Don Winslow seems to be letting his hair down after his previous novel, the taut and breakneck The Winter of Frankie Machine (currently being made into a film by Michael Mann starring Robert De Niro). There's an infectious sense of the author having a good time — as in Carl Hiaasen's early work — and it's no mean achievement to make the world of surfing fascinating to confirmed landlubbers. However, the tone gradually darkens and slowly builds to a moving, lethal climax that will take your breath away.
