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The Dawn Patrol | 
 enlarge | Author: Don Winslow
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $12.50
You Save: $11.45 (48%)
New (29) Used (8) Collectible (2) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 10990
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307266206
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307266200
ASIN: 0307266206
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: brand new book
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Epic Macking Crunchy August 12, 2008
macking crunchy.
That is the term, in Surfbonics, a character in Don Winslow's The Dawn Patrol uses to describe the big wave that is approaching the beaches of San Diego. It's a once-per-twenty-years ocean eruption that makes and breaks careers and that every surfer worth his weight in sunscreen comes to So Cal to experience. And it's all Boone Daniels wants.
Except Boone, a PI who works just enough to pay some bills, has a new case. It's a case he doesn't want. He'll happily get to it after the big swell. But his client--drop-dead gorgeous Brit Petra--is having none of it. So, Boone has to stow his board and wave bye-bye to the other members of the Dawn Patrol--a group that meets every morning to surf--to go look for a lost stripper who needs to testify in an upcoming trial.
From that seemingly inauspicious beginning, Winslow throws the reader into the world of southern California. And what a tour it is. I happened upon The Dawn Patrol (TDP) because I vacationed in San Diego and wanted to read something criminal in nature and local. I decided against TDP largely because I didn't have time to buy the book. It's a good thing, too, for Winslow as Tour Guide permeates this book like the smell of sunscreen at a beach. He gives you the experience of surf culture in So Cal without having ever been there. Folks as far away as Iceland are going to want to chuck off the parkas, pick up a board, and cut through the waves. Having visited the locations of TDP in June, I thoroughly enjoyed Boone and his friends traverse the locales I did. But the beauty of TDP is that you don't have to know what the Pacific Coast Highway is to enjoy the story. It is a rush. It is like a wave, an epic macking crunchy one, powering its way into your brain.
The style of Winslow's writing propels the story forward using the present tense and short chapters. I really liked that style and found it way too easy to just read (or listen, as I did) to a few more chapters. Every now and then, Winslow stops the action to give a brief history of a portion of San Diego. Those really make the book, especially his short dissertation on what constitutes a wave. There are books where the author does his best to get out of the way and just present the story. That's the Elmore Leonard School of Writing. It works. But TDP was like Winslow himself telling you the story, sitting across from a beach bonfire from you, the waves lapping the beach a few yards away, the sun a distant memory, the stars the only other listeners. And it worked brilliantly.
The members of the Dawn Patrol--Hang Twelve, Dave the Love God, Johnny Banzai, High Tide, and Sunny Day--are priceless. Each member gets his or her own bio at just the appropriate time in the book. Hang Twelve, a young surfing fanatic, has his name bestowed on him by Boone for the very reason you'd suspect. Ditto Dave the Love God, a lifeguard on Pacific Beach who, according to Johnny Banzai, has been "spread over more tourist flesh than Bain de Soleil." Banzai, a SDPD detective, is Japanese-American and if you're a Japanese-American, according to Winslow, who is "a seriously radical, nose-first, balls-out, hard-charging surfer, you're just going to get glossed either with `Kamikaze' or `Banzai,' you just are." High Tide is Samoan and I'll give you one guess as to his size and his sobriquet. Sunny Day, the lone female of the bunch, is "a force of nature--tall, long-legged--Sunny is exactly what Brian Wilson meant when he wrote that he wished they all could be California girls." With a group like this, who wouldn't want to go along for an adventure.
Except the adventure in question gets deadly, and in a hurry. And the choices certain characters make puts them at odds with other members of the Dawn Patrol. As a reader, I didn't want Character A to do something because Character B would have to fight it. But as a writer, I realized that all the actions of all the characters are precisely correct. These folks are real people who make real, yet sometimes, difficult decisions. They live with the consequences but their choice, based on their character, was perfectly aligned. That is a good lesson in storytelling.
The benefit of the quick, short chapters that Winslow uses is that the action can jump from once set of characters to another in the space of half a page. I liked it, while some other readers may prefer longer chapters. But the quick cuts eliminates the painstaking `recap' where an author has to write something like this: "Just as Bob was blasting through a door, half a city away, Jane woke with a start." It's just easier Winslow's way.
The quick cuts also allows Winslow the flexibility to juxtapose sad scenes with happy scenes, or scenes of calm with scenes of high anxiety. There is a sequence of events, late in the book, where something good and exciting is happening and something bad and exciting is simultaneously happening. I could give all sorts of excuses--it was morning, I was tired, I hadn't had a complete cup of java yet, the rising sun hit my face at just the right time--but I'll just confess to the obvious: I felt the sting of tears and goose bumps at a certain scene. Winslow had set a pace of actions and expectations that overcame me at a certain moment. The tears didn't leave my eyes but my contacts certainly felt more comfortable. I'll not say if it was tears of joy or sadness. You'll have to read to find out.
I've spoken before about audiobooks but this is one you simply must listen to. Ray Porter gives a fantastic performance. For most of the men, he adopts a surfer voice that puts you right there next to them. For Petra, the British gal, he adopts a lilting English accent. It was spectacular.
Early on the in the book, the Dawn Patrol have an ongoing List of Things That Are Good. Included are such topics as double overheads, free stuff, fish tacos, and all-female outrigger canoe teams. You have to read the entire list and scene because it's quite hilarious. In crime fiction, there is also the List of Authors That Are Good. I'm compiling my own list, two actually. There's the Classic Authors That Are Good (familiar names: Hammett, Chandler, Miller, Keene, Block) and then there's the New Authors That Are Good (new names: Lehane, Pelecanos, Faust, Swiercznski, Bruen, Guthrie). Guess what? Winslow just got himself on the list. Read The Dawn Patrol and tell me if that book isn't epic macking crunchy. (excerpted from http://scottdparker.blogspot.com)
Great PI Novel Set In San Diego August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Beach Blanket BS August 4, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Where did Mr. Winslow learn about surfing? Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon movies? Disappointing to say the least.
 I Had Loads of Fun Reading this One July 31, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
THE DAWN PATROL is the first novel I've read by Don Winslow, and it doesn't disappoint. Many critics have proclaimed this book one of the best crime novels of the year so far; I pretty much concur with this judgment.
While THE DAWN PATROL deals with some serious subject matter, it is essentially a comic novel written in the spirit of such authors like Carl Hiassen and Gregory McDonald. This is a very funny book, and much of the humor comes from the diverse, colorful cast of characters that Winslow presents to the reader. Almost all the characters are surfers, and Winslow does a fine job of explaining the values of the surf culture and how they often clash with the expectations of mainstream society.
This novel entirely takes place in San Diego, and Winslow spends a great deal of time discussing the city's history and geography. I actually grew up in San Diego, and I loved Winslow's descriptions of the region -- they were dead on in almost every way. This may be the most entertaining novel I've ever read that takes place in my home city.
THE DAWN PATROL also offers a pretty decent mystery plot, which contains more than a few surprises. Winslow does a great job of pacing the story and keeping things interesting, although I could have done without the ultra-short chapters, which reminded me too much of James Patterson's staccato style.
While I found THE DAWN PATROL a bit too lightweight to call it a classic, I really enjoyed it, and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys humorous crime novels.
 Dissapointed July 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved most of his other books (Frankie Machine is excellent), but other than the novelty of reading about the area where I grew up, this was very disappointing. I did enjoy the description of the various towns along the coast. But there were too many convenient coincidences, stock characters, and an obvious, predictable ending. The big wave surfing at the end felt wrong, and the idea of a surfer becoming famous and getting lots of sponsors on the basis of riding one wave is just goofy. I'll read Winslow's next book as soon as it comes out, but I won't be recommending this one.
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