‘Dawn Patrol’ full of suspense

  Up until recently, I’d never read anything by Don Winslow, or even heard of him for that matter. Another book reviewer recommended him to me, suggesting that I start with either Winslow’s newest novel, “The Dawn Patrol,” or his book “California Fire and Life.” What I did was buy both of them, along with Winslow’s “The Winter of Frankie Machine,” which is being turned into a major motion picture by Robert De Niro.
  I got the books and quickly read “The Dawn Patrol,” thinking that it was going to be hard to get into because Southern California surfing is a major part of the book, and I’ve never been a big fan of surfing in general. I ended up falling head over heels in love with the novel and devoured it in two days. Now, I’m in the middle of “Frankie Machine,” praying that De Niro will finish the movie adaptation of it and that the film will be out within the next year or two.
  “The Dawn Patrol” refers to Boone Daniels and the small group of people who meet him every morning to surf the waves of Pacific Beach in San Diego. It also refers to the men who pick up little girls every morning further up the coast so that they can sexually abuse them for the day.
  Daniels, who is now a private investigator after having served on the San Diego police department for three years, gets hired for a case that has him tracking down a female witness who saw members of the Mob burning down a warehouse. The men who instigated the arson want the woman killed and end up murdering the wrong person by mistake. Daniels therefore has to find the real witness before the killers do, and this inadvertently leads him to child sex ring operation and the evil people behind it.
  When Daniels was a police officer, he lost his job by doing the right thing and it led to a missing child never being found again. Daniels blames himself for that and still searches for the little girl during his spare time. Because of that, he won’t allow any child to be abused if it’s within his power to do something about it. The people behind the sex ring are going to have their hands full when Daniels starts hunting them with extreme prejudice, sensing that this is one way he can atone for his past mistake, even if it means his own death in the process.
  I can’t say enough good things about Winslow and “The Dawn Patrol.” I’m totally lost as to why this author isn’t hitting The New York Times best-seller list with every new novel that comes out. “The Dawn Patrol” is written with clear, sharp prose that brings to life Southern California and the surfing community, the city of San Diego, and the vast array of unusual and bizarre characters who inhabit this intense journey into the darkness of man’s soul.
  Though quite serious at times, the novel is also funny in parts with Daniel’s laid-back attitude about life and his close friends … that is until he begins the hunt for retribution. This is also the type of novel that you pray eventually will have a sequel to it. I don’t know what Winslow is writing right now, but I hope Boone Daniels is definitely in it. This is a character who you quickly learn to care about and to root for as he takes out the bad guys. It’s also important to note that the members of the surfing Dawn Patrol are also clearly portrayed as full and interesting characters, with each one playing an important part in the story.
  I highly recommended this book to those who love the PI genre and are looking for something slightly different, but that is well-written with great characters, unbelievable suspense and an ending you’ll never see coming.