I really enjoy Winslow’s easy style of writing and have read more serious books by him about drug cartels, the DEA, the police, but the first book I read of his was “Dawn Patrol” where I fell for Boone Daniels. I revisited the beach a few days ago reading “The Gentlemen’s Hour”. A favorite excerpt and why I love this character:
(Boone tries to work out what to wear to a booty call when you’ve been putting it off for more than three months, have confused feelings for the person and is it really a booty call or just the continuation of a kiss or a conversation about the relationship and where it’s going. What do you wear to a conversation about a relationship—usually body armor, although he hasn’t owned a Kevlar vest since he left the force and has not a lot from which to choose. He has a winter wedding and funeral suit and a summer wedding and funeral suit, one white and one blue dress shirt, and a single pair of khaki trousers that Cheerful ordered for him from the Lands’ End catalog, and have never been off the hanger, otherwise his wardrobe, such as it is, consists of five pairs of jeans in various states of disrepair, T-shirts, and long sleeve pullovers. Ripcurl collection of board shorts make up a large part of his wardrobe, as for footwear he owns, the black dress shoes that go with the wedding and funeral suits, three pairs of sandals and one pair of black sketchers tennis shoes, because the sketchers store is just a block from his office. Boone decides on the white dress shirt and his least favorite jeans, and then sits there with mental paralysis of the choice of the tennis or dress shoes. Petra might infer from the tennis shoes that he’s taking this too causally, which would piss her off, and which he’s certainly not, but the dress shoes might signal her that he expects that they’re gonna have sex, which he sort of does, but isn’t really all that sure, and he doesn’t want her to think that he’s taking that for granted. On the other hand sandals are probably out of the question, Boone thinks. He’s mulling this over when his cell phone rings.)
“The Gentleman’s Hour” written by Don Winslow is the sequel to his excellent novel “The Dawn Patrol.” Set in laid-back San Diego’s Pacific Beach (“PB”), these two novels tell the story of Boone Daniels, itinerant surfer and private detective, former-police officer, and founding member of the Dawn Patrol.
The Bag Lady 
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