Dumped headfirst into a dark ocean of "localism," Boone must also contend with surfers trying to keep their beaches for themselves and threats from the Mexican cartels. Corey is accused of the beating death of surfing legend Kelly Kuhio, "Uncle K" to Boone, who worshipped him as a kid. Worse, Boone's new slow-burning flame, lawyer Petra Hall, wants him for the defense of 19-year-old Corey Blasingame, tied in with the Rockpile Crew, a surfing gang with a neo-Nazi skinhead agenda, from up the coast. First, fellow board rider Dan Nichols suspects his wife, "an eleven on a California scale of ten," is cheating on him and wants Boone to spy on her. Surfer dude PI Boone Daniels reluctantly takes on two cases. Its unfortunate that Winslow has not chosen to continue this series further as he has created some great characters.The laidback calm of the Southern California surfing community of Pacific Beach boils over violently in Winslow's fast-paced sequel to The Dawn Patrol (2008). Part of the story is that, if you scratch below the surface of the sun and sand, there’s a lot of rotten stuff at the core of our modern society and many of the establishment may just be somehow or other emeshed in the rotting stink. Neither piece of work is guaranteed to bring Boone much in the way of happiness. Boone is also investigating a friend’s marital discord.
This book has a couple of parallel story lines running through it as Boone gets involved investigating on behalf of a kid that beat to death a surfing legend who had been so respected that he brought peace to many gang-infested areas and no one on the beach can respect that Boone has taken the wrong side in this war, including his buddies on the Dawn Patrol.
While “The Dawn Patrol” offered readers a tremendous amount of background and history of the Southern California surfing world, “The Gentleman’s Hour” takes the reader right into this world and is a detective crime-thriller set against the backdrop of Pacific Beach. These are retired guys who don’t have to get up before work or the self-employed, who again don’t have to get up before doing anything whatsoever. “The Gentleman’s Hour” is the next crew out on the waves. The other members of the Dawn Patrol are Sunny Day, who by this point is now the top professional female surfer over in “Oz,” Dave the Love God, who lifeguards, Johnny Banzai, who surfs before he puts on his Police Detective suit, and Hang Twelve, so nicknamed because he has twelve toes rather than the usual ten. As he tells it, the Dawn Patrol is a group of surfers who, naturally, get up at dawn to be the first ones out on the waves.
“The Gentleman’s Hour” is Winslow’s 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.
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