Broken: Crime Fiction

Book Review: Broken by Don Winslow (2020) 👍

Don Winslow is a best-selling storyteller. I found out how much while reading his six-story collection in Broken. Winslow's beat here is crime fiction, not usually my forte, but this is so well written I couldn't take my eyes off it. About 40 or so pages a story. So easy to get involved in the characters and their stories.

The feast before my eyes is six short stories, each an entirely separate, unique story, though they share some characters and some settings. It's not necessary to know that because they stories aren't connected. Each has its unique twist on crime with its own viewpoint and its own narrative thread. 

"Broken" takes place in New Orleans. It's a gritty, heart-pounding crime tale about one brother seeking vengeance for the heartless murder of his kid-brother cop. "Crime 101" isn't about one place but about a string of places: the Pacific Coast Highway, and tracking down a thief about to hit a jewelry store--which one and by whom? "The San Diego Zoo" starts off hilarious, but soon melds into something more serious--how did a chimp get a gun? And there is the whodunit tale. "Sunset", "Paradise", and "The Last Ride" are equally different stories of crime and the pursuit of justice by well-defined characters you just have to know more about and you just have to stick with till the end of their story. And Winslow is such a good storyteller you're glad you're there to hear his story. "The Last Ride" has a very different kind of ending, an unsettling ending for sure. It was unexpected. 

Winslow is such a good writer I'm eager to begin a reading journey in another of his books, Force. Let's see if it's as good as Broken. I'll bet it is.