RELATED: Book review: 'The Cartel' by Don Winslow

How they arrived at this moment, how four guys who joined the force to uphold the law and went so wildly wrong, is the backbone of this 480-page epic. So there you have it, an 11-page denouement. Winslow opens with a better introduction: “The last guy on Earth anyone ever expected to end up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Park Row was Denny Malone.”īy the end of the prologue, Malone’s team has raided a Lenox Avenue drug house, his partner is dead of an accidental overdose, a Dominican gangster is killed and the detectives have stolen 50 kilos of Mexican cinnamon heroin called Dark Horse. An anti-Morgan with sleeve tats, a penchant for rap music and a Harlem mistress hooked on smack. If Bumper Morgan is the finest fictional cop to walk the beat, Malone is his opposite. He is the “Blue Knight” of this post 9-11 Joseph Wambaugh deconstruction. The keeper of the code is Detective First Grade Denny Malone, second-generation hero cop, the King of Manhattan North. The Force lives by a code with one cynical rule that nobody honors: You never rat, don’t sell out your brothers. Winslow dispenses truth in bucketfuls of gritty realism. You want your heroes uncompromised, unsullied? You like your narrative with little slices of truth, justice and the American way? Walk on by. MEET THE AUTHOR: Don Winslow signs his new book at Poisoned Pen

They are the wavering blue line of “The Force,” an elite NYPD unit at the center of Don Winslow’s searing portrayal of cops trying to protect and serve themselves in a world where nothing is black and white. They kick in doors, confront lunatics and render aid. They also pull dead babies from trashcans, lift scalded children from boiling tubs and find families hacked to death with machetes. They take bribes, commit perjury and sell justice. They rip off drug dealers, sell dope and hide evidence. Watch Video: 5 new books to read this summer

Don winslow the force review