Rating: 4/5
It’s decided, announced, promised! This novel by Don Winslow will be his last, really his last. With 25 opuses to his credit, several of which have been adapted for the screen and an impressive series of international successes, the man who once closely frequented US police and judicial circles and has just passed the 70-year mark, considers that he is time to move on, to enjoy life somewhere other than at your work table. It is also possible that he devotes his free time to campaigning against Donald Trump.
His loyal readers have every reason to vigorously disapprove of his decision. Even if they understand the merits of it. Because it is a very personal style, an unparalleled precision and energy in the writing that Don Winslow brought to detective literature. Which probably makes him an incomparable author. These are obviously the characteristics that we find in “The City Under the Ashes”. A purist can, however, spot a slight narrative shortness of breath. It is probably due to the fact that we are here, in all respects, at the end of the cycle.
A final dive in Las Vegas with Danny Ryan
Here we are, in fact, in Las Vegas, at the end of the 90s. There we find Danny Ryan who already has a rich past, notably as a soldier in the Irish mafia, and to his credit, a number of good and bad deeds. But time has passed. The fellow has gained stature. He acquired skill and even a certain wisdom, without having really healed his romantic wounds. Still, he established himself as a prosperous operator of casinos and luxury hotels. Except that for these people, nothing is ever simple. Even if he demonstrates loyalty, including towards his competitors, even if his ambition is based on imagination and know-how worthy of praise, Danny Ryan cannot escape the flashbacks of old rivalries with methods of the most violent.
Thus, as usual, Don Winslow does a wonderful job of slipping us into the wake of the protagonists, to make us understand and share their determination and their doubts, by applying a sense of description and a consummate art of twists and turns, which make him a master of the genre, of his genre, one might say.
To read Don Winslow is to plunge with him into a violent and noisy universe, where everything collapses one day, through the stupidity and obstinacy of men, before being rebuilt, differently. In the end, Danny Ryan decides to take off. Him too.
Certainly, once “The City Beneath the Ashes” is completed, the final episode of a second triptych, we can always reread Don Winslow’s previous novels. However, he cannot imagine being forgiven for abandoning us like this, as we can see what else he could have told us about the escapades of Danny Ryan and some other of his strong characters.
“The City Under the Ashes”. A novel by Don Winslow. Translated from the American by Jean Esch. Harper Collins Black publisher. €22.90.
