Savages

May 31, 2010
Spare, clipped expository prose and hip, spot-on dialogue propel this visceral crime novel from Winslow (The Dawn Patrol). The future is looking good for Laguna Beach, Calif., marijuana growers Ben and Chon, until they receive an ominous e-mail from the Baja Cartel. Attached is a photograph showing the decapitated bodies of other independent drug dealers. The message is clear: sell your product through us or else. Ben and Chon try to resist, but matters escalate after cartel thugs abduct Ophelia, the guys' beautiful young playmate and accomplice, and hold her for a cool $20 million ransom. Meanwhile, Elena "La Reina" Sanchez Lauter, the leader of the Baja Cartel, must deal with rival drug gangs and potential overthrow from within. Ben and Chon propose a trade that Elena can't refuse, setting the stage for the violent and utterly satisfying ending. Winslow's encyclopedic knowledge of the border drug trade lends authenticity.

September 27, 2010
Interpreting Winslow's two Southern California beach-bum marijuana dealers—thoughtful philanthropist-environmentalist Ben and his ex-navy SEAL pal Chon—narrator Michael Kramer develops a laid-back, unruffled persona for the former and a harder-edge, restless attitude for the latter. He even manages an acceptably feminine, spacey voice for their mutual girlfriend, Ophelia. Kramer focuses on keeping a moderately fast pace for the trio's witty dialogue, but when the Baja Mexico drug cartel led by its beautiful but vulnerable leader, Elena, demands a piece of their action, things speed up. And when the cartel kidnaps Ophelia and demands a million-dollar ransom, Kramer barely breathes in following the twists and turns devised by Winslow's antiheroes, and matches the novel's mood as it turns from wittily hip to dark and disturbingly violent. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, May 31).