Boone Daniels

Created by Don Winslow

They call it “surf noir.” They call it “surf western.” One critic even tagged Winslow as the “unlikely bastard child of Brian Wilson and Raymond Chandler”…

All I know is that his BOONE DANIELS (and give Winslow a high five for that monicker) is one righteous San Diego private eye.

Sure, he’s a suitably laid back dude, and there’s no doubt he lives to surf, and Winslow tosses in plenty on the fading California dream of endless summers and fun, fun, fun.

But it’s Boone himself that ultimately drags you back.

He’s just a fascinating character, a slacker and aging beach boy determined to hold on to what he can of his own dreams and his own sense of self, even as the world around him morphs and mutates into something far nastier than anything the Beach Boys ever sang about.

Don Winslow is the writer of the Neal Carey series, about a globe-trotting private eye who works for a rather murky New York organization, as well as several other best-selling novels, including The Winter of Frankie Machine, California Fire and Life, and The Death and Life of Bobby Z. He’s worked as a movie theater manager, documentary film production assistant, and as a private investigator, specializing in arson, and lately he’s become the go-to guy when it comes to novels about the Mexican drug cartels, in such acclaimed works as Savages and The Cartel. He lives in Southern California.

UNDER OATH

• “(The Dawn Patrol)… might be the best summertime crime novel ever.”
  — San Francisco Chronicle
• “(The Dawn Patrol)… captures the essence of Southern California itself: forecast sunny and clear, with an undertow of darkness.”
  — San Antonio Express-News

NOVELS

• The Dawn Patrol (2008) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• The Gentleman’s Hour (2011)  | Buy this book | Kindle it!

SHORT STORIES

• “Boone Daniels’s Rogue Ride” (March 2016, Playboy)
• “Sunset” (2020, Broken) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!

COLLECTIONS

• Broken (2020) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• San Diego Eyes
  America’s Finest City’s Finest Eyes
• Surf City, Here We Come
  Catch a wave of surfing eyes…

THE DICK OF THE DAY

• September 3, 2023
  The Bottom Line: Philip Marlowe as reimagined by Brian Wilson, this San Diego slacker eye surfs the fading California dream of endless summers and fun, fun, fun. Catch a wave.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.