Broken
Books | Fiction / Thrillers / Crime
4.4
(72)
Don Winslow
Don Winslow’s acclaimed story collection, featuring “Crime 101,” soon to be a major motion picture starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Barry Keoghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Nick Nolte.No matter how you come into this world, you come out broken . . . Hailed as “one of America’s greatest storytellers” (Stephen King), #1 international bestseller Don Winslow returns with six intense short novels with characters—some familiar, some new— connected by the themes of crime, vengeance, guilt and redemption. It includesCrime 101: A string of high-level jewel heists up and down the Pacific Coast Highway has gone unsolved for years, mostly because the perpetrator has lived by a strict code he calls “Crime 101.” Police attribute the thefts to the Columbian cartels. But Detective Lou Lubesnick’s gut says it’s the work of just one man. Now the lone-wolf jewel thief is looking for that fabled final last score. And Lou breaks all the rules of Crime 101…Broken: In the volume’s title story, police dispatcher Eva McNabb takes the call on a police officer’s brutal murder by a vicious drug gang. It’s her own kid, Danny. Then Eva makes her own call. Summoning her elder son, Jimmy, also a cop, Evan commands: Avenge your brother. I want you to kill them all.The Last Ride: To former solider and cowboy-turned-Board Patrol agent Cal Strickland, the illegals who try to jump his stretch of the Texas-Mexico border are a nameless, faceless group who need to be sent back to their side of the line. That is until he sees the little girl in the cage. And Cal knows that the time has come to make a stand and help her escape. With his trademark blend of insight, humanity, humor, action, and the highest level of literary craftsmanship, Winslow delivers a collection of tales that will become classics of crime fiction.“While Winslow is in widely fluent in many different prose techniques — from the twisty punchline felonies of Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker to the rebop riffs of James Ellroy to mega-works of dark literature a la Cormac McCarthy and James Lee Burke — he's not ‘copying’ anyone. He's writing his OWN masterpieces and just happens to do so in the fashion appropriate to the work.” — The Day (CT)“Will make you laugh and cry, but in the end will explain why The New York Times thinks Winslow is simply ‘the greatest’ . . . He crafts every sentence until it beats to a rhythm of its own. . . . Broken is devastating and brilliant.” — Sydney Morning Herald
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More Details:
Author
Don Winslow
Pages
368
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published Date
2020-04-07
ISBN
0062988913 9780062988911
Community ReviewsSee all
"I’m usually not a huge fan of short stories in a book, but I love Don Winslow‘s work! So I decided to try Broken and I wasn’t disappointed. (In fact, his Border trilogy is the best trilogy I’ve ever read and led me to read more about drug use and Mexican cartels). Winslow’s combination of compelling action, interesting story lines and wonderful characters is in the evidence in each of the stories. It’s nice that the same character is found in a few of the stories(similar to Stephen King’s If It Bleeds). Winslow’s stories do not have a predictable plot which is wonderful unless you lose a character that you’ve come to like (no spoilers). If you are a fan of thrillers, mysteries and well plotted stories, Winslow is your guy."
M H
Matt Harris
"This book isn't what I expected. With "short story" books it is always a grab bag, reliving characters from other books and seeing them in new situations, but aside from 1 of these stories I didn't think the others really had any bite. Broken out by story below:<br/><br/>- Broken: Out of all the stories this was the one I was most excited about, the New Orleans setting, a tale of revenge, however this whole tale felt very 1 dimensional. 3/5<br/>- Crime 101: I liked this one, a Heist, two adversaries circling one another and a rare surprise ending 4/5<br/>- The San Diego Zoo: One of the coolest first lines of a story, but I felt the whole thing rambled on. How the author tried to connect them in the end felt very forced 2/5<br/>- Sunset: Understanding these are from another series hes wrote that I haven't read, this didn't really have draw for me 3/5<br/>- Paradise: This story actually had a good turn of events, however the first half, instead of setting the scene in Hawaii, ended up a lot of fluff as well, with a convenience factor on how Chon got armed to the teeth 3/5<br/>- The Last Ride: I loved this story (last stories of a compilation are usually the best). I was fortunate to see the author speak at the Strand last year, he was clear on his political views and they aligned with mine. To be able to write from the perspective on the other side, to provide another context to "Make America great again", was really clever too me, and man, what an ending. <br/><br/>Overall 3/5"
Wesley Spence
"The story that starts with,"nobody really knew how the chimp got the revolver.""
Tom Swift
