A Cool Breeze on the Underground

I read this after loving California Fire And Life (by the same author). What I found was Neal Carey, a wonderful plot, some great dialogue and Don Winslow taking another step up the ladder of my favorite writers.This book is intriguing, gripping and fun. It is filled with detail and an insight that leaves the reader enriched for the experience. Novels that flit from city to city seldom manage to capture the feel of the setting with any great detail but Don Winslow finds a way to take you from New York to London and have you believe he's lived in both places all of his life. The scenes in Yorkshire are a little stereotyped, but that's nitpicking in the extreme.Neal Carey is an excellent character, hard, streetwise and compassionate, backed up ably by Joe Graham and a smart mouth. The story is well told and unfortunately believable.

This is a brisk, immensely enjoyable updating of the private eye and noir genres. When we first meet Neal Carey he's a graduate student at Columbia, working on a degree in 18th Century English Literature. But then he receives a call from his "Dad," Joe Graham, who turns out to be the one-armed dwarf who sort of adopted Neal when he was eleven years old and running the streets. A series of flashbacks shows Graham teaching Neal how to survive and grooming him for an eventual position trouble shooting for a shadowy organization called Friends of the Family, who look after the interests of the wealthy clients of the Kitteridge family bank in Providence, RI. Over the years, Neal learned everything from how to tail people to how to search a room without anyone ever knowing, and in the course of these unusual studies, Joe realized that Neal was a gifted student. Eventually the Friends send him to school, but now they need him for a special assignment.It's 1976 and with Jimmy Carter likely to win the Democratic presidential nomination, he's expected to look for a northern running mate. Senator John Chase of Rhode Island has a decent shot at the job, but there's one significant skeleton in his closet : his troublesome teenage daughter has run away to London. Now it's up to Neal to go find her and bring her back in time for the Convention. Neal is a streetwise and sassy hero, which makes for plenty of snappy banter. And the London he arrives in is in the midst of the birth of punk rock, which provides an unusually anarchic backdrop to the action. Add in a priceless first edition of Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle and a double-crosser within the Friends and you've got a mystery that cleverly mixes elements of classic noir with various innovations of the author's own. Imagine Oliver Twist by way of Raymond Chandler with a soundtrack by The Clash, and you'll capture something of the spirit of the story. It all makes for great fun and I look forward to reading the subsequent books in the series.GRADE : A-

This is my first experience reading a mystery by Don Winslow. I was intrigued by the character development of Neal Carey and Joe Graham. The writing is fun, witty and riveting at times. This is a perfect beach read or long winter evening read. It's a hoot!

This is a fabulous book, introducing the reader to fascinating characters (Neal Carey, Joe Graham, etc). As the first in a series of Neal Carey mysteries, this is the perfect book to drag you in and hook you, leaving you wanting more. The story is fascinating, and the driving plot makes this a page-turner. And how can you not fall in love with these charatcters?This is one of the best detective mysteries I've read, and I reccommend it to ALL my friends. READ IT!

Told with a page-turning mix of flashback and "current" time, the plot has some surprises, including the satisfying denouement. Just as interesting is the way the reader gets a look at the education of an investigator. I'm not one myself, but I almost feel like I could be a PI -- with this book, and plenty of practice. First in a series; the second is out in hardback