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City on Fire: A Novel Hardcover – April 26, 2022
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Enhance your purchase
New York Times Bestseller!
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel Trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border), The Force, and Broken comes the first novel in an epic new trilogy.
“Superb. City on Fire is exhilarating.” – Stephen King
"Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation.” – Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
Two criminal empires together control all of New England.
Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.
Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save the friends he loves like family and the family he has sworn to protect, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die.
From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, two rival crime families ignite a war that will leave only one standing. The winner will forge a dynasty.
Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece in the tradition of The Godfather, Casino, and Goodfellas—a thrilling saga from Don Winslow, “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Jon Land, Providence Journal).
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWilliam Morrow
- Publication dateApril 26, 2022
- Dimensions6.12 x 1.21 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100062851195
- ISBN-13978-0062851192
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A masterwork of mob fiction. . . City on Fire does for Rhode Island what David Chase’s The Sopranos did for New Jersey. . . It’s Winslow’s ways with character, as well as his fluid narrative and highly visual scene-setting, that suggest 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
“Gritty, moody, and totally immersive, City on Fire is the first installment in an epic new series that is sure to grip readers from the start. This is Winslow at his very best.” — Karin Slaughter, New York Times and internationally bestselling author
“[Winslow’s] books. . . . are adrenalized plot machines whose pages seem to turn themselves. . . . You don’t read City on Fire so much as you let it take you for a ride.” — USA Today
“Pure genius! Nobody can bring such grit and such heart to crime fiction as Don Winslow—and with such a unique and compelling stylistic voice. This sprawling novel, populated with breathtakingly real characters, will grip you from the first page and never loosen its hold, and that remains true long after you’ve turned the last page. And what a delight that this is the first of a trilogy. Can hardly wait for the others!” — Jeffery Deaver 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
"Superb. This is storytelling with a keen edge. City on Fire is exhilarating to read." — Stephen King
"A blistering novel filled with anger and bite. . . . Plenty of pain for the characters, plenty of thrills for the reader." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Don Winslow can hold his own with the best of crime fiction's elite: Mario Puzo, George Higgins, Elmore Leonard. He's a bard of the bad guys and City on Fire is his most relentless book yet. You gotta have it."
— Joe Hill, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation.' — Adrian McKinty, #1 international bestseller and New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
"Winslow’s epic slow-burner, full of richly layered characters and tender personal struggles, bubbles to an intricate, exciting climax. Crime fiction fans will eagerly await the sequel." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"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
“Stunning . . . Echoing Homer’s epic Iliad, Winslow delivers a fast-paced, intense, and brooding story. It’s perfect for readers of William Boyle, James Lee Burke, and Dennis Lehane.” — Library Journal (starred review)
"City on Fire is the best gangster novel since The Godfather."
— Steve Cavanagh, bestselling author of the Eddie Flynn series
“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)
"A superior example of the gangster genre." — Sunday Telegraph (UK)
"Winslow’s previous Cartel trilogy is an astonishing achievement that will be hard to beat, but on the strength of this immersive and humane tale of fate, free will, loyalty and betrayal, his new series will rank alongside it." — The Guardian (UK)
"No one fuses action with emotion like Winslow." — The Times (UK)
"Expert and convincing, with plenty of plot surprises." — Toronto Star
"Rich in action and riveting characters, hugely entertaining, City on Fire brings the reader into a fable about the escalating stakes of underworld warfare, with an emotional depth that lingers long after the book is finished." — Kyle Perry, author of The Bluffs
"Remarkable . . . breathtakingly panoramic and infinitesimally focused." — Financial Times
"An intricately woven crime story. . . . Propulsive." — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"City on Fire is as incendiary as its title suggests; a tale of family and friendship, carnage and corruption, that draws on the classics but has roots in the here and now. It ranks alongside his best, and Winslow’s best is as good as it gets."
— Mick Herron, CWA Gold and Steel Dagger-Winning Author of Slow Horses
"This superb novel, by the writer of the Cartel trilogy of narco-thrillers, is a bloody tale of greed, lust and violent retribution, and based on various Greek myths, including Helen of Troy." — The Sun (UK)
“The dialogue and action ring true and move the story along quickly, with Winslow’s skillful blending of culture, nationality and even race creating an atmosphere that is as convincing as it is compelling. And the end of the first volume in the planned series will leave readers ready for more.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"As he did in the Cartel trilogy, Winslow adeptly manages the comings and goings of a large cast of characters. . . . By the end of this well crafted, troubling epic, enough people are left standing to offer hope of a future for these deeply flawed families. That, plus a hint that Danny Ryan is heading to a 'warmer shore,' should lure readers to the next installment of what’s shaping up as Winslow’s next juggernaut of a modern-day epic." — Los Angeles Times
"Winslow is a master." — Boston Globe
"City on Fire is superb. Danny is an engaging character, a young man caught up in unwanted destiny. But the zinger is the dialogue. It rings so true that you might think you’re eavesdropping in an Italian restaurant or an Irish bar in an ethnic neighborhood in Providence." — Denver Post
“It’s a brilliantly crafted tale in its own right — standing apart from its classical model — a moving evocation of familial and marital love, of friendship and loyalty, and of redemption from near-tragedy.” — Washington Independent Review of Books
“The dialogue and action ring true and move the story along quickly, with Winslow’s skillful blending of culture, nationality and even race creating an atmosphere that is as convincing as it is compelling.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Don Winslow’s City on Fire is a masterpiece—wonderfully crafted, beautifully written, and a propulsive, authentic page-turner." — Christian White, bestselling author of The Nowhere Child
“Operating at the peak of his game. . . Winslow has always excelled at portraying the seedy exploits of mobsters and corrupt police on an operatic scale. . . . When the bodies start inevitably piling up, the stakes of this local gang war couldn't seem higher.” — Shelf Awareness
“City on Fire is a crime novel you won’t put down voluntarily. It’s an instant classic in the genre.” — New York Journal of Books
“A complex and dizzyingly hooky story of warfare between Irish and Italian mobs in Providence during the 1980s, City on Fire shows Winslow riffing in virtuoso fashion using such intriguing source material as the Aeneid and the Iliad. There are no strands of Life's Gordian knot Winslow doesn't expertly tug here, and the characters and plot layers are phenomenal. It's so good I plugged in an industrial blade-fan so I could get the pages to turn faster.” — The Day (CT)
“City on Fire is a real barn burner that sees Danny Ryan looking into the sun, imagining what the future will bring for him. I am right there next to him, eagerly awaiting the trials and tribulations that he will be forced to undergo in the middle part of this impressive saga.” — Bookreporter
"A tour-de-force of the criminal underground. . . . A fierce, biting read." — The News Courier
“Magnificent . . . . Hilarious and violent, moody and buoyant, brooding and playful . . . . What’s magical is that we may’ve never heard it told so well.” — Open Letters Review
About the Author
Don Winslow is the author of twenty-three acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including six New York Times bestsellers (Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, The Force, The Border and City on Fire). Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone and 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 in 2023. The Force is soon to be a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios starring Matt Damon with James Mangold directing from a Scott Frank screenplay. Additional Winslow books are currently in development at Netflix, Warner Brothers, Sony and Working Title and he has recently written a series of acclaimed short stories for Audible narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris.
Product details
- Publisher : William Morrow (April 26, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062851195
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062851192
- Item Weight : 1.33 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.12 x 1.21 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #12,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #782 in Police Procedurals (Books)
- #859 in Murder Thrillers
- #2,219 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Don Winslow is the author of twenty-one acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestsellers The Force and The Border, the #1 international bestseller The Cartel, The Power of the Dog, Savages, and The Winter of Frankie Machine. Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone. The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border sold to FX in a major multimillion-dollar deal to air as a weekly television series beginning in 2020. A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on April 27, 2022
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Top reviews from the United States
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So like a senior who loved college looks at graduation - a time of eager anticipation but one that you never want to end - I'm starting to read my final three Winslow books for the first time.
"City on Fire" does not disappoint. Set in Providence, Rhode Island in the 1980s, "City on Fire" is pure Winslow (not surprising, as he grew up in the area). Two crime families dominate this coastal city, one Italian, the other Irish. Both families are headed by proud men who have codes, but whose fighting days are over. They want to enjoy their twilight years in peace and prosperity.
That's just fine with Danny Ryan, the twenty-something son of the former Irish crime boss and married to the daughter of the current Irish crime boss. He does some odd jobs for the Murphys, who pushed aside his old man, but he's not at the Murphy high table. That's OK - Danny is just fine fishing for a living, even though he knows he has this crime thing in his blood.
Unfortunately for Danny, the other Murphy boys, Pat and Liam, as well as the next generation of Italian mobsters, are itching to take over from their fathers. The Providence (more specifically, Dogtown) crime families are in a strange limbo - caught between the Boston and New York crime families, they have to be even stronger and more disciplined, or else the big city families will move in. The last thing they need is to go to war, weakening each other.
And yet, that's just what happens. And, inspired by Homer, it's over a woman. This generation's Helen isn't such a bad sort, but she makes some bad, fateful choices.
What ensues is a blow-by-blow account of the Providence mob war. If you've read Winslow before, you'll recognize the familiar tributes to loyalty, to strength, to love, and to honor. Although Winslow here is a bit more cynical than in his other books, if possible. Danny Ryan has a code, but his code ends up hurting him as he lacks the capacity to forgive those who have violated his code - as one character memorably says, there is such a thing as Irish Alzheimer's - they forget everything except grudges. That's Danny Ryan.
Still, Ryan makes for a compelling hero, who like Michael Corleone tries to use his brains as much as his muscle to fight his way out of this unwinnable war. Whether he is as 'successful' as Michael is for you to discover.
I love this book, and can't wait for the sequel. Avoid spoilers - big plot twists and emotional gut-punches await. Highest recommendation.
There is a lot of gang mentality, posturing, and killing, but the story’s emphasis is on blue-collar neighborhoods in Providence, where the blood wars and lives of crime prevail. There are allusions to Greek tragedy. For instance, Cassandra, Terri’s sister, was sexually assaulted, turned to addiction, and is now out of rehab and nurturing but a character that Winslow plans to further develop in the next installment of this trilogy. Madeleine, Danny's mother, is almost portrayed as a goddess of love. Pam is introduced on the book's first page as an indicator of impending disaster and somewhat reminiscent of Helen of Troy. The themes of abandonment, loyalty, betrayal, and friendship are dramatic, fiery, classic, and modern. I don’t usually appreciate books with so many murders. However, there was enough character development and tenderness within the families and gangs to intrigue me, especially since I am familiar with many of the areas of Rhode Island that Winslow mentions in this novel.
“City on Fire” is another awesome crime novel from a master storyteller, author Don Winslow. Without a doubt Winslow is one of the best thriller writers in the literary business. I cannot recommend his books enough. This story exemplifies Winslow's trademark storytelling, attention to detail and character development. City on Fire is as well written, captivating, gripping, entertaining and visceral read. Another unforgettable tale that explodes into millions of colors in the reader’s mind thanks to Winslow’s brilliant writing style, the lifelike characters and the way Winslow vividly describes every location, action and series of events. The story is about a beautiful modern-day ‘Helen of Troy’ that comes between the Irish and Italian criminal gangs, launching a war that leads them to killing each other, destroying a previously made alliance, and setting a ‘city on fire’! Beautiful women, powerful men, dangerous gangs and a lot of action, Winslow expertly and exquisitely brings to life the story and the characters with his top-notch writing. He delights and entertains the reader from beginning to end all while telling a captivating and mesmerizing narrative. Unputdownable, dramatic, and extremely entertaining, City on Fire is a great Summer read. I highly recommend this crime thriller to any avid reader!
Top reviews from other countries
If you want to be as cool as Jimi Hendrix, buying a pair of Jimi Hendrix boots and Jimi Hendrix sunglasses won’t make you Jimi Hendrix.
Don Winslow’s seen The Sopranos and thinks if he uses don’t and ain’t in his prose, has every character swear, throws in lots of mafia-esque threats and bywords, brings in characters just to get whacked, and adds some wise-talking dames and a truckload of heroin, then the plot don’t matter… do it? Capice?
So how about……
Gang A guy touches Gang B guy’s girl.
Gang B retaliates.
Gang A retaliates.
Gang B retaliates.
Gang A retaliates.
Etc. Etc.
The End.
That’ll do.
If this was submitted as a Year 10 creative-writing assignment it would get a C, but only because you’d take the kid’s age into account.
The Sopranos was an ocean of complex characters and nuanced mundaeity, which made its sudden breakouts of gut-wrenching violence all the more powerful.
This book had no nuance, no interesting characters, and no plot twists.
Just a mire of posturing cliched sound bites trying to be tough-as-nails gangsta-talk. And I got the sense Winslow was getting off on how gangsta it sounded to his naive ear.
He doesn’t know that he doesn’t know.
Incredible that this is the same writer who wrote The Savages and Power Of The Dog. He should stay in his wheelhouse.
Here the Greeks and Trojans are the Irish and Italian Mobsters, but this word is not openly used.
Rhode Island in 1986, the Northwest of the USA is divided by two opposing criminal syndicates. Pam, the modern Helen of Troy is dating a Moretti, but seeks a sweet connection with the opposite part, the Murphy Clan. And soon the bodies start to pile up...
The main character is Danny Ryan, married with a child on the way and soon forced into a role he never wanted. But have a brother-in-arms almost beaten to death, cannot go by without revenge. And a small flash ignites a fire which is worth that of the Fall of Ancient Troy...
But around the epic, eternal themes about family, love, honor, loyalty, hate and treachery we have to wait patiently for the release of the two following books of this Saga. The next book is called "City of Dreams" and the first chapters are there, in my Kindle eBook.
And I personally, am biting my nails!
impossible. The novel moves at a terrific pace without unnecessary descriptions of places, extraneous characters or events or a lengthy denouement. If only more crime writers could do the same.








