CITY ON FIRE by Don Winslow
Publication: 4/26/2022 by Morrow / Harper Collins
Page Count: 368




What would you expect …. another gangster masterpiece from the pen of this marvelous writer. He spins a yarn involving the war between the Irish and Italian mobs that control New England. The main focus is Danny Ryan… who starts as a simple foot soldier who necessarily evolves into the ruthless leader of their gang in order to protect family and friends. Danny is faithfully married to Terri of the rival Murphy clan. Terri’s brother, Liam Murphy has the audacity to touch the breasts of one of the bosses. A chain reaction occurs that sets off a bloody war between the Irish and Italian mobs. Winslow masterfully explores the themes of loyalty, betrayal and honor. This cinematic masterpiece will capture the heart of lover’s of The Godfather.
Winslow proves to be a masterful storyteller as he weaves a complex, multilayered narrative progressively amping up intrigue, suspense and menace … eventually crescendoing into an explosive bloody denouement. This is a five star opening salvo in a highly anticipated trilogy of epic proportions. Thanks to NetGalley and Morrow Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an hones review.

Don Winslow's "City on Fire" is an absolute tour de force, a literary masterpiece that will leave readers breathless and utterly enthralled. With its stunning blend of crime, passion, and unwavering suspense, this epic novel immerses you in the seedy underbelly of New York City, weaving a tapestry of stories that will stay etched in your mind long after you've turned the final page.

Winslow's writing is a symphony of words, a beautifully orchestrated dance of prose that transports you effortlessly into the hearts and minds of his characters. The multi-layered narrative introduces us to a rich and diverse cast, each with their own compelling stories and struggles. From the cops to the criminals, the artists to the addicts, every character is a fully realized, three-dimensional being that leaves an indelible mark on the reader.

At its core, "City on Fire" is a love letter to New York City, a gritty and unflinching portrayal of the city's raw energy and complex soul. Winslow's deep understanding of the city shines through every sentence, making the setting an essential character in its own right. The vivid descriptions and authentic portrayal of the city's neighborhoods and culture make you feel like you're walking the streets alongside the characters.

The plot is a thrilling roller coaster, taking unexpected twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. Winslow's ability to interweave multiple storylines into a cohesive and immersive narrative is unparalleled. The book's pacing is perfect, gradually building tension until it reaches a heart-pounding crescendo that leaves you stunned.

But "City on Fire" is more than just a crime novel; it is a profound exploration of human nature, morality, and the intricate web of connections that bind us all. Winslow delves deep into the hearts of his characters, exposing their vulnerabilities and strengths, making you care deeply about their fates.

In conclusion, "City on Fire" is a masterpiece of storytelling that showcases Don Winslow's exceptional talent and literary prowess. This is not just another crime novel; it is a novel that transcends the genre, leaving an indelible impact on its readers. If you're looking for a gripping, eloquent, and immersive reading experience, "City on Fire" is an absolute must-read. Prepare to be blown away by the brilliance of Don Winslow's magnum opus.

Like most Don Winslow books - there is rage, violence, and turf wars. The author does a brilliant job showing the intensity and depth of the story while also making this a story about the choices of individuals. Beautifully done

This takes place in the 1980’s, when there was a truce between the Italian and Irish mobs, or gangs to be more PC. After an Irish gangster makes an offensive move towards a girlfriend (a girl named Pam) of an Italian gang member, it all goes to hell. Now we have a gang war over which mob controls Rhode Island. New York and Boston want it all. The Irish want to maintain or add to their control.

Rage. Violence. Blood. Bad blood. There's loads of it in City on Fire, a gritty novel about the lives of small town Irish and Italian mobsters in Rhode Island. The author draws you into the complex lives of Irish and Italian mob families competing for an increasingly smaller territory as families move away and the community on which they prey continues to shrink.
City on Fire presents the book's main characters with opportunity after missed opportunity to extricate themselves from the self-defeating violence of their lives. It is excruciating and the author vividly describes the train wrecks that readers can see coming.
I found the book absorbing and would recommend it highly.

Don Winslow is a pro. Every book is so rich in the development of the characters and the setting. The insight into the different mob factions was great. You had the Irish, Italian and Black mobs all controlling different aspects of business.

The initial story of the annual clambake of the Irish mob in Dogtown, made you feel like you were on the beach with them. You felt like you were part of this dysfunctional family.

Very well done.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Don Winslow's City on Fire reads like a classic gangster book. The Irish-Italian rivalry is in full force in this book. What starts out as peace ends up in gunfire. I enjoyed reading this book because I recognized many of the places. I normally would not have picked this book up, but it's set in my home state. Very entertaining!

I received an eARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley.

That was brilliant, which I've come to expect from Don Winslow. I've read several of his novels and I've never been disappointed.

City on Fire is apparently the first book of a planned trilogy dealing with Danny Ryan, a member of the Irish mob scene in the "Dogtown" section of Providence, Rhode Island. Things are going great for Danny and his young family until a mysterious beautiful woman appears on the scene and sparks a war between the Irish and Italian factions of the area.

As always, Winslow's use of pacing and narrative as we follow his characters has a way of grabbing hold and never letting go. Tensions are high and the gut punches are delivered in just the right places to make his novels difficult to put down for even a moment.

City on Fire is an excellent place for a new reader of Winslow to become introduced to his work, or serves well as another entry in his catalogue for returning readers.

Don Winslow is today’s maestro of sprawling, testosterone-drenched Feds v. Mexicartel sagas. His trio of chart-toppers preceding this new book is big, brassy, and bloody. The three set the colliding bureaucracies of drug cartels and their U.S. government antagonists against a gory backdrop where all-too-casual realpolitik spurs on tactical escalations from both sides.

In The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border, Winslow appears to be going for an extended wide-angle epic, with after-action pullbacks revealing jungle clearings studded with steaming corpses. Even so, the bestselling trilogy is perceptively written. Beyond the spray of blood and bone, we witness real humans (at least among the good guys) driven to harsh action by zeal, a sense of duty, or misplaced valor.

You can call these books pulp or formula fiction, but that’s selling Winslow short. Before the current City on Fire hit the shelves, I often caught myself admiring, somewhat begrudgingly, the author’s storytelling gifts and his moral energy, though not his market-pleasing pyrotechnics. With City on Fire, in which Winslow effectively tightens his lens on the people at the core of his story, I’ve become a fan.

The novel depicts a savage entanglement — Winslow’s usual métier — but with a closer, more empathetic focus on his principals. Yes, the criminal trappings still loom large, but the action unfolds in 1980s Rhode Island, where working-class Irish American and Italian American family gangs collaborate uneasily in the baseline illegalities of the day: labor racketeering, hijacking, extortion, prostitution, and the occasional killing. They leave drug peddling to others, at least early in the story.

The households of the two leading families even vacation in the same coastal town, sharing the beach and regular barbecues. Then, one day, Paulie Moretti, an aging capo, brings his new upper-middle-class girlfriend to the beach. Danny Ryan, the novel’s Irish protagonist, takes note:

“[He] watches the woman come out of the water like a vision…

“Who knew that Paulie could pull a girl like this? Every guinea’s dream of a white woman. And it would have to be a freakin’ Pam. Not a Sheila, a Mary, a Theresa. A Pam…

“She has a voice like sex, low and a little gravelly — they all feel it, even the women, and it triggers a little tremor through the group.”

Pam’s arrival soon causes a fatal rift. Ian Murphy, Danny’s “Kennedy handsome,” addle-brained brother-in-law, takes his shot at Pam and successfully claims her for himself, humiliating Paulie in the process. And so, with this very familiar backstory, a war begins.

Winslow builds his novel on this Homeric foundation, the catastrophic struggle for ancient Troy triggered when Trojan prince Paris woos away the bride of Spartan king Menelaus. But Winslow’s primary model in his updated version seems not to be The Iliad but Virgil, Homer’s latter-day Roman heir, whose Aeneid describes the fraught escape of the defeated Trojans from their burning city.

For this reader, a former schoolboy Latinist nurtured on Virgil, Winslow’s reanimation of these towering shades plays out as richly original, believable, and inspiring. It’s also subtly integrated into a modern-age narrative.

Still, the presence of these submerged echoes may strike others as forced: Danny (Aeneas), his ill-fated wife (in Troy, she’s lost in the fog of war; in Rhode Island, she’s felled by cancer), plus his young son and his stubborn father. Intervening on and off, as in The Aeneid, is Danny’s distant mother. In Virgil, she’s the goddess Venus; in Winslow, she’s a former Vegas showgirl, a wealthy femina ex machina.

Familiarity with these archetypal stories isn’t essential to an appreciation of City on Fire, however, and there’s much to appreciate here. It’s a brilliantly crafted tale in its own right — standing apart from its classical model — a moving evocation of familial and marital love, of friendship and loyalty, and of redemption from near-tragedy.

Don Winslow is a master storyteller, and CITY ON FIRE doesn't disappoint. For the first time he sets his story in the place he knows best, Providence, Rhode Island, where he grew up.
CITY ON FIRE is a story of organized crime and the delicate balance of peace and power maintained- and lost- between the Italians and the Irish. At the center is Danny Ryan, struggling to find his space and earn the respect he desires. It is a story of survival, of choices made both big and small that have ramifications for generations.
This is the first book in a trilogy that takes the reader to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I'll be looking forward to reading the next two novels in the series.

Every time there’s a new Don Winslow book, I hope for a return to the style of Isle of Joy. This isn’t that, but it’s darn good, and it’s much more in the same family as The Force or Frankie Machine than the more drug gang centric stuff, which I don’t like as much.

I’m not sure how this being the start of a trilogy squares with Winslow’s declaration that he plans to retire from writing to focus on activism, but I hope he plans to continue this before he hangs ‘em up.

If, like me, you prefer your violence just a touch sanitized even when gratuitous, you’ll like this one better than some of Winslow’s more gritty s uff. This is more character-driven (an excellent thing, because Winslow, as usual, has dreamed up one hell of a cast), and hangs more on the internal politics of the mob than on gross and excessive violence.

There’s still plenty of mayhem and the body count is high, and Winslow has built an excellent foundation for the rest of the story of Danny and the rest of the Dogtown crew.

Well, Don Winslow can certainly tell a story! This gave me strong The Departed vibes. Lots of language that I didn’t enjoy, but made sense in time and place. The characters were well fleshed out and interesting, especially the women. I’m hoping they take more center stage in future books! Bonus points for the audio- Ari filakos is incredible.

Whew, this book packs the action in, and I absolutely cannot wait for the next two installments!

“ 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.”

I don’t want to spoil things but- this is a high octane read that will thrill fans of mafia stories.

4.5 star read for me, rounded up to 5.

**Many thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.**

Don Winslow's 'City on Fire' ignites a modern Greek tragedy, in three parts

Don Winslow may not have written “City on Fire” in Homeric Greek, but that’s where the differences end between this tour-de-force of the criminal underground and “The Iliad.” Drawing on the epic Greek tragedy for the literary take of his new novel — the first of a trilogy — Winslow cuts deep into two warring criminal empires both vying for control of New England and it’s not only blood, but deception, betrayal and dishonor that flow from the wounds.

A fierce, biting read, “City on Fire” (William Morrow) centers on 1980s-era Providence, R.I., where the Irish Murphy and Italian Moretti crime syndicates have conspired to share the spoils of the city. The Irish keep to the docks, unions and loan sharking while the Italians work gambling, drugs and protection schemes. In a deal brokered by the heads of the families, Jacky Moretti and John Murphy, the gangs keep to their turfs while alcohol and cigarettes wind their way from the docks to clubs, with everyone getting a piece.

Casting a shadow on the arrangement is the next generation of Morettis and Murphys. Looking to advance their own reputations and interests in a flex of muscle, the tension between sons Pat and Liam Murphy and Peter and Paul Moretti is a hair-trigger’s touch from war.

That touch comes in the form of Pam, a beautiful woman and a modern-day Helen of Troy who Danny Ryan, a member of the Murphy gang, knew at first sight would be trouble. Danny’s right, and when Liam makes a move for Pam, who’s already attached to Peter, the tension escalates into full-fledged gang war.

Nobody writes that war like Winslow. We saw this in both “The Cartel” and in “The Force” and we see it here; layers of story and a large cast of characters develop, fuse and evaporate as Danny moves to centerstage. A reluctant longshoreman and leg-breaker who detests the fighting and killing, Danny longs to get out of the life and take his ill wife and son away from the violence.

But it’s Danny, not the sons, who shows himself most adept at heading the family. “Think, Danny tells himself. Think like a leader,” and he does, putting together divergent connections that give both a satisfying end to this novel and set up the next.

Seemingly determined to thwart the notion that there is “no honor among thieves,” Danny matures in this novel as a tragic hero whose fatal flaw might be compassion — an Achilles heel that could ultimately sink or save his Irish soul.



Recently, Winslow agreed to speak with a reviewer about his new novel. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tom Mayer: Your new novel is a contemporary take on “The Iliad.” What is it about that ancient form that resonates with readers today. Any why did you specifically decide to adapt it to “City on Fire?”

Don Winslow: Let me answer those questions in reverse, if that's OK. When I read “The Iliad” as an adult, what struck me were the parallels to things that had happened in the real world of crime. I mean, amazingly so. And then as I started to read others of the classics, particularly the “Aeneid,” but also “The Odyssey” and Greek tragic drama, I saw more and more of the stories that you could tell as gangster stories — because they happened. So I had this idea: Could I write this — you know, this is the first book of a trilogy — could I write three novels that would stand alone as crime novels — you can read these as crime novels and have no reference to the classics at all — but could I write them and echo these stories and characters from the classics in which I found so many parallels?

Why do they resonate with people today? The classics are classics for a reason, because they're timeless and and they speak to our humanity. All of the themes that we deal with in modern crime fiction, modern fiction period, honor, dishonor, love, hate, betrayal, compassion, revenge, power, subjugation — they are all there in in the classics. And so I think that they've lasted for thousands of years because they speak to humanity. Right now, watching Ukraine and Kyiv, I feel like I'm watching the siege of Troy. We see these themes over and over and over again through human history, and that's why they're classics and that's why they've lasted.

TM: We can’t look at Homer’s “Iliad” or Virgil’s “Aeneid” without comparing Danny Ryan to the Trojan hero, Aeneas. Like all tragic heroes, Danny’s a self-contradiction. How interesting to you as an author was it to develop the yin and yang of his character?

DW: Well, that was the biggest challenge, and the greatest fun of it. I chose Aeneas very deliberately because he was a man who was sort of in it, but not of it. If you read “The Iliad,” he's a minor player. He marries into the royal family, but he's not really one of them. And I love that outsider's kind of perspective.

But also in writing Danny, here was this guy who wanted very simple things out of life. Danny just wants a decent job and to raise his family, but because of his feelings of loyalty, he's drawn to become something else — to become this fighter. And that internal conflict I found fascinating and, I hope, interesting for the reader.

We often forget that the end of the fall of Troy's not told in “The Iliad.” It's told by Aeneas in “The Aeneid,” and he's talking to Dido, the tragic queen of Carthage, when he says, “sorrow unspeakable sorrow, my queen, you ask me to bring to life once more.” She asked him about his past. And he tells this incredibly touching sad story about what happened, and I found that to be so poignant. I thought, this would be the character of a man who has lost so much, but he's still fighting and struggling to take care of his aging father, his infant son, what's left of his friends and wandering the world trying to find a place to set their feet down.

TM: Something you do very well with your characters is building on the losses of their pasts. Danny’s sense of loyalty is probably built out of his birth betrayal. Is that fair?

DW: Absolutely. No question about it. It is the yin and yang of him. Again, it comes from the classics. Aphrodite abandoned her son, Aeneas. He was raised by his father. I found that fascinating in the classics, but then I had to find the modern equivalent for it. Who would she be? Why would she abandon this child and give him up. And how would he feel about it, particularly when she comes back into his life in a very powerful way. So, you have these resentments, but he’s also probably feeling some gratitude for her help. I love those internal conflicts with him. I think they make him an interesting guy.

TM: Well, of course, you also put him in do-or-die circumstances. …

DW: That's the great thing about crime fiction. It's why I love the genre so much. We get to see humankind in extremis. We get to see life-and-death situations. And again, I think that that does something in terms of exposing character.

TM: Other characters, especially some of the females, like Danny’s mother, Madeline, or sister-in-law, Cassie, seem ripe for development. Fair?

DW: You'll see them in the next two books. They, to me, were fascinating characters. As a man, it's always a bit daunting. You're always a bit reluctant: Can I write a woman character, a female character well? Do I have a right to do it? But it's unavoidable in this situation, and I also found them to be very compelling. Once you start giving them pasts, and again, their pasts are based on the pasts that we get from mythology and from other works so, it's one thing to write that Aphrodite is the great goddess of love, but another thing to look into her and what happened to her. And the same with Cassie. She is given the gift of prophecy in exchange for being molested, as in the classics, and she's the one who's talking to people and trying to tell them, “Don't do this. I see what's going to happen. I see the harm.” And, you know, “Take another look at your lives.” But yes, those two characters will very much carry over into the next books.

TM: It’s very poignant what Cassie tells Danny about his soul at the end of the book.

DW: Thank you, thank you. In “The Iliad” its Cassandra who says don’t bring the Trojan horse in, and they ignore her. It’s Cassie who she says to Danny, you shouldn't be doing this. And he knows it, he knows. And he's torn about it. And that will go through the next three books, too. He looks at that as the sort of sin that just stays with him forever — and does.

TM: In a lot of ways, this novel is a period piece. The story centers on the docks and alleys of 1980s Providence, R.I., with Irish and Italian gangs and all the honor, loyalty and fidelity that involves. You’re famous for your research, sometimes taking years and travels south of the border, to understand and write a story. How did you immerse yourself into this one?

DW: Walking out the door; stepping into the past. I grew up in the era of the New England crime wars. These people are all familiar to me. It took me having lived out here in California for the better part of 30 years. It took me some time though, to get back into the patois, into the jargon, the accents, the rhythm of speech in Rhode Island. That took a while. But for the most part, it was it was a matter of memory and a matter of walking around the settings of the book. You can you can get into a car or a plane but you can't go into a time machine. So, going up to Providence, there are still some places and restaurants and offices and things that are in the book that still exist. But others don't. You know, Dogtown has been gone a long, long time. And so, it's a matter of going back to newspapers and old books and that kind of thing. But the bulk of the research, though, was in classics, was reading literary criticism, listening to lectures, trying to get a deeper understanding of the characters and the themes and the meanings of those books, because I kept just trying (to ask) what's the modern parallel? It just took a lot of time with those classics and with, you know, scholarly books, if you will, about them.

TM: You impress me. The class I found the most daunting in graduate school was literary criticism, and here we are finding a purpose for it.

DW: I'm addicted to the great courses. Those lectures you can buy online, right? I bought every one on “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey,” the Greek tragedys, all of that, and listened to them obsessively — and they were very useful.

TM: It also impresses me that you might be the most principled writer of violence in current literature. What are the ethics that guide your writing?

DW: I wrestle with it all the time. It's a really tough one. It's a tough ethical decision, because on the one hand, I don't want to sanitize violence. Particularly when I was writing those books about the Mexican drug cartels, I wanted people to understand what was really going on, and not blink at it. On the other hand, you don't want to slip into what I would call the pornography of violence just for the sake of titillation. It’s a tough, tough road to walk. But basically what I'm what I'm looking for are the consequences of violence. The emotional and psychological and real life consequences of violence. I don't particularly like murder as a parlor game. But I have to admit it's a tough one and I struggle with it. More and more I write the results of the violence instead of the violence itself. I write people coming on the scene afterwards and what their reaction is. Having said that, with this book, if you read “The Iliad” — it's a violent book. The poetry of it is vivid, and I wanted to be true to the spirit of that. So, there are scenes in the book, you know, like in “The Iliad,” when Achilles drags Hector’s body around behind the chariot. In this book (a character) simply gets hits with a car that drags him under. Those are violent scenes to write, and yet, you couldn't avoid them.

TM: On a softer note, it occurs to me that your dedication page — “To all the deceased of the pandemic. Requiescat in pace” — might be at once the most broad and the most personal I’ve ever seen. Talk about that?

DW: Yeah, I’ll try. I’m feeling a little bit of it today, actually. Kind of an anniversary. Excuse me. My mom died during COVID. And she was in Rhode Island, quite near where the book takes place, actually. She was 94. So look, Thomas, you can't call that a tragedy, but we were here and we couldn't go to be with her. We couldn't go to the funeral. There was no funeral. It was it was just like, OK, your mother died, you know? And I lost other people in COVID. But I just felt that happening, (and as I) sat here and wrote the bulk of these books during the pandemic — and you know, Please God, let it be over. Who knows? — it would have been grotesque not to have acknowledged it. Like, I was sitting here, not on the front lines in a hospital, but sitting either in my office or out on the front porch in Rhode Island writing these books while a million people are dying, and other people are working themselves to utter exhaustion and beyond. So, to me, I felt I had to at least say something, and that's what I chose. But it was also, yeah, about my mom.

TM: Thank you for sharing that. That's horrific and wonderful at the same time.

DW: Yeah, listen, we've all been through it. You know what we've all been through the last few years. I’m by no means unique, you know? But it's been a tough couple of years, man, for everybody.

TM: The pandemic is why you decided to delay the novel’s release from September 2021 to April of this year, isn’t it?

DW: Yes, yes. Yeah. We couldn't have done a tour, and that had happened on my last book. I brought out a book called “Broken,” and the very next day the country shut down. And I didn't want to do that again. Look, all the material things I have in life I owe to readers and booksellers. So, you want to get out there and meet people and say hello and say thank you, and make a connection and answer their questions, and all of that. I didn't want to bring a book out again and do more Zoom stuff. Which was better than nothing. Thank God we had it. So, yeah, we delayed it by six months.

TM: I’m wondering what that means for the release of the next two novels in the trilogy, which I believe were originally scheduled to release in September 2022 and September 2023.

DW: April and April instead. So, a year from now and a year from that.

TM: Oh, shoot, you're gonna make me wait a year. I was hoping for a fall release.

DW: Sorry.

TM: Well, it’s worth the wait. You’ve been very gracious with your time today, Don. Thank you.

DW: I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Winslow writes about gang violence like no other.
City on Fire is about two rival crime organizations that battle for total control of Providence Rhode Island. The book is a retelling of Homer's The Illiad. It is the first in a trio.

It takes in Rhode Island, California, and Nevada. Lots of suspense and will keep you up too late.

Give me a cold winter weekend with The Godfather, Goodfellas and Casino and I'm a happy woman. When I discovered that Don Winslow was writing a trilogy involving the Irish and the Italian mob, set in 1980's Providence, R.I., I couldn't get to NetGalley fast enough. Now, I've read it and I can conclusively say, Don Winslow can write about crime, the mafia, drug lords and cartels better than nearly anyone out there today.

Throughout history beautiful women have sown discord and spawned wars, and here one tears apart a family, and The Family as well. Before they even knew what hit them, (see what I did there?), questions of family loyalty, seething resentments, obligations and responsibilities vie for your attention, along with car bombs, ambushes, and violence at the drop of a hat. With a protagonist you can root for, in spite of what he is forced to do, CITY ON FIRE is exactly the gritty crime story I expected from Don Winslow.

For me, characters are just about everything. I love when they grow and change. I love when they're conflicted or angry or crying-whether I love the character themselves or not, I love being privy to their trains of thought. I think that's one of Stephen King's greatest talents, and I think Winslow has that magic too.

A modern day Helen of Troy can be just as disruptive as the original, and I can't wait to see what happens next in this trilogy.

Highly recommended!

*Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow Co., for the eARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

Amazon calls this a financial thriller which seems an odd classification. A much more descriptive term would be “Crime Families,” because money and deal making in this book are ways of keeping score, but it sure isn’t the whole story. If you were engrossed by The Godfather trilogy, this is the book for you. And like The Godfather, this is only the beginning of the story.
When I went to college in Providence, R.I. many years ago, it was common knowledge that crime syndicates were active in this rather down-at-it’s-heels New England city. We used to wonder if the neighborhood diners we frequented were giving a cut to the mob.
If City on Fire is to be believed, Providence still had a strong but uneasy understanding between the Irish and the Italian gangs dividing up the various rackets. in the 1980’s when this story begins, This volume follows Danny Ryan and his place in the Irish power structure. Winslow begins by setting the stage for Danny and his friends and family in the nostalgic days of summer when life seemed predictable and good. Beginning slowly, Winslow takes the time to create a world with the most authentic voices. Once he has introduced you to this some what shabby Garden of Eden, he invites in the serpent in the form of a beautiful young woman from the WASP world of Greenwich, CT. Danny immediately recognizes her as trouble and from almost the first moment, honor and respect color every action that follows.
I can’t say I followed every move and countermove, but the tension, the danger, the double and triple crosses will keep you reading to the end. Which, of course, is not really the end at all. So the big question is, When do we get Book 2?

Winslow is a master storyteller and hits another book out of the park! City on Fire is a family drama couched in a mob war. Small town Rhode Island is the setting for a blow up between the Irish Murphy clan and the Italian Morettis who have lived and worked together mostly in peace over the last generation but set a tinderbox burning as the younger boys look to take over the family business. Caught in the middle is Danny Ryan, his father Marty who used to be the Irish boss, and his estranged mother Madeleine. Like the previous Cartel series, Winslow's characters are well drawn, the story is intricate, and the action is intense. Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the early opportunity to meet the Ryan, Murphy, and Moretti clans - I can't wait for the rest of the series!

This was my third Winslow book, and each one is so amazingly different from the others. This is a mafia tale set in Providence in the '80s, amidst a war between the Irish and Italian mobs. It has a solid post-Sopranos feel, where the violence that might kill someone could result from something stupid as easily as from something well-planned, and the criminals are real humans who have to worry about personal struggles.

Winslow focuses on Danny Ryan, a smart Irish mobster whose dad used to run the mob. Danny's married to the daughter of the current head of the mob, but has never really risen up as far as he liked. While the war that starts over some stupid macho issues around a woman takes its toll on both groups, Danny's leadership gives him some power as the battle continues.

The saga takes place over a couple of years, recognizing that mob wars aren't always big battles, but a bunch of skirmishes. That allows Winslow to give his characters and the plot a chance to breathe, and to give backstories for plenty of the cast (though the occasional one, like Danny's sister-in-law who was molested by the former head of the Italian mob, feel like they're almost orphaned).

If you've liked Winslow's other books, this should work for you. In many ways, it's a companion to The Force, focusing on mob processes instead of corrupt cop processes, but it's still the same sort of deep dive, combined with fantastic characters.

In the late 80's the city of Providence, RI is controlled by the Irish and Italian crime families. Their tenuous peace is ripped apart by a careless drunken act during a joint clambake igniting a war that will leave a path of death and destruction across the Ocean State. I loved the local shout-outs of my home state peppered throughout the story. Unfortunately I found the character development was hurt by the fast pace of the story. As the purposed first book in a series perhaps this will be improved in the next book. Overall I liked it enough to want to read the next one to see what happened to the survivors of the war.