Customer Reviews

Way Down On The High Lonely (Dead Letter Mysteries)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my first outing with Don Winslow's Neal Carey series after enjoying the fine "California Fire & Life," I reaffirmed that Mr. Winslow is a careful and crafty writer. The setting in the Nevada high desert country is well rendered and atmospheric. The dialogue is crisp, though slightly portentous. The characters are larger than life, but carefully drawn.

Neal is a member of a mysterious group, "Friends of the Family" who undertake quasi-legal jobs at the behest of a fabulously wealthy philanthropic employer. What looks like a routine child custody abduction by an irresponsible father develops into a huge conspiracy that could have global implications. Sound like "Mission Impossible"? That crossed my mind too.

Neal goes deep undercover to locate toddler Cody McCall whose father is tracked to a white supremacist group led by an unctuous Rev. Carter. The group is training on a ranch in a remote Nevada area sponsored by the owner/rancher. Neal quickly makes friends with some very fine citizens in the small community and begins his infiltration of the group.

Neal has a present identity problem; it is if, as one friend says, "he has personality, but no character." He literally becomes his undercover guise. The author doesn't pull any punches; Neal betrays his newfound kind friends in order to protect his undercover status, which is very discomforting to read. The villains are just as ruthless, cunning and determined as the protagonists who include beside Nick a bearlike unflappable Ed, and one-armed father figure Joe.

The action is fierce; the pace is uniformly swift and retribution satisfying. I'm looking forward to more Neal Carey.

The Winslow series featuring Neal Carey, has a certain charisma. Always well written and entertaining. The characters in this one are a little too stereotyped and the goings on a little too predictable. But, as always, a fun and quick read. Check out the whole series for a good time without too much to think about. "Cool Breeze On the Underground" still the best of them.

Having read all of Don Winslow's later novels, it's now time to see how this fine author developed, so I am reading some of his early works. Way Down on the High Lonely starts out so well, typical Winslow. He takes the rugged area of eastern Nevada and makes it so appealing. But when it turns ugly, the book loses some interest for me. In his later novels Winslow takes an almost poetic look at violence and corruption, but here it is just violent. The ugliness of the racist taint to the area seems a stretch, even though I know that there are people like that.

I'm a big fan of Don Winslow and his Neal Carey novels are a good place to start. I think this is number 3 and takes up Neal's story after he has been 'prisoner' in a Chinese Buddhist Monastery for a few years. It involves some of the strange neo-Nazi militia types from central Nevada and I can vouch that it is pretty much spot on.

The book moves nicely and the plot is good. The sub-plots worked for me and the action was good and accurate. I liked this little book a lot.