the stories of this group of friends into one thru line.
Despite its summer sun tone there are some very heavy topics covered (child sex trafficking). But with the sun and sweat in your eyes and the too expedient ending it comes across as a little less serious than the subject matter warrants. I am not sure how I feel about that.
Quotes:
• “The ocean feels heavy, swollen, pregnant with promise.”
• “Boone believes that a wave is God’s tangible message that all great things in life are free.”
• “Your development isn’t just arrested, it’s been arrested, tried, and summarily executed.”
• “…time is money if you actually make money. If you don’t, time is just time.”
• “Some stories have to be earned.”
• “The ocean healed him-slowly and not completely, but it healed him.”
• “You love something, it hurts when you lose it.”
• “The devil doesn’t give you easy choices.”
• “So he’s pissed at her but attracted to her at the same time. What is that?”
• “Doing things you love, in a place you love, with people you love…that’s what life is, what it should be anyway.”
With its very short chapters and quick pace, I found that I was not all that aggravated by some of the book’s contrived conclusions and too convenient plot points. It’s fast paced, fun, and the bad guys pay a price. It is perfect for beach reading.
Mr. Winslow wrote a sequel to this book. I will read it on a beach someday.
November 30, 2015
Oh yeah. Don Winslow has so many great things going on in this novel it is difficult to pick the best thing to tell you about. It is light and dark at the same time. At one point, one of the good guys goes to do something bad, but it turns out good anyway! That was a very cool twist of fate the pen.
Winslow manages to make the writing sound like a five-piece band…instead of a mystery with two threads and a protagonist, I felt like I just watched a great concert. Part of the reason has to do with the fact that the main guy, Boone, has awesome backup. His team is called the Dawn Patrol, a group of surfers who meet in the water in the mornings before work.
The six, whose interests outside of surfing do not necessarily align, trust one another implicitly, and so when when things in water or on land get seriously out of whack or when one of the team does something really dumb and needs rescuing (happens to the best of us), the team surfaces, spreads out, calls on buddies…Talk about social networking…This is California, after all. Since everyone is fit and smart and good at what they do, having a team like this at one's back is like having a superpower.
Surfing for me is a little like fishing. I love reading about it. My first encounter with the concept and culture came in the form of an article by William Finnegan in The New Yorker, written years ago. It awoke in me something akin to awe, and ever since I read hoping to rekindle that early excitement I had about surfing. Winslow does a good job, but most importantly, perhaps, is that he is one of my tribe. Reading and surfing…Boone is a man after my own heart.
So this story has many threads…what with all the folks out there, waiting for waves. We genuinely care about these characters with vulnerabilities, so we have skin in the game pretty quickly. The main story is that young (really young) Mexican girls are being brought in to Pacific Beach and sold for hourly trysts. The financial payoff is apparently sufficient to make liars and murderers of many marginally ethical folks, and their pressures exert a downward ‘domino effect’ on the society in which they operate. When this spills over to include Boone, he finds and condemns the source of the pressure.
Winslow appears laid back in his vernacular, but anyone that can keep so many balls in the air is not casual in his writing. His writing is fit and tight and his storyline exercised and exorcised of fat. I love this stuff. If you are missing California, or not seeing enough of it in your daily commute, put a little light in your life with Winslow’s series. He gives us a sense that there are still people who have their values screwed on straight.
Winslow manages to make the writing sound like a five-piece band…instead of a mystery with two threads and a protagonist, I felt like I just watched a great concert. Part of the reason has to do with the fact that the main guy, Boone, has awesome backup. His team is called the Dawn Patrol, a group of surfers who meet in the water in the mornings before work.
The six, whose interests outside of surfing do not necessarily align, trust one another implicitly, and so when when things in water or on land get seriously out of whack or when one of the team does something really dumb and needs rescuing (happens to the best of us), the team surfaces, spreads out, calls on buddies…Talk about social networking…This is California, after all. Since everyone is fit and smart and good at what they do, having a team like this at one's back is like having a superpower.
Surfing for me is a little like fishing. I love reading about it. My first encounter with the concept and culture came in the form of an article by William Finnegan in The New Yorker, written years ago. It awoke in me something akin to awe, and ever since I read hoping to rekindle that early excitement I had about surfing. Winslow does a good job, but most importantly, perhaps, is that he is one of my tribe. Reading and surfing…Boone is a man after my own heart.
So this story has many threads…what with all the folks out there, waiting for waves. We genuinely care about these characters with vulnerabilities, so we have skin in the game pretty quickly. The main story is that young (really young) Mexican girls are being brought in to Pacific Beach and sold for hourly trysts. The financial payoff is apparently sufficient to make liars and murderers of many marginally ethical folks, and their pressures exert a downward ‘domino effect’ on the society in which they operate. When this spills over to include Boone, he finds and condemns the source of the pressure.
Winslow appears laid back in his vernacular, but anyone that can keep so many balls in the air is not casual in his writing. His writing is fit and tight and his storyline exercised and exorcised of fat. I love this stuff. If you are missing California, or not seeing enough of it in your daily commute, put a little light in your life with Winslow’s series. He gives us a sense that there are still people who have their values screwed on straight.
November 13, 2020
Another excellent Winslow crime/mystery, narrated by Ray Porter.
California surfing, and lots of surf lingo which counters the horrific child abuse and rape being investigated.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but not sure I'll continue on, since the second book has a different narrator. Perhaps, I'll read it instead, but if so, it's going to be a while.
The only complaint I have about this one is the short, short chapters. They do make for cliffhangers, especially towards the end...but sometimes it seemed like we only got a few sentences and then on to the next chapter. It's a small thing, but it is a thing.
If you like Don Winslow, you will most likely enjoy this, whether or not you listen to it on audio.
*I bought this audio with my hard earned cash.*
California surfing, and lots of surf lingo which counters the horrific child abuse and rape being investigated.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but not sure I'll continue on, since the second book has a different narrator. Perhaps, I'll read it instead, but if so, it's going to be a while.
The only complaint I have about this one is the short, short chapters. They do make for cliffhangers, especially towards the end...but sometimes it seemed like we only got a few sentences and then on to the next chapter. It's a small thing, but it is a thing.
If you like Don Winslow, you will most likely enjoy this, whether or not you listen to it on audio.
*I bought this audio with my hard earned cash.*
September 27, 2017
"Onto the beach, into the fog"
Don Winslow, The Dawn Patrol
Clearly, I'm a Don Winslow fan. One danger with grading any author is the scale gets warped by their most amazing books. When I judge 'The Dawn Patrol' next to The Power of the Dog or The Cartel, etc., I tend to be really hard on the book I just read. However, if I try to evaluate DP for itself and for what it is, I find I really enjoyed it.
'Dawn Patrol' is escape candy, beach noir, hard-boiled surfer pulp. It has a narrative drive that is one of the big draws of Winslow. He easily delivers when it comes balancing between a page-turning plot, and laid-back details. I will jump into Don Winslow when I'm tired of wrestling with Vollmann or Gaddis. His characters are interesting, but at the margin they DO sometimes flirt with cliché. But overall? I liked it. It isn't Raymond Chandler, or Pynchon's Inherent Vice, but Winslow is edging closer to James Ellroy territory. And in Window's more brilliant moments (there are some in this book) and more brilliant books (Cartel, etc), he can sit easily with the most literary of crime writers.
Don Winslow, The Dawn Patrol
Clearly, I'm a Don Winslow fan. One danger with grading any author is the scale gets warped by their most amazing books. When I judge 'The Dawn Patrol' next to The Power of the Dog or The Cartel, etc., I tend to be really hard on the book I just read. However, if I try to evaluate DP for itself and for what it is, I find I really enjoyed it.
'Dawn Patrol' is escape candy, beach noir, hard-boiled surfer pulp. It has a narrative drive that is one of the big draws of Winslow. He easily delivers when it comes balancing between a page-turning plot, and laid-back details. I will jump into Don Winslow when I'm tired of wrestling with Vollmann or Gaddis. His characters are interesting, but at the margin they DO sometimes flirt with cliché. But overall? I liked it. It isn't Raymond Chandler, or Pynchon's Inherent Vice, but Winslow is edging closer to James Ellroy territory. And in Window's more brilliant moments (there are some in this book) and more brilliant books (Cartel, etc), he can sit easily with the most literary of crime writers.
January 16, 2022
The ocean is his backyard, his haven, his playground, his refuge, his church. He goes into the ocean to get well, to get clean, to remind himself that life is a ride. Boone believes that a wave is God’s tangible message that all the great things in life are free. Boone gets free every day, usually two or three times a day, but always, always, out on The Dawn Patrol.
Boone Daniels lives to surf.
There is no shortage of books and movies about surfers, yet I would argue that this is one of the most fun to read, even with the more disturbing aspects of its main plot . I believe the author had a lot of fun with the characters and with the setting, and it shows in the final product. The story may not be as as edgy and experimental as “Inherent Vice”, as bleak as “Cutter and Bone”, as high-octane as “Point Break” or as posh as “Malibu Rising”, but it feels authentic to this typically Californian cultural phenomenon. I might even propose that there are better books by Don Winslow out there, but sometimes I’m really in the mood for a fast and entertaining beach read.[Yeah, especially in the middle of winter]
The Dawn Patrol – Boone, Hang Twelve, Dave the Love God, Johnny Banzai, High Tide, and Sunny Day – sits out there on the line, talking while they wait for the next set to come in. They all wear black winter wet suits that cover them from their wrists to their ankles, because the early-morning water is cold, especially now that it’s stirred up by the approaching storm.
A group of friends from San Diego has an almost religious routine of greeting the dawn every day out on the surf, ready to ride the early waves on their boards. They have their own, almost incomprehensible jargon, to deal with matters of weather, tides, winds and waves, and they each has earned their place on the Patrol and their nicknames through their dedication to this way of life. Some of the friends have regular jobs, which is why the early morning ritual is so important.
Boone Daniels, the lead character, used to be a cop in San Diego, but he resigned after several years of witnessing all forms of human misery and cruelty. He has better things to do with his time (mainly surfing), but because he is also in need of money, he does the occasional freelance private investigator job: like tracking missing people, repossessions and other similar activities.
The approaching storm promises to deliver record-breaking surf, but it also portends some disturbance in the fabric that holds together The Dawn Patrol.
“Let me explain something to you: Boone doesn’t wear a watch; he wears a sundial.”
“I take it Mr. Daniels is somewhat laid-back?”
“If Boone was any more laid-back,” Cheerful says, “he’d be horizontal.”
When a young and ambitious woman in a business suit, a junior partner in a law firm, comes to his office with a new job, Boone is as usual absent, but the lady is insistent and the need for money is great, so instead of getting ready for the huge waves announced for Pacific Beach with his friends, our private investigator starts investigating.
>>><<<>>><<<
Most of the charm and the fascination of the novel is not in the actual criminal proceedings, but in the description of this way of life, of this counter-culture: how it started (with George Freeth, according to local legend) , how it got popular together with the music of The Beach Boys and with the rebellion against conformity of the Flower Power generation, and how it is threatened now by the greed of both the land developers and of the local drug kingpins, who are no longer satisfied with the low grade stuff the surfing community enjoys and want to diversify into harder, more profitable stuff.
This overview of the whole social fabric of Southern California is tied up nicely into the actual plot of the novel and brings it a couple of rungs above the ‘beach read’ dismissal I used earlier. Boone Daniels may look and sound like a beach bum, but he is also an avid reader and a knight in [shiny] sandy armour, fighting for lost causes.
They’re the invisible, the people we don’t see or choose not to see, even in the bright light of day. They’re the unspoken truth, the unseen reality behind the California dream. There before we wake up, gone before we fall asleep again.
So, there’s a story here, and plenty of social commentary plus action by the end of the novel, but I believe the most memorable part of the novel for me was to get to know these friends that have each other’s back in a tight spot, to know their passion for the freedom of wave and ocean, their struggle to remain true to the vision of the surfing pioneers in a world that turns more feral every day.
I will probably read the second book in the series, soon.
“Epic macking crunchy.”
June 6, 2016
Classic PI story updated to the San Diego surfing scene, a fun and predictable read that offers up a raft of characters whose skills misdemeanour's improbably all interconnect at the denouement in a way that is only possible in a cliched detective novel.
It suffers from not being dark enough, original enough, from not being a Kem Nunn novel or even one of Winslow's own stellar efforts, but it excels with Winslow's conversational writing style and the inclusion of passages on the history of San Diego, immigration, surfing, life saving etc. that double as backstory and character history; those are the more interesting sections of story and a prime example of why Winslow is so highly thought of by those in the know.
It suffers from not being dark enough, original enough, from not being a Kem Nunn novel or even one of Winslow's own stellar efforts, but it excels with Winslow's conversational writing style and the inclusion of passages on the history of San Diego, immigration, surfing, life saving etc. that double as backstory and character history; those are the more interesting sections of story and a prime example of why Winslow is so highly thought of by those in the know.
July 16, 2019
lovely. funny. enjoyable. well written. fun to read even there a bit to much historical info on places, or too many surfers names which i do not know if they are real names or not. so i felt it is ok to skip here and there some pages. great hard boiled with fun atmosphere.
October 26, 2016
Review An ex-cop surfer turned P.I. surfer provides listeners genuine characters, a plausible plot, heart-rending moments of truth and terror on and off the waves. I enjoy Don Winslows gritty Characters and how he can keep my attention. Another one of his that I liked was "The Winter of Frankie the Machine". Ray Porter, (one of the best), has an easy way of adjusting my emotions with subtle shifts in his timber.
March 31, 2013
The Dawn Patrol is Winslow’s fifth book set in Southern California and comes one book back from
Savages
, which, you may recall, I liked a bit. It’s less experimental than Savages, which by definition makes it more accessible, but the sensibility and style is much the same.
This one actually has a hero of sorts, though ex-cop Boone Daniels is an unrepentant surf bum in every way someone can be a surf bum. He ekes out a living in San Diego-adjacent Pacific Beach by being a sort-of PI, guest-bouncing at his favorite watering hole, and generally doing as little as possible in order to get away with surfing with his buds at sunrise (thus the title). Trouble comes to this slacker paradise in the form of an outwardly simple job offer extended by an annoying-yet-hot lawyer named Petra that leads Boone down the rabbit hole into the sort of depravity Winslow does so well.
Boone isn’t bad company at all, although you’ll want to slap him more than once for the heedless way he screws up pretty much everything in his life. His attitude and philosophy seems authentic enough for a creature such as he, and Winslow has internalized the language and ethos of the 21st-Century surf culture in a way that makes us believe Boone and his homies have grown up in it. Several of Boone’s pack grow into being real people and not just the supporting cast, embarking on their own arcs that sometimes intersect with the main action and sometimes spin off into their own thing, either way being pretty entertaining.
The settings are atmospheric enough to enable even flatlanders to see where the characters are hanging. The main plot holds together and even makes a certain amount of sense once Boone puts together the pieces. The real star here, though, is the author himself. Writing in present tense, his prose is sharp, immediate, attitudinal, slangy, sometimes poetic, and often funny. He gives us extended riffs on the sociology of strippers, high-end cosmetic surgeons and expat Pacific Islanders. While he doesn’t launch into the wilder flights of fancy here that he does in Savages, the book is perhaps the stronger for it.
Like getting wilted cabbage in your fish taco, the good comes with the less good here. The two primary figures of mainstream badassery are each fairly one-dimensional in their own ways. The main heavy is flabby, nasty, brutal, bigoted and misogynistic because that’s what he is, with no clue given as to why or how; the megarich borderline-manic kidlike dope kingpin is a junior-league version of the screwed-up megarich dope kingpins Winslow gave us in Savages. Boone’s brutal, procedure-busting cop nemesis is similarly a type rather than a person. And annoying-yet-hot lawyer Petra ends up being another type; she starts out promisingly sharp-tongued and understandably disdainful of Boone’s general existence, then melts under the influence of his slacker charms (not a spoiler – you’ll figure it out pretty quickly), even though he’d given no good reason for someone like her to want to get involved with someone like him. That I’m still willing to give this four stars makes me wonder what this book could’ve been had Winslow given these characters the same room to develop as he has Boone, Johnny Banzai, High Tide and Sunny Day.
There’s a sequel ( The Gentleman's Hour ) I’ll get around to; stay tuned for those developments. You can read The Dawn Patrol as either a pretty-good SoCal Noir crime story, or as a master’s class in style and attitude. It works well either way. Whichever way you take it, if you haven’t tried Winslow yet and/or any of this sounds at all interesting, give the book a spin.
This one actually has a hero of sorts, though ex-cop Boone Daniels is an unrepentant surf bum in every way someone can be a surf bum. He ekes out a living in San Diego-adjacent Pacific Beach by being a sort-of PI, guest-bouncing at his favorite watering hole, and generally doing as little as possible in order to get away with surfing with his buds at sunrise (thus the title). Trouble comes to this slacker paradise in the form of an outwardly simple job offer extended by an annoying-yet-hot lawyer named Petra that leads Boone down the rabbit hole into the sort of depravity Winslow does so well.
Boone isn’t bad company at all, although you’ll want to slap him more than once for the heedless way he screws up pretty much everything in his life. His attitude and philosophy seems authentic enough for a creature such as he, and Winslow has internalized the language and ethos of the 21st-Century surf culture in a way that makes us believe Boone and his homies have grown up in it. Several of Boone’s pack grow into being real people and not just the supporting cast, embarking on their own arcs that sometimes intersect with the main action and sometimes spin off into their own thing, either way being pretty entertaining.
The settings are atmospheric enough to enable even flatlanders to see where the characters are hanging. The main plot holds together and even makes a certain amount of sense once Boone puts together the pieces. The real star here, though, is the author himself. Writing in present tense, his prose is sharp, immediate, attitudinal, slangy, sometimes poetic, and often funny. He gives us extended riffs on the sociology of strippers, high-end cosmetic surgeons and expat Pacific Islanders. While he doesn’t launch into the wilder flights of fancy here that he does in Savages, the book is perhaps the stronger for it.
Like getting wilted cabbage in your fish taco, the good comes with the less good here. The two primary figures of mainstream badassery are each fairly one-dimensional in their own ways. The main heavy is flabby, nasty, brutal, bigoted and misogynistic because that’s what he is, with no clue given as to why or how; the megarich borderline-manic kidlike dope kingpin is a junior-league version of the screwed-up megarich dope kingpins Winslow gave us in Savages. Boone’s brutal, procedure-busting cop nemesis is similarly a type rather than a person. And annoying-yet-hot lawyer Petra ends up being another type; she starts out promisingly sharp-tongued and understandably disdainful of Boone’s general existence, then melts under the influence of his slacker charms (not a spoiler – you’ll figure it out pretty quickly), even though he’d given no good reason for someone like her to want to get involved with someone like him. That I’m still willing to give this four stars makes me wonder what this book could’ve been had Winslow given these characters the same room to develop as he has Boone, Johnny Banzai, High Tide and Sunny Day.
There’s a sequel ( The Gentleman's Hour ) I’ll get around to; stay tuned for those developments. You can read The Dawn Patrol as either a pretty-good SoCal Noir crime story, or as a master’s class in style and attitude. It works well either way. Whichever way you take it, if you haven’t tried Winslow yet and/or any of this sounds at all interesting, give the book a spin.
June 18, 2011
Fun, slick, slightly cartoonish ... sorta reminds me of watching Riptide starring Perry King and Joe Penny back in the 80s (before Joe Penny went on to that great boob-tube masterpiece Jake and the Fat Man with William Conrad, who was indeed THE fat man). In other words, The Dawn Patrol is thoroughly entertaining but not really real or scary or particularly original. Winslow is first and foremost a stylist, and he's found a nice voice with the short chapters and telegraphic sentences. If I rewrote this review in his style it would be something like:
Point of view: roving.
Take a creative writing class and the pointy-heads tell you to stick with one, brah. It's the curse of Henry James. Limited omniscience. The writer isn't supposed to reveal himself as the hand of God. Better identifying with characters, too. More deep interiority.
Only those limitations feel limiting. What good is a rule if you can't break it once in a while. Don Winslow is a surfer. Surfing is all about riding the wave, not trying to control it. Take the POV where it takes you, brah.
Point of view: freedom.
The mystery itself seems almost perfunctory, though it takes a few nice turns and the woman you figure for a patsy is ... well, read it yourself. Extra props for the chick surfer Sunny. I love me a surfer girl any day. And I like the multicultural sweep, if that doesn't sound too PC. Slight demerits for such cliches as the stripper, the strip club, the strip club owner, the plastic surgeon whose clientele consists entirely of strippers, etc. Our collective American fascination with strippers should have run out when Lindsey Lohan played one.
If this review sounds negative or even ambivalent, it's not. Dawn Patrol was a nice break from the angsty noir I usually wallow in. And I loved the way the history of surf culture is weaved into the narrative. The favorite chapter, in fact, nicely encapsulates the commercialization of surfin usa as measured by the changes along the Pacific Coast Highway. Especially the line about how Boone Daniels, riffing on the old Ethics 101 question about strangling Adolph Hitler in the crib, would bash in Brian Wilson's baby head if it meant preventing the Californication of California culture. Good one, brudda.
I recommend this book be reread alongside Inherent Vice---they make nice companion pieces.
Point of view: roving.
Take a creative writing class and the pointy-heads tell you to stick with one, brah. It's the curse of Henry James. Limited omniscience. The writer isn't supposed to reveal himself as the hand of God. Better identifying with characters, too. More deep interiority.
Only those limitations feel limiting. What good is a rule if you can't break it once in a while. Don Winslow is a surfer. Surfing is all about riding the wave, not trying to control it. Take the POV where it takes you, brah.
Point of view: freedom.
The mystery itself seems almost perfunctory, though it takes a few nice turns and the woman you figure for a patsy is ... well, read it yourself. Extra props for the chick surfer Sunny. I love me a surfer girl any day. And I like the multicultural sweep, if that doesn't sound too PC. Slight demerits for such cliches as the stripper, the strip club, the strip club owner, the plastic surgeon whose clientele consists entirely of strippers, etc. Our collective American fascination with strippers should have run out when Lindsey Lohan played one.
If this review sounds negative or even ambivalent, it's not. Dawn Patrol was a nice break from the angsty noir I usually wallow in. And I loved the way the history of surf culture is weaved into the narrative. The favorite chapter, in fact, nicely encapsulates the commercialization of surfin usa as measured by the changes along the Pacific Coast Highway. Especially the line about how Boone Daniels, riffing on the old Ethics 101 question about strangling Adolph Hitler in the crib, would bash in Brian Wilson's baby head if it meant preventing the Californication of California culture. Good one, brudda.
I recommend this book be reread alongside Inherent Vice---they make nice companion pieces.
May 16, 2008
naw, man... the new winslow ain't nearly as great as his last two... but, shit. after the demented masterpiece that is Power of the Dog and the wildly enjoyable The Winter of Frankie Machine... well, you've earned a misstep. at least.
but, check it: neil young's solo in cinnamon girl. it's one motherfucking note. one note! played over and over. because it's over a changing background, because the rhythm guitar and bass are changing it up, young sounds like he's doing more than playing one note. nope. one note. and it's perfect. and only neil would know and feel and choose to play one note over and over in a form in which the best compliment is 'you shredded it, man!'
don winslow writes sentences like neil young solos on cinnamon girl. one word. one motherfucking word.
ask me how this sentence can make sense: Is is is.
here's how:
Josiah Pamavatuu is a good man, no doubt about it. Now he drives a truck with two wet and shivering women at his side and his best friend in the back, a man who is like family to him.
But like ain't is.
Is is is.
that's how don winslow writes like neil young plays guitar.
but, check it: neil young's solo in cinnamon girl. it's one motherfucking note. one note! played over and over. because it's over a changing background, because the rhythm guitar and bass are changing it up, young sounds like he's doing more than playing one note. nope. one note. and it's perfect. and only neil would know and feel and choose to play one note over and over in a form in which the best compliment is 'you shredded it, man!'
don winslow writes sentences like neil young solos on cinnamon girl. one word. one motherfucking word.
ask me how this sentence can make sense: Is is is.
here's how:
Josiah Pamavatuu is a good man, no doubt about it. Now he drives a truck with two wet and shivering women at his side and his best friend in the back, a man who is like family to him.
But like ain't is.
Is is is.
that's how don winslow writes like neil young plays guitar.
May 6, 2010
Oh, just buy it. Buy all of them. Make him rich and famous. He deserves it.
September 29, 2017
The Dawn Patrol is an interesting combination of history/surfer culture/crime/murder mystery/weak love story. I listened to the audio book and narrator Ray Porter does a fantastic job bringing the story and characters to life. I would rate the story as 3.5 stars. Ray Porter's performance makes the audio book a good way to read this book to round it to an overall 4 stars.
The Dawn Patrol references a group of surfer friends who sit on their surf boards at dawn watching the waves for a ride. They are colorful group with names like High Tide, Hang Twelve, Bonsai, and Sunny Day (the only female member) just to name a few. Boone Daniels is also a member who is more of a full time surfer and part time private investigator. The PI job is what is supposed to pay the rent and barely manages to do so. Boone's food philosophy is that, "food always tastes better on a taco shell."
Boone's cash flow happens to be running negative so Boone takes on a job to find a stripper so she can appear at a civil hearing involving a warehouse fire and some shady business. Boone is joined by a "hot" but obnoxious lady lawyer (Petra). Boone and Petra aren't the only ones looking for the stripper. There are "bad" guys after the stripper as well intent on keeping her quiet.
Interwoven in the main story is a back history on the San Diego area, each of the major characters and shore breaks for surfing along the southern California coastline. All of which are interesting but after awhile seems a bit like "filler" to the mainline story. This background info does have relevance to the overall story. Also a major part of the story is the almost reverence to the surfing subculture where priorities are established around the waves that happen to be breaking on the beach. Here again, this blends in rather well to the overall story although there a few rough spots at the edges. My biggest complaint is that the ocean and surfing metaphors get wearisome after awhile.
I think the characters are well crafted and colorful. The dialog is also well done creating a nice chemistry and dynamic between characters. The colorful dialog keeps the pace of the story moving along. I found myself smiling and laughing often throughout the story.
Overall, The Dawn Patrol is an interesting and thought provoking read. A surfer private investigator (and another surfer character is a detective in the police department) is certainly a different twist to mystery/thriller genre. The surfer/cop shtick is rough in places. Also, parts of the book reminded me of Bruce Brown's Endless Summer movies. I like the surfer thing but I think it gets a little overplayed in the book.
In the end though, I enjoyed the book. And for the audio book readers/listeners, Ray Porter nails the character voices and dialog exchanges. I think the audio version is the best option for this book.
The Dawn Patrol references a group of surfer friends who sit on their surf boards at dawn watching the waves for a ride. They are colorful group with names like High Tide, Hang Twelve, Bonsai, and Sunny Day (the only female member) just to name a few. Boone Daniels is also a member who is more of a full time surfer and part time private investigator. The PI job is what is supposed to pay the rent and barely manages to do so. Boone's food philosophy is that, "food always tastes better on a taco shell."
Boone's cash flow happens to be running negative so Boone takes on a job to find a stripper so she can appear at a civil hearing involving a warehouse fire and some shady business. Boone is joined by a "hot" but obnoxious lady lawyer (Petra). Boone and Petra aren't the only ones looking for the stripper. There are "bad" guys after the stripper as well intent on keeping her quiet.
Interwoven in the main story is a back history on the San Diego area, each of the major characters and shore breaks for surfing along the southern California coastline. All of which are interesting but after awhile seems a bit like "filler" to the mainline story. This background info does have relevance to the overall story. Also a major part of the story is the almost reverence to the surfing subculture where priorities are established around the waves that happen to be breaking on the beach. Here again, this blends in rather well to the overall story although there a few rough spots at the edges. My biggest complaint is that the ocean and surfing metaphors get wearisome after awhile.
I think the characters are well crafted and colorful. The dialog is also well done creating a nice chemistry and dynamic between characters. The colorful dialog keeps the pace of the story moving along. I found myself smiling and laughing often throughout the story.
Overall, The Dawn Patrol is an interesting and thought provoking read. A surfer private investigator (and another surfer character is a detective in the police department) is certainly a different twist to mystery/thriller genre. The surfer/cop shtick is rough in places. Also, parts of the book reminded me of Bruce Brown's Endless Summer movies. I like the surfer thing but I think it gets a little overplayed in the book.
In the end though, I enjoyed the book. And for the audio book readers/listeners, Ray Porter nails the character voices and dialog exchanges. I think the audio version is the best option for this book.
July 24, 2017
There are about as many private investigator stories out there as there are grains of sand on beaches. When those private investigators roam around those beaches though, things get different. The Dawn Patrol is the story of Boone Daniels, a passionate surfer, who keeps himself afloat (just about) by solving a case every now and then. It is just when the biggest swell of his surfing career is about to hit Californian shores that a new case gives him the ride of a lifetime.
I have read many crime stories with a well-crafted plot and I have read others with carefully considered characters, but what makes a thriller truly enjoyable for me is when both aspects come together. And they sure as hell did in The Dawn Patrol! Boone is an awesome character. He's got all the traits of your average surfer dude ("If Boone was any more laid-back, he'd be horizontal"), but you see, the thing is: he's not. Hidden beneath all that coolness is somebody who's smart, driven and witty. It makes an engaging protagonist and somebody who I was more than keen to follow on this ride.
And it's not just him, but it's his entire friendship group I fell in love with. The gang calling themselves The Dawn Patrol meet up every morning before work to catch some waves. We've got folks like a girl literally named Sunny Day, who knows of a much darker side in Boone; there's Hang Twelve with the inability to stop eating, nicknamed after his twelve toes and Dave the Love God, who's a life guard with a particular interest in keeping those tourist ladies safe. Their support for each other feels as real as their passion for surfing, which plays a big part in this. I mean, I have surfed before, but there's no way I can call myself a surfer, so I feel like I gained some proper insight into San Diego's surfing community and the way the industry behind it is constructed.
The most impressive aspect of this novel is how effortless it seems. The style of writing feels as casual and conversational as its protagonist, but the well-crafted and beautifully tied together plot makes it clear that this is not the kind of book that you pen in one sunny afternoon session.
This is a fine novel. It has the ability to keep you company in those sunny summer days or bring some warmth into your life on a bleak winter's day. This is most definitely not the last time Don Winslow has made an appearance on my reading shelf.
I have read many crime stories with a well-crafted plot and I have read others with carefully considered characters, but what makes a thriller truly enjoyable for me is when both aspects come together. And they sure as hell did in The Dawn Patrol! Boone is an awesome character. He's got all the traits of your average surfer dude ("If Boone was any more laid-back, he'd be horizontal"), but you see, the thing is: he's not. Hidden beneath all that coolness is somebody who's smart, driven and witty. It makes an engaging protagonist and somebody who I was more than keen to follow on this ride.
And it's not just him, but it's his entire friendship group I fell in love with. The gang calling themselves The Dawn Patrol meet up every morning before work to catch some waves. We've got folks like a girl literally named Sunny Day, who knows of a much darker side in Boone; there's Hang Twelve with the inability to stop eating, nicknamed after his twelve toes and Dave the Love God, who's a life guard with a particular interest in keeping those tourist ladies safe. Their support for each other feels as real as their passion for surfing, which plays a big part in this. I mean, I have surfed before, but there's no way I can call myself a surfer, so I feel like I gained some proper insight into San Diego's surfing community and the way the industry behind it is constructed.
The most impressive aspect of this novel is how effortless it seems. The style of writing feels as casual and conversational as its protagonist, but the well-crafted and beautifully tied together plot makes it clear that this is not the kind of book that you pen in one sunny afternoon session.
This is a fine novel. It has the ability to keep you company in those sunny summer days or bring some warmth into your life on a bleak winter's day. This is most definitely not the last time Don Winslow has made an appearance on my reading shelf.
June 6, 2018
U.S. Highway 101.
The Pacific Coast Highway.
The PCH.
The Boulevard of Unbroken Dreams.
The Yellow Brick Road.
You may get your kicks on Route 66, but you get your fun on Highway 101. You may take 66 to find America, but you won't find The American Dream until you hit the PCH. Sixty-six is the route, but 101 is the destination. You travel 66, you arrive at 101. It's the end of the road, the beginning of the ride.
It’s these little insights that set writers apart from the herd. You don’t really expect this sort of wit from a crime drama but that’s what you get from Winslow. I am reading his books in a screwy order but I am thoroughly hooked. I started with Savages which I hated but after The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and now this, I have become a huge fan. I’m just glad that I have a lot of catching up to do.
The Pacific Coast Highway.
The PCH.
The Boulevard of Unbroken Dreams.
The Yellow Brick Road.
You may get your kicks on Route 66, but you get your fun on Highway 101. You may take 66 to find America, but you won't find The American Dream until you hit the PCH. Sixty-six is the route, but 101 is the destination. You travel 66, you arrive at 101. It's the end of the road, the beginning of the ride.
It’s these little insights that set writers apart from the herd. You don’t really expect this sort of wit from a crime drama but that’s what you get from Winslow. I am reading his books in a screwy order but I am thoroughly hooked. I started with Savages which I hated but after The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and now this, I have become a huge fan. I’m just glad that I have a lot of catching up to do.
June 3, 2018
'The Dawn Patrol' is the first in Don Winslow's Boone Daniels series. Daniels is an interesting character to say the least, a surf shop proprietor, part-time PI, ex-cop, surf-addict, super laid-back badass. He's a 'member' of the Dawn Patrol, an eclectic group of surfing fanatics who meet almost daily to take advantage of the fine waves along the San Diego coastal area.
The story really begins with Daniels being approached by a young, smartass (and smart) female lawyer to help with an insurance fraud case. Although he seems an odd choice for the task, there's a powerful incentive for him to accept the challenge: he needs the money. And although Daniels takes an unconventional approach to his PI work that's often driven by the quality of the waves hitting the shoreline, it becomes apparent that he has the requisite skills and contacts to make progress. He's also working, nearly every minute of every day, to make up for the actions that resulted in his leaving the San Diego police force a few years in the past. Throw in some romantic entanglements, oddball characters, and assorted SoCal lowlifes and you have the makings of a pretty good mystery.
I truly enjoy Winslow's writing. I've bounced around in his catalog in almost random order and discovered a few things about his style: he's very straightforward with minimal embellishment, he knows his subjects extremely well and isn't afraid to use the vernacular of his characters in his narrative, whether they're Mexican cartel members, indolent surfer types, or cops, and he's excellent with dialogue. Dawn Patrol seems like a very good head start in a series based on a truly interesting character and I'm looking forward to discovering how he grows Boone Daniels in subsequent iterations.
The story really begins with Daniels being approached by a young, smartass (and smart) female lawyer to help with an insurance fraud case. Although he seems an odd choice for the task, there's a powerful incentive for him to accept the challenge: he needs the money. And although Daniels takes an unconventional approach to his PI work that's often driven by the quality of the waves hitting the shoreline, it becomes apparent that he has the requisite skills and contacts to make progress. He's also working, nearly every minute of every day, to make up for the actions that resulted in his leaving the San Diego police force a few years in the past. Throw in some romantic entanglements, oddball characters, and assorted SoCal lowlifes and you have the makings of a pretty good mystery.
I truly enjoy Winslow's writing. I've bounced around in his catalog in almost random order and discovered a few things about his style: he's very straightforward with minimal embellishment, he knows his subjects extremely well and isn't afraid to use the vernacular of his characters in his narrative, whether they're Mexican cartel members, indolent surfer types, or cops, and he's excellent with dialogue. Dawn Patrol seems like a very good head start in a series based on a truly interesting character and I'm looking forward to discovering how he grows Boone Daniels in subsequent iterations.
July 13, 2022
Don Winslow is one of my favorite authors and Ray Porter is my favorite narrator so I was looking forward to this one. An earlier release for the author, I thought it was good with Ray making it a fun and exciting listen. The plot was good but not great with an interesting cast of characters but it had many more chapters than I prefer (150+). Unfortunately it’s a different narrator for the sequel but the next one gets 4+ ⭐️ on Audible so I’ll probably give it a listen as well.
August 11, 2012
There are few things more potent in literature than accurately described physical endurances. As Sunny Day, the female surfer in Don Winslow’s evocative mystery The Dawn Patrol, trains for catching Big Waves off the San Diego coast we get a description of what it’s like to be held under water after a wipeout. I’ve spent enough time bounced along the ocean floor disoriented in which way is up and wondering if my breath will last longer than the waves holding me down to know how that feels. Winslow perfectly describes the combination of fear and calmness that envelopes surfers when they’ve hit beach bottom.
The Dawn Patrol balances the power and beauty of surfing throughout a storyline mixing mistaken murder, illegal border importation and a nasty arson trial. A wide array of characters inhabits an edge of San Diego which Winslow fills in with local history. Boone Daniels, ex-San Diego cop, is the focal point of a morning surf crew that calls themselves the Dawn Patrol. They nominal avoid thinking about the day facing them with meta-discussions while waiting for the rising waves. But Daniels is soon wrapped up in a gnarly bit of business that conjures up past hauntings of cop work.
The Dawn Patrol, each with their own demons, soon confronts a Samoan drug lord, a reptilian strip club owner (is there any other kind?) and cops who need help with anger issues. Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach crash into the toney mansions of La Jolla until the whole mess ends up in the ripped out heart of ancient strawberry fields. This is another in a long line of adroitly described Southern California mysteries in the vein of Ross MacDonald’s The Goodbye Look and T. Jefferson Parker’s Laguna Heat. The Dawn Patrol starts in the surf but ends up in a completely different rip.
Sidebar: Other surf titles to consider –
I grew up in San Diego wasting far too much time on Mission Beach, PB, OB, and D Street (with its vicious shore break.) I enjoy books that capture the essence of a place and unique communities that hold their own against the world. Surfing holds a place in the imagination that almost matches the power they try to ride. There are some books worth considering when waiting for your next set to come in . . .
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, by Cameron Crowe.
While not an essential surf novel Crowe’s novel about Redondo Beach High School in the late 70s perfectly places the angst and confusion of those dreadful years at the losers table. This is a fast paced look at teenage cliques which naturally includes surfers. Fast Times certain has the most famous fictional surfer: Spicoli Lives on. . . .somewhere, dude.
Breath: A Novel, by Tim Winton.
Winton captures Australian surf with rich lyrical language exploring a rivalry created by a surfing guru. Lives are transformed unexpectedly as Winton weaves a dark tale.
Tapping the Source, by Kem Nunn.
The first of several surf novels by Nunn which centers on the surf center of Huntington Beach. This is Nunn’s first foray into surf mystery but the story also explores the effect of the ocean on a young man’s search for his sister’s killers.
The Dogs of Winter, by Kem Nunn.
A photographer chases down a legendary big wave rider trying to tame a remote beach in Northern California. A death involving a local boy pushes this novel into metaphysical examinations of the dark side of interlopers. Is this where the Heart of Darkness catches the last wave?
Tijuana Straits, by Kem Nunn.
Damaged lives, lost souls and environmental wastelands make up the last of Nunn’s surf trilogy centered on the border between San Diego and Tijuana. There is beauty here in characters looking for redemption among the toxicity of the landscape, both human and natural. The image of the border fence sinking into the sea is indelible.
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey.
From the non-fiction side of the surf aisle this is a mesmerizing look at big wave riders and the scientific study of waves. Casey deftly weaves the physics and the astounding power of large waves through historical phenomena and showcases world class surfers in pursuit of the ultimate ride. A thrilling ride indeed.
The Dawn Patrol balances the power and beauty of surfing throughout a storyline mixing mistaken murder, illegal border importation and a nasty arson trial. A wide array of characters inhabits an edge of San Diego which Winslow fills in with local history. Boone Daniels, ex-San Diego cop, is the focal point of a morning surf crew that calls themselves the Dawn Patrol. They nominal avoid thinking about the day facing them with meta-discussions while waiting for the rising waves. But Daniels is soon wrapped up in a gnarly bit of business that conjures up past hauntings of cop work.
The Dawn Patrol, each with their own demons, soon confronts a Samoan drug lord, a reptilian strip club owner (is there any other kind?) and cops who need help with anger issues. Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach crash into the toney mansions of La Jolla until the whole mess ends up in the ripped out heart of ancient strawberry fields. This is another in a long line of adroitly described Southern California mysteries in the vein of Ross MacDonald’s The Goodbye Look and T. Jefferson Parker’s Laguna Heat. The Dawn Patrol starts in the surf but ends up in a completely different rip.
Sidebar: Other surf titles to consider –
I grew up in San Diego wasting far too much time on Mission Beach, PB, OB, and D Street (with its vicious shore break.) I enjoy books that capture the essence of a place and unique communities that hold their own against the world. Surfing holds a place in the imagination that almost matches the power they try to ride. There are some books worth considering when waiting for your next set to come in . . .
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, by Cameron Crowe.
While not an essential surf novel Crowe’s novel about Redondo Beach High School in the late 70s perfectly places the angst and confusion of those dreadful years at the losers table. This is a fast paced look at teenage cliques which naturally includes surfers. Fast Times certain has the most famous fictional surfer: Spicoli Lives on. . . .somewhere, dude.
Breath: A Novel, by Tim Winton.
Winton captures Australian surf with rich lyrical language exploring a rivalry created by a surfing guru. Lives are transformed unexpectedly as Winton weaves a dark tale.
Tapping the Source, by Kem Nunn.
The first of several surf novels by Nunn which centers on the surf center of Huntington Beach. This is Nunn’s first foray into surf mystery but the story also explores the effect of the ocean on a young man’s search for his sister’s killers.
The Dogs of Winter, by Kem Nunn.
A photographer chases down a legendary big wave rider trying to tame a remote beach in Northern California. A death involving a local boy pushes this novel into metaphysical examinations of the dark side of interlopers. Is this where the Heart of Darkness catches the last wave?
Tijuana Straits, by Kem Nunn.
Damaged lives, lost souls and environmental wastelands make up the last of Nunn’s surf trilogy centered on the border between San Diego and Tijuana. There is beauty here in characters looking for redemption among the toxicity of the landscape, both human and natural. The image of the border fence sinking into the sea is indelible.
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey.
From the non-fiction side of the surf aisle this is a mesmerizing look at big wave riders and the scientific study of waves. Casey deftly weaves the physics and the astounding power of large waves through historical phenomena and showcases world class surfers in pursuit of the ultimate ride. A thrilling ride indeed.
May 6, 2019
Me encanta el estilo de Don Winslow, a quien conocí por la fantástica (y yo creo que insuperable) trilogía de la droga (quince estrellas en tres libros, mi humilde opinión).
Esta novela es distinta. Es una clásica novela de detectives, de alguien a ha matado a alguien, pero ambientada, no solo ambientada, imbricada en el ambiente surfero de San Diego. Como novela recorre un camino muy trillado, con el héroe, los antihéroes, los amigos del héroe, la novia del héroe... ¿Qué hace especial esta novela? Los diálogos. Los diálogos fluyen solos. Si yo me pusiera a escribir novela, Winslow sería uno de los autores que diseccionaría en la mesa de operaciones para copiarle el estilo de los diálogos. Los personajes, que son muy arquetípicos y que tienen justo las características que les hacen brillar a cada uno en su papel en esta novela, y a pesar de ello se les coge cariño a todos. Las descripciones, en las que Winslow no solo se recrea sino que eleva a categoría de mito cuando quiere.
Poco más puedo decir. Historia conocida, a pesar de lo cual no he podido dejar de leer y me lo he fundido en dos noches. Ya tengo el segundo y último de este protagonista. Ya lo estoy leyendo. Nada más que declarar.
Esta novela es distinta. Es una clásica novela de detectives, de alguien a ha matado a alguien, pero ambientada, no solo ambientada, imbricada en el ambiente surfero de San Diego. Como novela recorre un camino muy trillado, con el héroe, los antihéroes, los amigos del héroe, la novia del héroe... ¿Qué hace especial esta novela? Los diálogos. Los diálogos fluyen solos. Si yo me pusiera a escribir novela, Winslow sería uno de los autores que diseccionaría en la mesa de operaciones para copiarle el estilo de los diálogos. Los personajes, que son muy arquetípicos y que tienen justo las características que les hacen brillar a cada uno en su papel en esta novela, y a pesar de ello se les coge cariño a todos. Las descripciones, en las que Winslow no solo se recrea sino que eleva a categoría de mito cuando quiere.
U.S. Highway 101.
The Pacific Coast Highway.
The PCH.
The Boulevard of Unbroken Dreams.
The Yellow Brick Road.
You may get your kicks on route 66, but you get your fun on Highway 101. You may take 66 to find America, but you won’t find The American Dream until you hit the PCH. Sixty-six is the route, but 101 the destination. You travel 66, you arrive at 101. It’s the end of the road, the beginning of the ride.
Poco más puedo decir. Historia conocida, a pesar de lo cual no he podido dejar de leer y me lo he fundido en dos noches. Ya tengo el segundo y último de este protagonista. Ya lo estoy leyendo. Nada más que declarar.
March 16, 2009
Take the perfect climate in San Diego, add a former police officer turned PI, give him a love to surf addiction, and put in an attractive woman who wants to hire him to find and protect a star witness and you have the ingredients of this dandy mystery.
Boone Daniels is the central character. He is so good that he is, in effect, almost a characture of goodness. His heroic deeds go from saving a prisoner fro a beating by another cop, saving a young boy caught up in the surf, to persuading a money hungry woman not to seek a divorce settlement from his friend, and then Boone not accepting money for his good deeds.
Boone is a legendary figure to his fellow surfers and after saving the child of a drug dealer, he is owed a debt.
Dan Silver, aka Daniel Silvieri, a strip club owner, burns down one of his warehouses for the insurance money. Based on physical evidence the insurance company denies the claim. Silver sues. Tammy Roddick, a former girlfriend witnessed the act and is willing to testify.
Boone protects Tammy but something happens at the trial and the reader finds that there is much more going on than arson. Without revealing the plot, this is a dramatic change that is heart catching.
Tammy found something that was being hidden from the public and wants to do something to remedy this injustice.
Daniels uses his skill to make things right and the author can take credit for another supurb novel full of plot twists drawn together like a grandmother stitching a quilt for a new grandchild.
Well Done!
Boone Daniels is the central character. He is so good that he is, in effect, almost a characture of goodness. His heroic deeds go from saving a prisoner fro a beating by another cop, saving a young boy caught up in the surf, to persuading a money hungry woman not to seek a divorce settlement from his friend, and then Boone not accepting money for his good deeds.
Boone is a legendary figure to his fellow surfers and after saving the child of a drug dealer, he is owed a debt.
Dan Silver, aka Daniel Silvieri, a strip club owner, burns down one of his warehouses for the insurance money. Based on physical evidence the insurance company denies the claim. Silver sues. Tammy Roddick, a former girlfriend witnessed the act and is willing to testify.
Boone protects Tammy but something happens at the trial and the reader finds that there is much more going on than arson. Without revealing the plot, this is a dramatic change that is heart catching.
Tammy found something that was being hidden from the public and wants to do something to remedy this injustice.
Daniels uses his skill to make things right and the author can take credit for another supurb novel full of plot twists drawn together like a grandmother stitching a quilt for a new grandchild.
Well Done!
June 1, 2008
I remember the first time I read Dennis Lehane (A Drink Before the War), Robert B. Parker (WALKING SHADOW), and Ross MacDonald (The Drowning Pool). All of those books just sucked me in with voice and character.
It's all about character, isn't it?
People say that everything's been done in the PI novel already, and ultimately, that's probably true. But in Don Winslow's latest novel, THE DAWN PATROL, he gave me the same feeling I got when reading the author's listed above. I was sucked in. Dragged in. Pulled like I was caught in the undertow of the ocean. I could not put the book down.
Boone Daniels is a PI who'd rather surf than do PI work. On the surface, he's loose, good hearted, and funny. He hangs out with a bunch of other surfers, aptly named "The Dawn Patrol." But when Boone is hired to find a missing stripper, things go to hell and fast.
To say anymore would ruin the book. But know this, once you start to care for Boone, you won't be able to put the book down.
Yes, the book hits beats every PI novel hits, but because I was so invested in Boone, I didn't care.
Winslow knocks this one out of the park and I hope Daniels' is back for more. Can't wait for the next one.
It's all about character, isn't it?
People say that everything's been done in the PI novel already, and ultimately, that's probably true. But in Don Winslow's latest novel, THE DAWN PATROL, he gave me the same feeling I got when reading the author's listed above. I was sucked in. Dragged in. Pulled like I was caught in the undertow of the ocean. I could not put the book down.
Boone Daniels is a PI who'd rather surf than do PI work. On the surface, he's loose, good hearted, and funny. He hangs out with a bunch of other surfers, aptly named "The Dawn Patrol." But when Boone is hired to find a missing stripper, things go to hell and fast.
To say anymore would ruin the book. But know this, once you start to care for Boone, you won't be able to put the book down.
Yes, the book hits beats every PI novel hits, but because I was so invested in Boone, I didn't care.
Winslow knocks this one out of the park and I hope Daniels' is back for more. Can't wait for the next one.
April 24, 2020
It's not a bad book but it's just too cringely written. Everyone is that book is too perfect. The protagonist happens to have a Deus ex machina drug dealing boss whose son he happens to save from drowning. And the drug boss went to Harvard and Wharton (of course, nothing but the best!) but decides to be a cliched Hawaiian drug boss. A cop best friend from grade 5 he happened to save from a beating. And the friend happens to be a judo expert.
The best and prettiest girlfriend. The best group of buddies including the best Lothario life guard (best at lifesaving and womanizing), a 350lb Samoan best buddy to back him up, etc. A landlord who owns a bunch of properties and lets him slide on rent (I haven't gotten to that part yet but he probably saved the landlord's son/wife/daughter from a beating or something). He gets free breakfast from the cafe next door because he saved a woman patron from date rape and now the owner lets him eat for free but he leaves a tip. Need I go on?
Just too sickeningly sweet and syrupy for words. If that character is in the book, you can bet it's either the best or sleaziest. Ugh, I just couldn't bear it anymore.
The best and prettiest girlfriend. The best group of buddies including the best Lothario life guard (best at lifesaving and womanizing), a 350lb Samoan best buddy to back him up, etc. A landlord who owns a bunch of properties and lets him slide on rent (I haven't gotten to that part yet but he probably saved the landlord's son/wife/daughter from a beating or something). He gets free breakfast from the cafe next door because he saved a woman patron from date rape and now the owner lets him eat for free but he leaves a tip. Need I go on?
Just too sickeningly sweet and syrupy for words. If that character is in the book, you can bet it's either the best or sleaziest. Ugh, I just couldn't bear it anymore.
August 22, 2015
WINSLOW HITS ANOTHER ONE OUTTA THE PARK!! Chapter 102 is probably the best chapter I've ever read.
"You get a gun pointed at your head, it changes you." Don Winslow, The Dawn Patrol
After listening to a recent interview with Don Winslow, I am pleased and excited to hear that another adventure with Boone and the gang will be in the works.
"You get a gun pointed at your head, it changes you." Don Winslow, The Dawn Patrol
After listening to a recent interview with Don Winslow, I am pleased and excited to hear that another adventure with Boone and the gang will be in the works.
July 24, 2017
Wow - I have a completely new perspective of San Diego, surfing, connections to friendships and what they really mean....!
April 8, 2019
#1 in the Boone Daniels series. Finalist 2009 Barry Award for Best Novel. A brilliant mixture of the history of the Southern California coast, a band of surfers (one of whom is a P.I. when necessity strikes), and human trafficking.
Every morning Boone Daniels catches waves with the other members of The Dawn Patrol: four men and one woman as single-minded about surfing as he is. Or nearly. They have "real j-o-b-s"; Boone, however, works as a PI just enough to keep himself afloat. But Boone's most recent gig-investigating an insurance scam--has unexpectedly led him to a ghost from his past. And while he may have to miss the biggest swell of his surfing career, this job is about to give him a wilder ride than anything he's ever encountered.
Every morning Boone Daniels catches waves with the other members of The Dawn Patrol: four men and one woman as single-minded about surfing as he is. Or nearly. They have "real j-o-b-s"; Boone, however, works as a PI just enough to keep himself afloat. But Boone's most recent gig-investigating an insurance scam--has unexpectedly led him to a ghost from his past. And while he may have to miss the biggest swell of his surfing career, this job is about to give him a wilder ride than anything he's ever encountered.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 611 reviews