Mystery
![Don Winslow - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B00455VVTK.jpg)
City on Fire: A Novel
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel Trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border), The Force, and Broken comes the first novel in an epic new trilogy.
"Superb. City on Fire is exhilarating." – Stephen King
"Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation." – Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
Two criminal empires together control all of New England.
Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.
Danny Ryan yearns for a more "legit" life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save the friends he loves like family and the family he has sworn to protect, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die.
From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, two rival crime families ignite a war that will leave only one standing. The winner will forge a dynasty.
Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece in the tradition of The Godfather, Casino, and Goodfellas-a thrilling saga from Don Winslow, "America's greatest living crime writer" (Jon Land, Providence Journal).
"Superb. City on Fire is exhilarating." – Stephen King
"Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation." – Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
Two criminal empires together control all of New England.
Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.
Danny Ryan yearns for a more "legit" life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save the friends he loves like family and the family he has sworn to protect, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die.
From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, two rival crime families ignite a war that will leave only one standing. The winner will forge a dynasty.
Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece in the tradition of The Godfather, Casino, and Goodfellas-a thrilling saga from Don Winslow, "America's greatest living crime writer" (Jon Land, Providence Journal).
Editorial Reviews
"Superb. This is storytelling with a keen edge. City on Fire is exhilarating to read." -- Stephen King
"A blistering novel filled with anger and bite. . . . Plenty of pain for the characters, plenty of thrills for the reader." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Gritty, moody, and totally immersive, City on Fire is the first installment in an epic new series that is sure to grip readers from the start. This is Winslow at his very best." -- Karin Slaughter, New York Times and internationally bestselling author
"Don Winslow can hold his own with the best of crime fiction's elite: Mario Puzo, George Higgins, Elmore Leonard. He's a bard of the bad guys and City on Fire is his most relentless book yet. You gotta have it."
-- Joe Hill, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"The crime fiction canon has no shortage of memorable mob sagas by such masters as Puzo, Ellroy, and Lehane. City on Fire, with its large cast of memorable characters and low-key allusions to classical literature, maintains Mr. Winslow's well-earned place in these ranks." -- Wall Street Journal
"Pure genius! Nobody can bring such grit and such heart to crime fiction as Don Winslow-and with such a unique and compelling stylistic voice. This sprawling novel, populated with breathtakingly real characters, will grip you from the first page and never loosen its hold, and that remains true long after you've turned the last page. And what a delight that this is the first of a trilogy. Can hardly wait for the others!" -- Jeffery Deaver, bestselling author of The Midnight Lock
"Winslow's epic slow-burner, full of richly layered characters and tender personal struggles, bubbles to an intricate, exciting climax. Crime fiction fans will eagerly await the sequel." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Winslow is our Dickens of modern crime. I can't think of anyone better at what he does."
-- Linwood Barclay,
"A blistering novel filled with anger and bite. . . . Plenty of pain for the characters, plenty of thrills for the reader." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Gritty, moody, and totally immersive, City on Fire is the first installment in an epic new series that is sure to grip readers from the start. This is Winslow at his very best." -- Karin Slaughter, New York Times and internationally bestselling author
"Don Winslow can hold his own with the best of crime fiction's elite: Mario Puzo, George Higgins, Elmore Leonard. He's a bard of the bad guys and City on Fire is his most relentless book yet. You gotta have it."
-- Joe Hill, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"The crime fiction canon has no shortage of memorable mob sagas by such masters as Puzo, Ellroy, and Lehane. City on Fire, with its large cast of memorable characters and low-key allusions to classical literature, maintains Mr. Winslow's well-earned place in these ranks." -- Wall Street Journal
"Pure genius! Nobody can bring such grit and such heart to crime fiction as Don Winslow-and with such a unique and compelling stylistic voice. This sprawling novel, populated with breathtakingly real characters, will grip you from the first page and never loosen its hold, and that remains true long after you've turned the last page. And what a delight that this is the first of a trilogy. Can hardly wait for the others!" -- Jeffery Deaver, bestselling author of The Midnight Lock
"Winslow's epic slow-burner, full of richly layered characters and tender personal struggles, bubbles to an intricate, exciting climax. Crime fiction fans will eagerly await the sequel." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Winslow is our Dickens of modern crime. I can't think of anyone better at what he does."
-- Linwood Barclay,
Readers Top Reviews
John J McKeown
First let me say that I love Don Winslow's fiction, so I write this review before having finished a single page of City on Fire. Why you might ask? Because I spent over 40 years in the publishing industry and I know something about quality book design. This book is practically unreadable, not because of the text itself, but because of the poor design. Poor is putting it mildly. It is disastrous. The typeface is pedestrian, but the leading (the distance between set lines of type) is so egregiously widened as to cause the eye to wander between lines and lose continuity in the reading experience. The human eye is a precise instrument and printed language is meant to thoroughly engage the reader's field of vision, not cause it to wander. In the old days, only books that billed themselves as "large print editions" would subject their readers to this kind of disharmony.. It's awful for any normal reader with normally lens-corrected vision. It has the unintentional effect of infantilizing the reader experience and disrupting the immersive reading effect. In my days, we cynically referred to this as "blowing air" into the design in order to pump up the page count, thereby enabling the publishing house to charge more for the book. (City on Fire is $28.99 BTW for 372 pages, which easily could have been set to yield 288 pages and a more reasonable $26.99 price point). I personally don't care about the extra cost, so much, as the disruptive reading experience. Ugh.
