Boone Daniels, a laid-back ex-cop turned private investigator with a talent for detection and a passion for surfing, was first introduced in Don Winslow’s previous novel The Dawn Patrol and, in The Gentlemen’s Hour, once again finds his personal and professional lives clashing together with deadly consequences. With available work for a private investigator at an all time low, Boone’s life revolves around his regular surfing sessions. While The Dawn Patrol took its name from the early shift of surfers who spend their mornings chasing waves off Pacific Beach, San Diego, a diverse group made up of Boone’s close friends, The Gentlemen’s Hour is a far more sophisticated affair. When the regular working Joes have left the water and headed off to their various places of employment, a second shift of surfers made up of older veteranos and successful entrepreneurs take to the waves.

Having nothing to do at the office except watch the bills role in, Boone decides to stay in the water for The Gentlemen’s Hour and is approached by a recent acquaintance, millionaire surf clothing guru and all-round good guy Dan Nichols, with a potential new case. Nichols suspects that his wife is cheating on him and wants Boone to follow her for a couple of days and provide him with evidence as to her (in)fidelity. Matrimonial cases being notorious grubby, unpleasant things, Boone is reluctant to take the case but financial pressures make it impossible for him to refuse it. Boone quickly discovers that Mrs Nichols is indeed having an affair with a middle-aged soil consultant and writes the case off as simply another marriage down the pan. Until, that is, the middle-aged soil consultant turns up dead.

Cases for private investigators in San Diego being something like buses, no sooner does Boone become entangled in one case than a whole heap of others come his way. In the course of his investigations, Boone discovers that drug dealing Mexican gangsters are moving into San Diego and decapitated corpses having started showing up. Perhaps even more distressing from Boone’s own point of view, he reluctantly agrees to help his nearly-girlfriend, Public Attorney Petra Hall, with the defence of Corey Blasingame, a rich kid sometime surfer who has been charged with the murder of Kelly Kuhio, a San Diego legend and hero and personal friend of Boone. Despite his privileged upbringing, Corey hung out with the Rockpile Crew, a self-styled group of neo-Nazis, and supposedly killed Kuhio with a single punch. As much as he hates to think it, Boone is having doubts that Corey could really have pulled off the killing.

Don Winslow does great crime. With The Gentlemen’s Hour he has created a tight story, comprised of twists, intrigue and darkness yet still full of fun and populated by bright, witty and utterly believable characters. The quick, short chapters allow the action to surge forward and, as should be the case with every great mystery novel, the temptation is always there to read just one more chapter before putting the book down. There is a fair bit of surf jargon involved but it never becomes so technical as to detract from the story and instead helps to inform the personality of the characters and the mood of the location. The Gentlemen’s Hour is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that transports the reader to the sun, sand and surf of San Diego and introduces them to the seedier side of surfer culture

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