Don Winslow follows up his harrowing Cartel Trilogy with one of the best crime thrillers I’ve read in years! City on Fire is an ‘80s set loose retelling of Homer’s The Iliad, following a struggle between the Irish and Italian mobs in Providence Rhode Island. It only gets more exciting and heartbreaking with each new chapter, as the toxic masculinity that’s been baked into the hearts of these men from a young age ensures that we’re in for a violent and tragic ending. Each character is given so much depth that it’s hard not to wince whenever guns start going off. I tore through this book in two days, and immediately wanted more. As a huge true crime and murder mystery junkie, this gave me just the kind of suspenseful beach read I was looking for. Even better? This is the first entry in a brand new trilogy, and the fact I have no idea where things can go from here makes me even more anxious to check out the next one! Make sure to check this out when it’s released on September 21st!

Winslow shows he still is a master story teller at the top of his game.

With realistic characters, an intriguing plot line, and steady pacing… I cannot wait dor the next installment of this trilogy.

I’ve been stunned into near speechlessness. Don Winslow’s City on Fire is utterly incredible! This book delivers the goods and then some. A masterclass in exceptional storytelling with intense pacing and deep, complex characters thrown into a pressure cooker filled with crime, murder, and mayhem. An epic start to a new trilogy by one of the best crime writers of all-time.

City on Fire centers around a mob war between Irish and Italian factions in Providence, Rhode Island in the later half of the 1980’s. All it took was a tiny spark of perceived disrespect between made men, initiated by the introduction of a gorgeous woman, to blow up previously cordial business dealings and tranquil personal relationships. The result is a vicious game of one-upmanship with escalating violence and retribution that leaves a wake of dead bodies across New England with no real winner. Only pain and suffering on every side.

City on Fire explores numerous themes like family, honor, loyalty, values and codes, love and loss in the way that only Don Winslow can – through the creation of realistic characters that are put into impossible situations where choices are fraught with dangerous consequences no matter the decision. And while Don might be telling a tale that shines a spotlight on the psyche and actions of old school wise guys, he does so in a way that’s easy relatable for everyday men and women even if they’re normal upstanding citizens who wouldn’t know a gumar from an envelope or a no-show job. Because all of us understand and have firsthand experience with the importance of family, of having your friend’s back, of unconditional love, of making hard and sometimes unpopular decisions, and of unbearably heartbreaking loss. Which creates a strong emotional connection between the reader and the characters, allowing us to really experience what’s happening to those on the page and sometimes even sympathize with, or even root for, hardened criminals who we’d ordinarily say deserved a heaping serving of karma.

And holy hell is this novel well-written. Don is a genius with the pen. Everything is sublime. The setup, transitions, details, dialogue, action, character development, and pacing are all exquisite. Throw in several huge twists to go along with gut wrenching conflict that you see coming but are powerless to stop and its near perfection. A cinematic masterpiece in hardcover form.

The best books always leave you with a book hangover as you contemplate what just occurred. Well, City on Fire does that and more. Like the aftermath of a week-long bender in Vegas with the boys, this book will stick with you for a long time.

I look forward with great anticipation to City of Dreams, the next installment of this blockbuster story. My only hope is that September 2022 hurries up and gets here already. The wait is going to be brutal and I’m dying to know what happens next!

City on Fire is a tremendously captivating crime thriller that goes back to the days of Irish and Italian mobs in the 80s when the tempers were high and blood was in the air. Don Winslow kicks off his latest thriller with a beautifully described fleeting moment of peace and tranquility for the characters before a spark lights the fuse for a bloody war between the two crime syndicates in a desperate tug of war for power. Once you turn the first page, all bets are off.
Danny Ryan yearns for a better life than being a longshoreman and muscle for the Irish crime syndicate in Providence, Rhode Island. His grounded thoughts for self-actualization and freedom relate to the desire in every man and woman to reach out for something beyond what they settle for in absence of better opportunities. His seemingly mundane destiny takes a big detour when a woman upsets the thinly held peace between the Irish and the Italians, leading to a small scale tit-for-tat matched altercations that quickly escalate into an out-of-control conflict once the first body drops. There is simply no time to rest once bullets start flying and hits are sanctioned on both sides of the syndicate along with double crosses and corrupt police officials, the fusion of all elements creating a highly unstable and unpredictable powder keg of explosive events.
City on Fire’s macabre narrative owes its gut-wrenching brutality to the highly grounded and realistic characters who go through horrible situations. Don Winslow writes his stories and characters in shades of gray where battle rages between evil and lesser evil. Powerful and natural dialogues accompany believably selfish drives befitting imperfect characters, giving the story a distinctive non-fiction flavor. It appeals to fans of crime thrillers with corrupt souls and dark events as much as it appeals to anyone who simply picks up the book with no idea of what to expect; Don Winslow writes for the readers regardless of what genre one prefers. A magnificently horrifying thriller that ingeniously sets up a brand-new crime saga with scope and grit unparalleled by any other series except Don Winslow’s The Cartel trilogy.