Reader Score
88%
88% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 4 reviews on
New York Times Bestseller
Following the epic, ambitious, instant New York Times bestseller City on Fire, "The Godfather for our generation" (Adrian McKinty), comes the dramatic second novel in an epic crime trilogy from Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border).
Hollywood.
The city where dreams are made.
On the losing side of a bloody East Coast crime war, Danny Ryan is now on the run. The Mafia, the cops, the FBI all want him dead or in prison. With his little boy, his elderly father and the tattered remnants of his loyal crew of soldiers, he makes the classic American migration to California to start a new life.
A quiet, peaceful existence.
But the Feds track him down and want Danny to do them a favor that could make him a fortune or kill him.
And when Hollywood starts shooting a film based on his former life, Danny demands a piece of the action and begins to rebuild his criminal empire.
Then he falls in love.
With a beautiful movie star who has a dark past of her own.
As their worlds collide in an explosion that could destroy them both, Danny Ryan has to fight for his life in a city where dreams are born.
Or where they go to die.
From the shores of Rhode Island to the deserts of California where bodies disappear, from the power corridors of Washington where the real criminals operate to the fabled movie studios of Hollywood where the real money is made, City of Dreams is a sweeping saga of family, love, revenge, survival and the fierce reality behind the dream.
Don Winslow is the author of twenty-six acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including eight New York Times bestsellers (Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, The Force, The Border, City on Fire, City of Dreams and City in Ruins). Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone from a screenplay by Shane Salerno, Winslow and Stone. Winslow's epic Cartel trilogy has been adapted for TV and will appear as a weekly series on FX. Additional Winslow books are currently in development at Paramount (The Winter of Frankie Machine), Netflix (Boone Daniels), Warner Brothers (Satori), Sony (City on Fire, City of Dreams, City in Ruins) and Working Title ("Crime 101") and he has recently written a series of acclaimed and award-winning short stories for Audible narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris. A former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow has announced that City in Ruins will be his final novel.
"It's a crime classic. Winslow's best book, by far. You won't put it down." -- Stephen King
"Don Winslow is one of three living crime writers that I am hopelessly addicted to. City Of Dreams is a mesmerizing coast-to-coast crime epic. Danny Ryan is a good guy, a bad guy, a wonderfully complicated, unforgettable human. City of Dreams is part of a trilogy but you can start anywhere. So go ahead, start." -- James Patterson
"Masterfully executed with class." -- Washington Post
"The second volume in Winslow's Danny Ryan trilogy delivers on all the promise of its predecessor. . . the Danny Ryan saga draws great power from its consummate portrait of a man whose unshakable humanity imperils him just as it offers the possibility of salvation." -- Booklist (starred review)
"With the Danny Ryan trilogy, Winslow seems destined to claim a place beside Mario Puzo's The Godfather on the Mount Rushmore of American crime fiction." -- Associated Press
"[City of Dreams] maintains the fierce trajectory of its predecessor, City on Fire. . . . As before with the prodigiously gifted Winslow, we are presented with a cinematic vision in which the moral equivalence of criminal and police organizations is rigorously counterpointed." -- Financial Times
"Get it at top speed! . . . . Irresistible, layered storytelling -- and the manner in which Winslow subtly shifts the entire tone, rhythms and energy over two books, from East Coast to West Coast, is stunningly and unerringly well done." -- The Day (CT)
"[City of Dreams] will make readers anxious for the final book of the trilogy." -- Denver Post
"Don Winslow has such a way with words, which makes the chapters simply fly by. . . . He is one of the best in the business when it comes to crime fiction, and City of Dreams is no exception." -- Bookreporter.com
"Reminiscent of The Godfather . . . . Winslow writes page-turners!" -- Dayton Daily News
"Winslow has written an organized crime saga that sits somewhere between the intimate and the epic, between Mystic River and The Godfather, and stands with the best in its genre." -- Sydney Morning Herald on City on Fire
"A masterwork of mob fiction. . . . City on Fire does for Rhode Island what David Chase's The Sopranos did for New Jersey. . . This novel, the first in a planned trilogy, could well end up in the American-mob canon along with the works of Puzo, Scorsese and Chase." -- Washington Post on City on Fire
"Superb. City on Fire is exhilarating to read." -- Stephen King on City on Fire
"America's greatest living crime writer." -- Jon Land, Providence Journal
"Winslow is our Dickens of modern crime. I can't think of anyone better at what he does." -- Linwood Barclay, New York Times bestselling author, on City on FIre
"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 on City on Fire
"This completely immersive opening act signals a trilogy in the offing that will possess all the power of Winslow's celebrated Cartel novels." -- Booklist (starred review) on City on Fire
"You don't read City on Fire so much as you let it take you for a ride." -- USA Today on City on Fire