The Gentlemen's Hour

In this sequel to the excellent The Dawn Patrol, San Diego surfer/private investigator Boone Daniels works on the defense of a local cretin charged with murdering a renowned and well-loved surfer. Boone and his close surfer friends are no longer so close because of what they see as this betrayal. He’s also working on another case where slimy people, real estate, and very big money are involved. They two cases may collide.

Don Winslow’s writing is stylish, hip, concise, and highly readable. He creates Boone’s Pacific Beach world and populates it with both reoccurring and fresh characters. The story moves along at a steady, surf like pace, and brings you with it.

Don Winslow is back! I know I am in the minority when I say I thought Savages was pure crap, but since I liked all of the other books I have read from this Author, I decided to read his latest, and I was greatly rewarded. If you liked Dawn Patrol, or the Winter Of Frankie Machine, you will like this. It is an easy and very enjoyable read, with Characters you can like and bad guys you can't wait to see fall. I loved the book!

“The Gentleman’s Hour” is Winslow’s sequel to his excellent novel “The Dawn Patrol.” Set in laid-back San Diego’s Pacific Beach (“PB”), these two novels tell the story of Boone Daniels, itinerant surfer and private detective, former-police officer, and founding member of the Dawn Patrol. As he tells it, the Dawn Patrol is a group of surfers who, naturally, get up at dawn to be the first ones out on the waves. The other members of the Dawn Patrol are Sunny Day, who by this point is now the top professional female surfer over in “Oz,” Dave the Love God, who lifeguards, Johnny Banzai, who surfs before he puts on his Police Detective suit, and Hang Twelve, so nicknamed because he has twelve toes rather than the usual show more ten. “The Gentleman’s Hour” is the next crew out on the waves. These are retired guys who don’t have to get up before work or the self-employed, who again don’t have to get up before doing anything whatsoever.

While “The Dawn Patrol” offered readers a tremendous amount of background and history of the Southern California surfing world, “The Gentleman’s Hour” takes the reader right into this world and is a detective crime-thriller set against the backdrop of Pacific Beach. This book has a couple of parallel story lines running through it as Boone gets involved investigating on behalf of a kid that beat to death a surfing legend who had been so respected that he brought peace to many gang-infested areas and no one on the beach can respect that Boone has taken the wrong side in this war, including his buddies on the Dawn Patrol. Boone is also investigating a friend’s marital discord. Neither piece of work is guaranteed to bring Boone much in the way of happiness.

Part of the story is that, if you scratch below the surface of the sun and sand, there’s a lot of rotten stuff at the core of our modern society and many of the establishment may just be somehow or other emeshed in the rotting stink.

This is well-written an easy to read. It flows very well. Its unfortunate that Winslow has not chosen to continue this series further as he has created some great characters. show less

Love love love me some Don Winslow. This novel is a sequel to the "Dawn Patrol" and is just as excellent. All the characters are back except for Sunny who's on the pro surf circuit. The story kind of meanders but in a pleasant way but the true joy in this book is hanging out with the characters. Winslow develops them so well that you feel like your hanging with friends at the beach. An excellent read.

Good sequel! Boone and the Dawn Patrol are back (except Sunny)! And Not Sunny is the new waitress! :-)
Good, fast paced storytelling! Creepy character in Jones. Great ending with The Battle of Rockpile! I do wish though for an ending of some sort to the Rain plot. So, book #3 please! If not, I'll be hella aggro!

I may have started this one too soon after reading his previous book because the first third of The Gentleman's Hour seemed to me to be nothing more than a character development rehash of Dawn Patrol.

Things picked up once that was out of the way, and by the time I was halfway through I was interested again.

Epic. Macking. Crunchy. Boone Daniels returns from "The Dawn Patrol" and a welcome return it is too. Don Winslow's writing oozes class and there is a vibrant energy to this book which evokes the surfing culture depicted in the book. Hopefully, he will continue with the series. Highly recommended.