The Dawn Patrol

The Dawn Patrol
by Don Winslow

The Dawn Patrol
List Price: $23.95
Our Price: $12.50
You Save: $11.45 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.58 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Don Winslow
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-06-03
ISBN: 0307266206
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Knopf

Book Reviews of The Dawn Patrol

Book Review: Great PI Novel Set In San Diego
Summary: 5 Stars

As a former private eye himself, author Don Winslow knows how to walk the walk and talk the talk. Apparently from the surfer lingo and expertise scattered throughout THE DAWN PATROL, Winslow also knows how to ride the waves, brah.

I loved his last book, THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE, and am looking forward to the movie. So I picked up THE DAWN PATROL with a lot of enthusiasm and high expectation regarding character development. Winslow didn't let me down. He hit his marks from the first line and had me frantically turning pages thereafter. Not only was the character development constantly in motion, so was the plot and all the emotional complications - as well as the twisty mystery/crime angle.

Boone Daniels (and yep, that name sparked a lot of commentary throughout the novel, `cause it's like Daniel Boone only backward) is a slacker private investigator in San Diego. But slacker though he is, he's also the guy a lot of lawyers go to when they need to turn up a lowlife or get information from the more dangerous neighborhoods in the city. But although Boone can be a tough guy, being a hardnosed private eye isn't really his way. Usually he nabs the person he's after or the information he's looking for because everyone likes him and because he's brutally clever.

Boone only works when he has to, and since his landlord will let him slide on the rent (Boone once did him a good turn and the old man really likes living on the fringes of Boone's detecting), Boone really doesn't have to work all that often. Mostly he's out on the waves. Generally the cases he does accept don't take him that long. He's connected to all the lowlifes and moves through them like a shark blazing through a calm lagoon.

One of the things I most loved about the book (and the one that is going to compel me to read through it again) is the band of characters that support Boone. They're all colorful and different, almost a full spectrum of the way Boone's life could have and might still go if he chooses a path. I especially loved the way I got to slide into their heads briefly enough to understand the conflicts that fired them into doing the different things they did throughout the novel.

Petra, the lady lawyer that insists on accompanying Boone on his search for a missing witness, is well done. If this book makes it to the movie studios (and it definitely has my vote), it's going to take a great actress to pull it all off. She's strong and sexy, and a complete pain in the butt when she wants to be - which is exactly the kind of character to pit Boone against as he tries to grind out what should be an investigation cakewalk that turns ugly and dangerous. Her appearance and subsequent interest in Boone causes problems with Boone's main squeeze, Sunny Day.

There's enough action, betrayal, and mystery to keep fans of the private eye genre devouring the book. Even if you figure out what's actually taking place, you're still in for a great ride while Winslow ties up every plot thread he's dangled out there in a satisfactory conclusion.

Summary of The Dawn Patrol

The author of The Winter of Frankie Machine (“another instant classic”—Lee Child) is back with a razor-sharp novel as cool and unbridled as its California surfer heroes, as heart-stopping as a wave none of them sees coming.

Boone Daniels lives to surf. Every morning he’s out in the break off Pacific Beach 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 works as a PI just enough to keep himself in fish tacos and wet suits—and in the water whenever the waves are “epic macking crunchy.”

But Boone is also obsessed with the unsolved case of a young girl named Rain who was abducted back when he was on the San Diego police force. He blames himself—just as almost everyone in the department does—for not being able to save her. Now, when he can’t say no to a gorgeous, bossy lawyer who wants his help investigating an insurance scam, he’s unexpectedly staring at a chance to make some amends—and take some revenge—for Rain’s disappearance. It might mean missing the most colossal waves he’s liable to encounter (not to mention putting The Dawn Patrol in serious harm’s way as he tangles with the local thuggery), but this investigation is about to give him a wilder ride than any he’s ever imagined.

Harrowing and funny, righteous and outrageous, The Dawn Patrol is epic macking crunchy from start to finish.

Contemporary Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Curiosity killed the cat - or was it murder?
And Only to Deceive ImageAnd Only to Deceive
by Tasha Alexander
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Careful Use of Compliments: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel ImageThe Careful Use of Compliments: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel
by Alexander Mccall Smith
Pantheon; Published: 2007-08-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: $21.95
Zoo Station ImageZoo Station
by David Downing
Soho Press; Published: 2007-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.78
Price in other shops: $23.00
A Poisoned Season ImageA Poisoned Season
by Tasha Alexander
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2008-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.85
Price in other shops: $13.95
Now and Then ImageNow and Then
by Robert B. Parker
Putnam Adult; Published: 2007-10-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.74
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Book of Lost Things: A Novel ImageThe Book of Lost Things: A Novel
by John Connolly
Washington Square Press; Published: 2007-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming ImageThe Girl Who Stopped Swimming
by Joshilyn Jackson
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.19
Price in other shops: $13.99
Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) ImageMurder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie
Berkley; Published: 2004-08-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops: $6.99
A Fatal Waltz ImageA Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
William Morrow; Published: 2008-05-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops: $23.95
Bangkok Haunts (Vintage) ImageBangkok Haunts (Vintage)
by John Burdett
Vintage; Published: 2008-06-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.21
Price in other shops: $13.95
Similar Books and other products
Hit and Run (John Keller Mysteries) ImageHit and Run (John Keller Mysteries)
by Lawrence Block
William Morrow; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.98
Price in other shops: $24.95
Moscow Rules ImageMoscow Rules
by Daniel Silva
Putnam Adult; Published: 2008-07-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.65
Price in other shops: $26.95
Fidelity ImageFidelity
by Thomas Perry
Harcourt; Published: 2008-05-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.24
Price in other shops: $25.00
The Power of the Dog ImageThe Power of the Dog
by Don Winslow
Vintage; Published: 2006-05-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops: $14.95
Hold Tight ImageHold Tight
by Harlan Coben
Dutton Adult; Published: 2008-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.24
Price in other shops: $26.95
Phantom Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries) ImagePhantom Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries)
by John Sandford
Putnam Adult; Published: 2008-05-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops: $26.95
Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel ImageSwan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
by James Lee Burke
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-07-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.55
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Winter of Frankie Machine (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) ImageThe Winter of Frankie Machine (Vintage Crime/ Black Lizard)
by Don Winslow
Vintage; Published: 2007-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops: $13.95
Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher Novels) ImageNothing to Lose (Jack Reacher Novels)
by Lee Child
Delacorte Press; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: $27.00
Chasing Darkness: An Elvis Cole Novel (Elvis Cole) ImageChasing Darkness: An Elvis Cole Novel (Elvis Cole)
by Robert Crais
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.49
Price in other shops: $25.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories