Fantastic PI novel which definitively propels Winslow, after Power of the Dog and Winter of Frankie Machine into the must-read pile. Boone Daniels is a burnt out ex-cop who finds solace and escape with a small surfing clique who meet every morning, funding his lifestyle with occasional PI jobs. Hired to find a missing stripper, he soon finds his whole world threatened, not to mention his life.
Written in clipped sentences, like a more lyirical and laid back James Ellroy, Winslow's style should by rights become intensely irritating after only a few pages, but he captures a rhythym and a metre that gets under the skin and rolls the story along at a smooth, fast clip that nevertheless allows plenty of time for character and place; funny, vivid sketches which perfectly combine cyncism and real heart.
A superb crime novel, that's also a lot more.