Ben and Chon are two laid-back buddies, born and raised on the beaches of Southern California, playing volleyball and chasing girls. Ben grew up to study finance and botany, while Chon trained as a Navy SEAL and is a veteran of the Iraq War. They are also makers and distributors of the finest marijuana in the state – their stuff is so potent and so popular, they attract attention from the Mexican drug cartels, who want to move in and take over the business.
Don Winslow is a master craftsman of crime fiction, a mix of the dark energy and style of James Ellroy with the insightfulness, quick wit, and memorable characters of Elmore Leonard, placed in the surf and drug culture of SoCal. Winslow, a former private investigator, writes his fiction in the same tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but with a modern edge, pushing the envelope with lean, staccato prose that comes off as dark poetry.
The title of the novel is in itself a recurring theme: as drug dealers, they consider themselves sophisticated and above the usual rabble, refusing to rip clients off or participate in the endless round of turf wars. In a business of crime and savagery, they strive to keep a level or two above the fray. Unfortunately, the fray finds them, as the leader of the Baja Cartel with a particularly brutal reputation – they leave video clips of beheadings in their rivals’ email - wants in. They kidnap Ben and Chon’s beautiful but empty-headed girlfriend, Ophelia, and hold her for ransom. The friends have to drop their pretense and become savages to rescue the girl and to save themselves.
Excellent for those who like their crime fiction humorous, violent, and literary, Don Winslow is a postmodern craftsman with a excellent grasp of both character and action. Highly recommended.