The Kings of Cool

In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twentysomething best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. Among the most celebrated literary thrillers in recent memory, Savages was a Top 10 Book of 2010 selection in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and in publications around the world. Now, in his high-octane prequel, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon and O became the people they are. Spanning fifty years, 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.

About the Author :
Don Winslow has worked as a movie theatre manager, a production assistant, and as a private investigator. In addition to being a novelist he now works as an independent consultant in issues involving litigation arising from criminal behaviour. His novels include The Kings of Cool, Savages, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, California Fire and Life, The Power of the Dog, The Winter of Frankie Machine and The Dawn Patrol. In 2012 Savages was released as a blockbuster film.

Review :
"[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer. He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I’ve read. He’s been honing it for years." "Packing more of an emotional heft than Savages, it’s written in the leanest prose possible, with a single-word paragraph being nothing unusual but managing to say more than you’d expect." "Other beach-worthy fiction this season includes “The Kings of Cool,” the Don Winslow book for anyone overdue in discovering Don Winslow. This author’s “Savages” is the basis for a coming movie. “The Kings of Cool” is its prequel, studded with the same sharp, lean dialogue and quick-witted calculation. Mr. Winslow’s thoughts on America’s two wars in Iraq, as filtered through “The Godfather,” come out like this: “41 as Brando. 43 as Pacino.” It takes a mixed process of reading and decoding to appreciate fully Mr. Winslow’s hard-boiled, blazing talents." "It was not possible to finish Don Winslow’s lean, mean, piercingly funny 2010 Savages without wanting more…Now they’re back with a vengeance. Next month they will show up in Oliver Stone’s film version of Savages [and] Mr. Winslow has written a prequel called The Kings of Cool…Mr. Winslow’s keen attention to drug culture isn’t going to keep readers away from him. He’s too damn good to be polarizing. His characters are smart about their self-interest. His dialogue is tight, laconic and razor sharp; if Elmore Leonard or Lee Child discovered surfing, they might sound something like this." "A brilliant, hypnotic novel…A considerably more ambitious book than Savages, seeking to map out not only the history of Savages’ weird love triangle, but also to cast a panoramic eye over the whole history of the drug trade in California from the 1960s onwards. And Winslow fulfils those ambitions fantastically well, with a stylistic swagger and bucketloads of empathy to go with a scintillating, perfectly executed crime-novel plot…Delivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you’re ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel."