Book Lists

Best Selling Books by Don Winslow

Don Winslow is the author of The Power of the Dog (2005), The Dawn Patrol (2009), The Kings of Cool (2013), The Cartel (2017), The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2012).

1 - 40 of 1,000,000 results
>>

The Power of the Dog

release date: Apr 26, 2005
The Power of the Dog
From the New York Times bestselling author, here is the first novel in the explosive Power of the Dog series—an action-filled look at the drug trade that takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. Book One of the Power of the Dog Series Set about ten years prior to The Cartel, this gritty novel introduces a brilliant cast of characters. Art Keller is an obsessive DEA agent. The Barrera brothers are heirs to a drug empire. Nora Hayden is a jaded teenager who becomes a high-class hooker. Father Parada is a powerful and incorruptible Catholic priest. Callan is an Irish kid from Hell’s kitchen who grows up to be a merciless hit man. And they are all trapped in the world of the Mexican drug Federación. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.

The Dawn Patrol

release date: Jun 16, 2009
The Dawn Patrol
From the bestselling author of Savages (now an Oliver Stone film). As cool as its California surfer heroes, Don Winslow delivers a high velocity, darkly comic, and totally righteous crime novel. Every morning Boone Daniels catches waves 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, however, works as a PI just enough to keep himself afloat. But Boone''s most recent gig-investigating an insurance scam—has unexpectedly led him to a ghost from his past. And while he may have to miss the biggest swell of his surfing career, this job is about to give him a wilder ride than anything he''s ever encountered. Filled with killer waves and a coast line to break your heart, The Dawn Patrol will leave you gasping for air.

The Kings of Cool

release date: Jun 18, 2013
The Kings of Cool
"In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. Now, in his high-octane prequel, The Kings of Cool, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon, and O became the people they are. Spanning from 1960s Southern California to the recent past, it is a tale of family in all its forms--fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers. As the younger generation does battle with a cabal of drug dealers and crooked cops, they come to learn that their future is inextricably linked with their parents'' history. A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon, and O to choose between their real families and their love for each other"--Provided by publisher.

The Cartel

release date: Sep 26, 2017
The Cartel
The New York Times bestselling second novel in the explosive Power of the Dog series—an action-filled look at the drug trade that takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. Book Two of the Power of the Dog Series It’s 2004. Adán Barrera, kingpin of El Federación, is languishing in a California federal prison. Ex-DEA agent Art Keller passes his days in a monastery, having lost everything to his thirty-year blood feud with the drug lord. Then Barrera escapes. Now, there’s a two-million-dollar bounty on Keller’s head and no one else capable of taking Barrera down. As the carnage of the drug war reaches surreal new heights, the two men are locked in a savage struggle that will stretch from the mountains of Sinaloa to the shores of Veracruz, to the halls of power in Washington, ensnaring countless others in its wake. Internationally bestselling author Don Winslow''s The Cartel is the searing, unfiltered epic of the drug war in the twenty-first century.

The Death and Life of Bobby Z

release date: Aug 01, 2012
The Death and Life of Bobby Z
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CARTEL. When Tim Kearney, a small-time criminal, slits the throat of a Hell''s Angel and draws a life sentence in a prison full of gang members, he knows he’s pretty much a dead man. That’s until the DEA makes Kearney an offer: impersonate the late, legendary dope smuggler Bobby Z so that the agency can trade him for one of their own, who was captured by a Mexican drug kingpin. Knowing his chances of survival are a little better than in prison, Kearney accepts, and he winds up in the middle of a desert at the notorious drug lord’s lavish compound. To his surprise he meets Bobby Z''s old flame, Elizabeth, and her son. At first, it’s a short vacation by the pool, but when things turn bloody, the three of them begin the most desperate flight of their lives, with drug lords, bikers, Indians, and cops furiously chasing after them. Whether he pulls it off, whether he can keep the kid and the girl and his life, makes this compelling novel a hilarious, fast-paced thriller about a con caught in a devil’s bargain.

California Fire and Life

release date: Aug 01, 2012
California Fire and Life
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CARTEL. When Jack Wade is called in to examine a suspicious arson claim, he follows the evidence into the crime infested inferno of the California underworld. Jack Wade was the rising star of the Orange County Sheriffs Department’s arson unit, but a minor scandal cost him everything, except his encyclopedic knowledge of fire. Now working as an insurance claims investigator, Jack is called in to examine a suspicious claim: within hours of a disastrous blaze tearing through a wing of real estate mogul Nicky Vale’s house— causing the horrific death of his young wife—he filed a 3 million-dollar insurance claim. The tracks of the fire tell Jack that something''s wrong, and as he follows the evidence the case grows to involve the Russian mob, Vietnamese gangs, real estate scams, counterfeiting and corporate corruption. Things get so hot and deadly that Jack might not make it out alive . . . that is until he decides to fight fire with fire.

Satori

release date: Mar 08, 2011
Satori
Trevanian''s Shibumi was a landmark bestseller, one of the classic international bestselling thrillers of the twentieth century. Now, chosen by Trevanian''s heirs, the hugely admired writer Don Winslow returns with an irresistible "prequel": Satori. It is the fall of 1951 and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hodo korosu or "naked kill," and fluent in over six languages. Genius and mystic, he has honed extraordinary "proximity sense" — an extra-awareness of the presence of danger — and has the skills to be the world''s most formidable assassin. The Americans need him. They offer Hel freedom in exchange for one small service: go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union''s Commissioner to China. It''s almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive violence, suspicion and betrayal while trying to achieve the ultimate goal of satori — the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.

The Trail to Buddha’s Mirror

release date: Sep 19, 2023
The Trail to Buddha’s Mirror
30th Anniversary Edition with a new introduction by the author Robert Pendleton is a chemical genius with a fertilizer worth a fortune to whoever controls the formula. Not surprisingly, the Bank, his notoriously exclusive backer, wants to keep an eye on its investment. But so does the CIA. And the Chinese government. And a few shadier organizations. So when Pendleton disappears from a conference in San Francisco, along with all of his research, Neal Carey enters the picture. Neal knows the Bank is calling in its chips in return for paying his grad school bills. He thinks this assignment will be a no-brainer until he meets the beguiling Li Lan and touches off a deadly game of hide-and-seek that will lead him from San Francisco’s Chinatown to the lawless back streets of Hong Kong, and finally into the dark heart of China. In a world where no one is what they seem, Neal must unravel the mystery of a beautiful woman and reach the fabled Buddha’s Mirror, a mist-shrouded lake where all secrets are revealed.

Savages

release date: May 29, 2012
Savages
Running a lucrative marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, sometime environmentalist Ben and mercenary Chon confront a dangerous adversary in the Mexican Baja cartel, which kidnaps their playmate and confidante Ophelia, compelling the duo to plot ingenious negotiations

City on Fire

release date: Apr 26, 2022
City on Fire
New York Times Bestseller! From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel Trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border), The Force, and Broken comes the first novel in an epic new trilogy. “Superb. City on Fire is exhilarating.” – Stephen King "Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation.” – Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain Two criminal empires together control all of New England. Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire. Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save the friends he loves like family and the family he has sworn to protect, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die. From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, two rival crime families ignite a war that will leave only one standing. The winner will forge a dynasty. Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece in the tradition of The Godfather, Casino, and Goodfellas—a thrilling saga from Don Winslow, “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Jon Land, Providence Journal).

The Gentlemen's Hour

release date: Aug 02, 2011
The Gentlemen's Hour
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Border, a “down-and-dirty dip into the treacherous social currents of Southern California” (The Wall Street Journal), in which P.I. Boone Daniels agrees to defend a young man accused of murdering a beloved surfer and local legend. Former cop turned investigator Boone Daniels lives to surf. He begins each day with the Dawn Patrol, a close-knit group of surfers who have one another’s backs in and out of the water. When one of their own, a local legend, is murdered, the small world of Pacific Beach is rocked to its core. But when Boone agrees to defend the young man accused, the outrage from the community is more than he ever anticipated, and as he digs deeper into San Diego’s murkier side, it becomes clear that not just a murder case is at stake. Boone soon finds himself out there alone, struggling to stay afloat as the waves get rougher and rougher...and more deadly.

City in Ruins

release date: Mar 05, 2025
City in Ruins
Following City on Fire and City of Dreams, City in Ruins is the explosive, impossible to put down conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Don Winslow''s epic, genre-defining crime trilogy and the final book of Winslow''s extraordinary career. ''The final shattering installment in a gangland trilogy to equal The Godfather. If you like Scarface and Goodfellas, this is where it''s at.'' Stephen King Sometimes you have to become what you hate to protect what you love. Danny Ryan is rich. Beyond his wildest dreams rich. The former dock worker, Irish mob soldier and fugitive from the law is now a respected businessman - a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. Finally, Danny has it all: a beautiful house, a child he adores, a woman he might even fall in love with. Life is good. But then Danny reaches too far. When he tries to buy an old hotel on a prime piece of real estate with plans to build his dream resort, he triggers a war against Las Vegas power brokers, a powerful FBI agent bent on revenge and a rival casino owner with dark connections of his own. Danny thought he had buried his past, but now it reaches up to him from the grave to pull him down. Old enemies surface, and when they come for Danny they vow to take everything - not only his empire, not just his life, but all that he holds dear, including his son. To save his life and everything he loves, Danny must become the ruthless fighter he once was - and never wanted to be again. Ranging from the gritty back rooms of Providence, RI to the power corridors of Washington, DC and Wall Street to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, City in Ruins is an epic crime novel of love and hate, ambition and desperation, vengeance and compassion. ''City in Ruins is Don Winslow showing the rest of us how it''s done. The novel builds and builds, the drama, the suspense, our feelings for the central characters - and then everything comes together. Actually, everything explodes. It''s a beautiful, artful thing.'' James Patterson ''An addictive finale ... Winslow''s ambitious narrative culminates with an exhilarating climax that beautifully wraps up the series'' many plot threads. It''s a fitting swan song from a giant of crime fiction.'' Publishers Weekly ''With the Danny Ryan trilogy, Winslow seems destined to claim a place beside Mario Puzo''s The Godfather on the Mount Rushmore of American crime fiction.'' Associated Press

The Winter of Frankie Machine

release date: Sep 04, 2007
The Winter of Frankie Machine
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CARTEL. Frankie Machianno, a hard-working entrepreneur, passionate lover, part-time surf bum, and full-time dad, is a pillar of his waterfront community—and a retired hit man. Once better known as Frankie Machine, he was a brutally efficient killer. Now someone from his past wants him dead, and after a botched attempt on his life, Frankie sets out to find his potential killers. However, the list of suspects is longer than the California coastline. With the mob on his heels and the cops on his tail, Frankie hatches a plan to protect his family, save his life, and escape the mob forever. Then things get really complicated.

The Border

release date: Feb 26, 2019
The Border
ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED BOOKS OF THE YEAR Contains an excerpt from Don Winslow’s explosive new novel, City on Fire! NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Washington Post • NPR • Financial Times • The Guardian • Booklist • New Statesman • Daily Telegraph • Irish Times • Dallas Morning News • Sunday Times • New York Post "A big, sprawling, ultimately stunning crime tableau." – Janet Maslin, New York Times "You can''t ask for more emotionally moving entertainment." – Stephen King "One of the best thriller writers on the planet." – Esquire The explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Force What do you do when there are no borders? When the lines you thought existed simply vanish? How do you plant your feet to make a stand when you no longer know what side you’re on? The war has come home. For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America’s longest conflict: The War on Drugs. His obsession to defeat the world’s most powerful, wealthy, and lethal kingpin?the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel, Adán Barrera?has left him bloody and scarred, cost him the people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul. Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking even more chaos and suffering in his beloved Mexico. But not just there. Barrera’s final legacy is the heroin epidemic scourging America. Throwing himself into the gap to stem the deadly flow, Keller finds himself surrounded by enemies?men who want to kill him, politicians who want to destroy him, and worse, the unimaginable?an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down. Art Keller is at war with not only the cartels, but with his own government. And the long fight has taught him more than he ever imagined. Now, he learns the final lesson?there are no borders. In a story that moves from deserts of Mexico to Wall Street, from the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, D.C., Winslow follows a new generation of narcos, the cops who fight them, street traffickers, addicts, politicians, money-launderers, real-estate moguls, and mere children fleeing the violence for the chance of a life in a new country. A shattering tale of vengeance, violence, corruption and justice, this last novel in Don Winslow’s magnificent, award-winning, internationally bestselling trilogy is packed with unforgettable, drawn-from-the-headlines scenes. Shocking in its brutality, raw in its humanity, The Border is an unflinching portrait of modern America, a story of—and for—our time.

City of Dreams

release date: Apr 18, 2023
City of Dreams
New York Times Bestseller Following the epic, ambitious, instant New York Times bestseller City on Fire, “The Godfather for our generation” (Adrian McKinty), comes the dramatic second novel in an epic crime trilogy from Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border). Hollywood. The city where dreams are made. On the losing side of a bloody East Coast crime war, Danny Ryan is now on the run. The Mafia, the cops, the FBI all want him dead or in prison. With his little boy, his elderly father and the tattered remnants of his loyal crew of soldiers, he makes the classic American migration to California to start a new life. A quiet, peaceful existence. But the Feds track him down and want Danny to do them a favor that could make him a fortune or kill him. And when Hollywood starts shooting a film based on his former life, Danny demands a piece of the action and begins to rebuild his criminal empire. Then he falls in love. With a beautiful movie star who has a dark past of her own. As their worlds collide in an explosion that could destroy them both, Danny Ryan has to fight for his life in a city where dreams are born. Or where they go to die. From the shores of Rhode Island to the deserts of California where bodies disappear, from the power corridors of Washington where the real criminals operate to the fabled movie studios of Hollywood where the real money is made, City of Dreams is a sweeping saga of family, love, revenge, survival and the fierce reality behind the dream.

The Force

release date: Jun 20, 2017
The Force
Instant New York Times Bestseller Best of 2017 - included on best-of lists by the New York Times, NPR, Barnes & Noble, Publisher''s Weekly, LitHub, BookPage, Booklist, TheRealBookSpy.com, the Financial Times (UK) and the Daily Mail (UK) “The Force is mesmerizing, a triumph. Think The Godfather, only with cops. It’s that good.” — Stephen King The acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cartel—voted one of the Best Books of the Year by more than sixty publications, including the New York Times—returns with a cinematic epic as explosive, powerful, and unforgettable as Mystic River and The Wire. Our ends know our beginnings, but the reverse isn’t true . . . All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop. He is “the King of Manhattan North,” a, highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of “Da Force.” Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest, an elite special unit given unrestricted authority to wage war on gangs, drugs and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years he’s spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. He’s done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is clean—including Malone himself. What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the Feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family, and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all. Based on years of research inside the NYPD, this is the great cop novel of our time and a book only Don Winslow could write: a haunting and heartbreaking story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city and a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, The Force is a masterpiece of urban living full of shocking and surprising twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting and dividing us today.

Broken

release date: Apr 07, 2020
Broken
Don Winslow’s acclaimed story collection, featuring “Crime 101,” soon to be a major motion picture starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Barry Keoghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Nick Nolte. No matter how you come into this world, you come out broken . . . Hailed as “one of America’s greatest storytellers” (Stephen King), #1 international bestseller Don Winslow returns with six intense short novels with characters—some familiar, some new— connected by the themes of crime, vengeance, guilt and redemption. It includes Crime 101: A string of high-level jewel heists up and down the Pacific Coast Highway has gone unsolved for years, mostly because the perpetrator has lived by a strict code he calls “Crime 101.” Police attribute the thefts to the Columbian cartels. But Detective Lou Lubesnick’s gut says it’s the work of just one man. Now the lone-wolf jewel thief is looking for that fabled final last score. And Lou breaks all the rules of Crime 101… Broken: In the volume’s title story, police dispatcher Eva McNabb takes the call on a police officer’s brutal murder by a vicious drug gang. It’s her own kid, Danny. Then Eva makes her own call. Summoning her elder son, Jimmy, also a cop, Evan commands: Avenge your brother. I want you to kill them all. The Last Ride: To former solider and cowboy-turned-Board Patrol agent Cal Strickland, the illegals who try to jump his stretch of the Texas-Mexico border are a nameless, faceless group who need to be sent back to their side of the line. That is until he sees the little girl in the cage. And Cal knows that the time has come to make a stand and help her escape. With his trademark blend of insight, humanity, humor, action, and the highest level of literary craftsmanship, Winslow delivers a collection of tales that will become classics of crime fiction. “While Winslow is in widely fluent in many different prose techniques — from the twisty punchline felonies of Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker to the rebop riffs of James Ellroy to mega-works of dark literature a la Cormac McCarthy and James Lee Burke — he''s not ‘copying’ anyone. He''s writing his OWN masterpieces and just happens to do so in the fashion appropriate to the work.” — The Day (CT) “Will make you laugh and cry, but in the end will explain why The New York Times thinks Winslow is simply ‘the greatest’ . . . He crafts every sentence until it beats to a rhythm of its own. . . . Broken is devastating and brilliant.” — Sydney Morning Herald

Looking for a Hero

release date: Oct 08, 2020
Looking for a Hero
Widely acclaimed as the Vietnam War''s most highly decorated soldier, Joe Ronnie Hooper in many ways serves as a symbol for that conflict. His troubled, tempestuous life paralleled the upheavals in American society during the 1960s and 1970s, and his desperate quest to prove his manhood was uncomfortably akin to the macho image projected by three successive presidents in their "tough" policy in Southeast Asia. Looking for a Hero extracts the real Joe Hooper from the welter of lies and myths that swirl around his story; in doing so, the book uncovers not only the complicated truth about an American hero but also the story of how Hooper''s war was lost in Vietnam, not at home. Extensive interviews with friends, fellow soldiers, and family members reveal Hooper as a complex, gifted, and disturbed man. They also expose the flaws in his most famous and treasured accomplishment: earning the Medal of Honor. In the distortions, half-truths, and outright lies that mar Hooper''s medal of honor file, authors Peter Maslowski and Don Winslow find a painful reflection of the army''s inability to be honest with itself and the American public, with all the dire consequences that this dishonesty ultimately entailed. In the inextricably linked stories of Hooper and the Vietnam War, the nature of that deceit, and of America''s defeat, becomes clear.

The Final Score

release date: Jan 27, 2026
The Final Score
“The best crime fiction I''ve read in twenty years.” — Stephen King #1 internationally bestselling author Don Winslow—America’s King of Crime Fiction—is back and he’s better than ever. The trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow a repeat New York Times bestselling author and “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal)are on brilliant display in this new book sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers. The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible—it can’t be done. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer, and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all bullshit and laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. An otherwise honest patrolman has to make an excruciating choice between his loyalty to the job and his love for a ne’er-do-well cousin in “The North Wing.” The entitled, substance-addicted movie star that surfer/PI Boone Daniels and his crew are hired to babysit in “The Lunch Break” is a problem. She also has a problem—someone wants her dead. Finally, the one terrible, momentary mistake that a devoted family man makes sends him to prison and on a “Collision” course between the man he wants to be and the killer he’s forced to become to survive. The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive book of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow''s prowess as a living legend of the genre.
1 - 40 of 1,000,000 results
>>


  • Aboutread.com makes it one-click away to discover great books from local library by linking books/movies to your library catalog search.

  • Copyright © 2026 Aboutread.com