One of the modern greats of crime writing has bowed out in style, as City in Ruins again showcases the storytelling mastery and talents of Don Winslow, a novelist who grew over the decades from critical darling to multiple New York Times bestseller. Winslow’s latest not only caps his terrific ‘City’ trilogy about Irish American tragic hero Danny Ryan, but his writing career, as Winslow turns his talents to real-life political battles in the USA.
Following the events of City on Fire, where Ryan barely survived a New England turf war between Irish and Italian crime families, and City of Dreams, where his attempts to go legit in Hollywood brought further pain and loss, City in Ruins starts with him entwined in the casino industry in Las Vegas. He’s settled and happy, raising his son, but his ambitions bring his past into play, and once again threatens all he loves.
Inspired by Virgil’s poem about a soldier who fled the fall of Troy and became ancestor to the Romans, there’s certainly something timeless, epic, and sweeping about Ryan’s odyssey through turbulent times, cut-throat industries, and deadly feuds. City in Ruins is as ambitious as its hero; superior crime writing full of tension and depth. An outstanding novel, it offers even more to readers who’ve devoured the first two books.
Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The son of a sailor and a librarian, Winslow grew up with a love of books and storytelling in a small coastal Rhode Island town. He left at age seventeen to study journalism at the University of Nebraska, where he earned a degree in African Studies. While in college, he traveled to southern Africa, sparking a lifelong involvement with that continent.
Winslow’s travels took him to California, Idaho and Montana before he moved to New York City to become a writer, making his living as a movie theater manager and later a private investigator in Times Square – ‘before Mickey Mouse took it over’. He left to get a master’s degree in Military History and intended to go into the Foreign Service but instead joined a friend’s photographic safari firm in Kenya. He led trips there as well as hiking expeditions in southwestern China, and later directed Shakespeare productions during summers in Oxford, England.
While bouncing back and forth between Asia, Africa, Europe and America, Winslow wrote his first novel, A Cool Breeze On The Underground, which was nominated for an Edgar Award. With a wife and young son, Winslow went back to investigative work, mostly in California, where he and his family lived in hotels for almost three years as he worked cases and became a trial consultant. A film and publishing deal for his novel The Death and Life of Bobby Z allowed Winslow to be full-time writer and settle in his beloved California, the setting for many of his books. Branching into television and film, Winslow, with his friend Shane Salerno, wrote a television series, UC/Undercover, and the two collaborated on the screenplay of his novel, Savages.
His novels have attracted the attention of filmmakers and actors such as Oliver Stone, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio. Twentieth Century Fox has optioned his next novel about a NYPD cop as well as The Cartel and The Power of the Dog. Earlier books Savages and The Death and Life of Bobby Z were made into films, too.
In addition to his novels, Winslow has published numerous short stories in anthologies and magazines such as Esquire, the LA Times Magazine and Playboy. His columns have appeared in the Vanity Fair, Vulture, Huffington Post, CNN Online, and other outlets.
Winslow is the recipient of the Raymond Chandler Award (Italy), the LA Times Book Prize, the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger (UK), The RBA Literary Prize (Spain) and many other prestigious awards.
He lives in California with his wife of thirty-one years.
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