An astoundingly good crime novel, thrilling, funny, thought provoking and moving by turns. Everything a novel should be, with a Travis McGee style beach bum hero and a great supporting cast (the Dawn Patrol of the title). ( )

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.* ( )

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.

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. ( )

'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. ( )

“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. ( )