The Kings of Cool

The much-anticipated prequel to the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Savages.THE HIGH-OCTANE PREQUEL TO SAVAGESIn Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twentysomething best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O.This is the story of how Ben, Chon and O became the people they are. Spanning fifty years forward from 1960s Southern California, The Kings of Cool is an intergenerational epic of drug dealers and crooked cops, friends and lovers, blood and death - and a young generation's future inextricably linked with their parents' history.A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon and O to choose between their real families - or each other...

“[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer. He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I've read. He's been honing it for years.”

[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer. He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I’ve read. He’s been honing it for years. Evening Standard
Packing more of an emotional heft than Savages, it’s written in the leanest prose possible, with a single-word paragraph being nothing unusual but managing to say more than you’d expect. -- Alastair Mabbot Herald
A brilliant, hypnotic novel…A considerably more ambitious book than Savages, seeking to map out not only the history of Savages’ weird love triangle, but also to cast a panoramic eye over the whole history of the drug trade in California from the 1960s onwards. And Winslow fulfils those ambitions fantastically well, with a stylistic swagger and bucketloads of empathy to go with a scintillating, perfectly executed crime-novel plot…Delivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you’re ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel. -- Doug Johnstone Independent on Sunday
An epic prequel to Don Winslow's Savages . . . Winslow writes the kind of books that Tarantino might- if he had a heart. -- Julia Handford The Telegraph
American author Don Winslow is so good at capturing LA slacker speak…[His books] are always superb and The Kings of Cool – a new prequel to the brilliant Savages may be his best yet The Sun

Don Winslow has worked as a movie theatre manager, a production assistant, and as a private investigator. In addition to being a novelist he now works as an independent consultant in issues involving litigation arising from criminal behaviour. His novels include The Kings of Cool, Savages, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, California Fire and Life, The Power of the Dog, The Winter of Frankie Machine and The Dawn Patrol. In 2012 Savages was released as a blockbuster film.

The high-octane prequel to the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Savages . In Savages , Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twentysomething best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. Now, Winslow reaches back in time, from 1960s Southern California to the recent past, to tell the story of how the trio came together. A tale of family in all its forms - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers - The Kings of Cool tracks two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon and O to choose between their real families, and their love for each other 'It was not possible to finish Don Winslow's lean, mean, piercingly funny 2010 Savages without wanting more... His dialogue is tight, laconic and razor sharp; if Elmore Leonard or Lee Child discovered surfing, they might sound something like this.' New York Times 'Brilliant, hypnotic...scintillating, perfectly executed...Delivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you're ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel.' Independent on Sunday 'An epic prequel to Don Winslow's Savages . . . Winslow writes the kind of books that Tarantino might - if he had a heart.' DailyTelegraph

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