Below I’ll give you my selections for the best Don Winslow books by a few categories. I will cover these and other great books more in depth later.
- The Cartel (Power of the Dog Series) (2017)
- The Dawn Patrol (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (2009)
- The Force: A Novel (2018)
- The Death and Life of Bobby Z: A Thriller (2006)
- Isle of Joy (1996)
- California Fire and Life: A Suspense Thriller (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (2007)
- The Winter of Frankie Machine (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (2007)
- The Gentlemen’s Hour: A Novel (2012)
- The Border: A Novel (Power of the Dog) (2019)
- Satori (2012)
- The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages (2013)
The Cartel (Power of the Dog Series) (2017)
It’s 2004. Adán Barrera, kingpin of El Federación, is languishing in a California federal prison. Ex-DEA agent Art Keller passes his days in a monastery, having lost everything to his thirty-year blood feud with the drug lord. Then Barrera escapes. Now, there’s a two-million-dollar bounty on Keller’s head and no one else capable of taking Barrera down.
The Dawn Patrol (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (2009)
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.
The Force: A Novel (2018)
Instant New York Times BestsellerBest of 2017 – included on best-of lists by the New York Times, NPR, Barnes & Noble, Publisher’s Weekly, LitHub, BookPage, Booklist, TheRealBookSpy.com, the Financial Times (UK) and the Daily Mail (UK) “The Force is mesmerizing, a triumph. Think The Godfather, only with cops.
The Death and Life of Bobby Z: A Thriller (2006)
When Tim Kearney, a small-time criminal, slits the throat of a Hell’s Angel and draws a life sentence in a prison full of gang members, he knows he’s pretty much a dead man. That’s until the DEA makes Kearney an offer: impersonate the late, legendary dope smuggler Bobby Z so that the agency can trade him for one of their own, who was captured by a Mexican drug kingpin.
Isle of Joy (1996)
New York: Late 1958 Walter Withers had given the best years of his life to the CIA, setting honeytraps and reeling in the victims of his plots. But Withers has returned to his hometown for an easier, safer life as a Private Investigator. Manhattan in the late Fifties is alive with new possibilities, new sounds and new faces, including young presidential hopeful Senator Joe Keneally. Withers is assigned to bodyguard Keneally’s girlfriend at a society gathering: a simple enough job.
California Fire and Life: A Suspense Thriller (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (2007)
When Jack Wade is called in to examine a suspicious arson claim, he follows the evidence into the crime infested inferno of the California underworld. Jack Wade was the rising star of the Orange County Sheriffs Department’s arson unit, but a minor scandal cost him everything, except his encyclopedic knowledge of fire.
The Winter of Frankie Machine (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (2007)
Frankie Machianno, a hard-working entrepreneur, passionate lover, part-time surf bum, and full-time dad, is a pillar of his waterfront community—and a retired hit man. Once better known as Frankie Machine, he was a brutally efficient killer. Now someone from his past wants him dead, and after a botched attempt on his life, Frankie sets out to find his potential killers. However, the list of suspects is longer than the California coastline.
The Gentlemen’s Hour: A Novel (2012)
Former cop turned investigator Boone Daniels lives to surf. He begins each day with the Dawn Patrol, a close-knit group of surfers who have one another’s backs in and out of the water. When one of their own, a local legend, is murdered, the small world of Pacific Beach is rocked to its core.
The Border: A Novel (Power of the Dog) (2019)
ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED BOOKS OF THE YEAR”A big, sprawling, ultimately stunning crime tableau.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times”You can’t ask for more emotionally moving entertainment.” – Stephen King”One of the best thriller writers on the planet.” – EsquireThe explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The ForceWhat do you do when there are no borders? When the lines you thought existed simply vanish?
Satori (2012)
First there was Bond.Then there was Bourne.Now comes Hel. Nicholai Hel-a Westerner by birth but an Asian by upbringing-speaks seven languages, kills with a naked hand, and is a master of the world’s most challenging game of strategy: Go.
The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages (2013)
In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O.
Best Don Winslow Books that Should be on Your Bookshelf
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some don winslow books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
City On fire a novel
Author(s): Don Winslow
ID: 3272201, Publisher: , Year: 2022, Size: 4 Mb, Format: pdf
Smart Ass: How a Donkey Challenged Me to Accept His True Nature & Rediscover My Own
Author(s): Margaret Winslow
ID: 3466529, Publisher: New World Library, Year: 2018, Size: 7 Mb, Format: epub
The Gentlemen's Hour
Author(s): Don Winslow
ID: 801547, Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Year: 2011, Size: 616 Kb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not final. Some books are really record-breakers according to The Wall Street Journal, others are composed by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.