Don Winslow – nigeladamsbookworm

My last blog was a review of City on Fire by Don Winslow, I was that enthralled by that book I went on to finish the series by reading the next two books back to back.

I can’t remember the last time I read a trilogy back to back, and that is a testimony to how good these books are.

The first book saw the end of a peaceful period where the two main gangs in Province, Rhode Island, lived in relative peace.

The gangs, the Irish and the Italians have the docks and surrounding areas sewn up with Unions rules, extortion rackets, prostitution and drugs, and neither gang encroaches onto the others business.

That was until one of the Irish gang got inappropriate with the girlfriend of one of the Italian gang.

What followed was a bloody war in which both sides lost people, money, territory and business, with the power swinging between both gangs.

The Italians called in Mafia families from across America, while the Irish called on the help of the IRA.

The explosive end to that book was not a cliff hanger but it did leave me wanting to know what happened to the main character, Danny Ryan.

City of Dreams

In City of Dreams Danny is on the run in the aftermath of events at the end of the previous book the Irish gang is in disarray. Danny is being hunted by the Italians and the FBI

I don’t really want to say why one particular high ranking FBI agent is determined to hunt Ryan down, because it would give a huge spoiler for the first book, but needless to say she has a real bee in her bonnet and won’t rest until he’s either dead or behind bars, preferably dead.

Staying low profile should be his priority but he finds himself in LA, amongst the film industry.

Some of his crew have travelled with him and using their new found wealth, again no spoilers, set about causing havoc in the film industry.

Danny almost manages to go into legitimate business but his past is quickly catching up on him.

Where Danny was a bit player in the gangs at the start of the first book he is seen to be the Head of the Irish in this one and although he is trying to keep out of trouble it manages to find him at every turn.

Of the three books this one is the weakest but I still found it enthralling.

City In Ruins

Las Vegas and the casinos had to make an appearances in these books. Danny has started to build a legitimate empire amongst the big boys on the strip.

His visions for a new style hotel and gaming facility are revolutionary.

His past is still catching up with him.

His money for his investments has largely come from his mother’s fortune, a great side story which runs through the trilogy, but he also has some dirty money of his own invested.

One of the older Vegas crowd is determined to run Danny out of the city and ruin him in the process.

Gang allegiances are just as prevalent in Vegas as they were in Provence and soon Danny and his foe are reaching out to elders of their respective gangs brotherhoods to finance their businesses.

Meat while Province in a mosh pit of crime and people on the Irish side are calling for Danny to come home and sort it out.

The end of the book brings everything to a timely end, maybe not a happy ending, but a line is drawn that ends the story nicely.

The Series

The series is fast paced and very gritty.

It examines not just gang allegiances but family ties. Most dramatically it looks at how the family ties and gang allegiances can conflict, and the aftermath that leaves.

There are violent scenes and some sexual scenes which a quiet graphic, but they are always in context and never gratuitous.

If I’m honest I wouldn’t have read the others if City of Dreams was the first. I found it a bit tame compared to the other two, but it has to be read to put all of the story in to context.

I wound highly recommend the series, and for those people that look for a good long read on their holidays treat yourself and read this as one long story. It’s epic, but it’s great.

Set in the mid to late 1980’s in and around Providence, Rhode Island this is an epic mafia story.

Mainly looked at from Danny Ryans prospective the story looks at the relationships within families and factions of gangs.

The Murphy family are Irish, they run the docks and they are old school.

Danny has married into the family, marrying the daughter of the top man John, but he’s never had a proper seat at the table. He’s never really been part of the decision making process. He’s has responsibilities within the “firm” but they are minor in comparison to Johns sons.

There has been a peace amongst the main family’s who run Providence for years.

The Italians and the Irish had been at war for years until the two heads of the families had decided to divide the area equally and live in peace, and it was working until one of Johns sons, Liam, let his dick get in the way of his brain.

A summer cook out, on the beach, members of all the leading families having a party.

Then a hot, beautiful woman appears on the sand. Danny instantly thinks shes going to cause problems, and he’s right.

Pam, the hot woman, is with Paul Moretti, one of the sons of the main man in the Italian mafia in the area.

Liam touches her inappropriately and gets a beating from the Italians, and those are the sparks that lead to a bloody battle which will last for years.

The book looks at the battle from all sides, the tit-for-tat attacks that escalate with beatings moving on to murders and full on executions.

It looks at the ways former friends are pitted against each other, but although some of them want to bring peace back to the streets, there are others who are hell bent on full on war.

The Italians have other mafia families from across New York to bring into the fray, The Irish have the ”Boys” back home to bring over.

The conflict gets bloody, really bloody.

The corrupt cops try to keep the peace but are so far in the pocket of the gangs they only add to the problem.

The politics of the gangs is fascinating. The leader, the elders, having old school attitudes which almost makes them look like gentlemen compared to their younger siblings.

Danny is one of those trying to keep the peace at first. But as the casualties mount, and as Liam spirals deeper into drugs and alcohol abuse he finds himself close to the leadership of the Irish.

Does he continue trying to find a way to peace, or has it gone too far now. Does he need to use the full force of the Irish gangs to finish off the Italians.

This is the first book in a trilogy. It isn’t often I will read a book and go straight to the next, but I am this time.

There is no cliffhanger ending, but I am desperate to see what happens next.

Trigger warnings for this book include violence, it’s not gratuitous, and it is very much in context, in fact the book would not be as good without it, but it’s there.

There’s also a bit of spice but again it’s in context and adds to the story.

So not only is Don Winslow a new author to me, but having read one book he has me hooked into at least another two.

Pages: 356. Publisher: Harper Collins