The Final Score by Don Winslow
Don Winslow has been called “America’s King of Crime Fiction”. Luminary author Stephen King wrote about The Final Score: “The best crime fiction I’ve read in twenty years.” Whether you are a devoted fan who has read the previous 25 international best sellers along with several short stories included in crime and mystery anthologies or this is your introduction to Don Winslow, you are in for a treat. The author had announced retirement from writing novels in 2022 before the 2024 publication of City in Ruins, the completion of his Danny Ryan Las Vegas based gangland trilogy. Mega-successful author James Patterson wrote at its conclusion, “This is Don Winslow showing the rest of us how it’s done.” High praise, indeed, but not hyperbole.
Six Stories, Six Perfect Crimes
The Final Score is an immersive collection of six short novels each of which is a perfectly crafted gem from an author noted for his brilliant, literate prose, wit and distinctively memorable characters in a variety of settings. His work is never formulaic or predictable. The titular The Final Score tells the tale of an impossible plan to rob a California desert Indian casino of its multi-million dollar weekend takings. Convicted armed robber John Highland is out on bond for a month until sentencing for the botched robbery of an armored car that went south because the getaway driver abandoned him at the scene of the crime. Highland is almost sixty years old and suspects the judge will put him away for life under the three strikes provision. Attorney fees and court costs have eaten his savings. He plots one last big untraceable score to provide for his greatest treasure, his wife Jewel. Married at nineteen, they remain not only steadfast, but also in love. Despite being rarely successful, heist schemes are a perennial literary trope. With this tale, Don Winslow has done it his way with corkscrew twists and clever surprises.
The Sunday List is next, set in Rhode Island, a state which continues to observe “Blue Laws” with no alcohol sales permitted on the Lord’s Day. Tillman’s Package Store in an unidentified university town provides a discreet community service to a long list of carefully vetted customers. Liquor orders are placed and home deliveries made for the cost of the beer and booze along with a requisite generous tip for the teenage driver. Nick has been driving for Mr. Tillman since he was seventeen, saving his wages and tips for college. The story is laugh out loud funny becoming more poignant as Nick’s summer unfolds. The North Wing, also set in Rhode Island, concerns honest cop Doug whose ambition is to join the State Patrol but faces a Faustian dilemma involving job loyalty and family ties. True Story is a hoot! Two Rhode Island Italian mob guys leisurely trash talk, gossip and banter over breakfast in a diner while pausing for asides to the friendly waitress delivering fresh coffee before one or both goes on assignment.
From California Sun to Rhode Island Shadows
Its back to California for The Lunch Break where surfer/Private Investigator Boone Daniels and friends are hired to keep actress Brittany McVeigh on the straight and narrow to ensure a film is completed. She is an entitled former child star who has battled addictions with drugs, alcohol and sex and now someone wants to kill her. Sunny, wealthy Orange County, California is where worlds collide when a rising executive resort manager makes a monumental split-second error in judgment that sends him to prison in Collision. Origami, chess, and international drug smugglers all figure in this exciting drama with a wholly unexpected ending. While each of these six short novels differs in plot, their protagonists hold family close, have heart and display both wit and wisdom.
Don Winslow and his wife divide their time between California and Rhode Island. Several of his novels have been made into films and/or optioned for other movies and television series in development. His first novel A Cool Breeze on The Underground was nominated for an Edgar award. He is a winner of the Falcon award three times, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the Shamus award and several others along with nominations for over 30 other honors since 1992. One of the novellas from The Final Score is reportedly in development for a film starring Jake Gyllenhall. Fans of Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, John Sandford, Ace Atkins and a multitude of other fine crime and thriller authors will eagerly welcome his latest work.
About Don Winslow:
Don Winslow is the author of twenty-six acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including eight New York Times bestsellers (Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, The Force, The Border, City on Fire, City of Dreams and City in Ruins). Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone from a screenplay by Shane Salerno, Winslow and Stone. Crime 101, based on Winslow’s short novel, will be released as a theatrical film from Amazon. He has also written a series of award-winning short stories for Audible narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris. A former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
