Ben and Chon are the oddest of odd couples. Ben is a brilliant botanist and liberal do-gooder who spends his spare time in third world countries setting up clinics and schools. Chon (a nickname based on his real name, John) is an ex-Navy SEAL and Afghanistan veteran with a bad attitude and sincere belief that most people are just pretending to be civilized. Despite their differences, the two men are best friends and even knowingly share a girlfriend, Ophelia (also known as O.), who loves sex and shopping almost as much as she loves Ben and Chon.

The guys aren’t just friends, they’re also business partners. They’ve been the premier pot distributors in Southern California for years thanks to Ben’s talent with weed and Chon’s ability to discourage any unsavory types who threaten their operation. Unfortunately, the guys just got a video from a Mexican drug cartel showing several people getting decapitated. The message is clear: join up or get the Marie Antoinette treatment.

Ben is tired of the dope trade anyhow, and neither of them want to go to work for the cartel so they reject the offer with plans to take their money and disappear overseas. Unfortunately, drug cartels aren’t used to taking no for an answer, and they kidnap O. If the guys won’t keep growing pot for the cartel, O.’s neck is going to meet the business end of a chain saw. Ben and Chon have to play along, but to get O. back, they’ll have to go to war without letting the cartel know who is waging it.

Don Winslow is a writer I think has been flying under the radar for far too long. This should be the book that finally gets him some serious attention. This is an incredible story about the lengths that some people will go for friendship. I especially liked Chon with his bleak but amusing view of most people. Despite the gritty and violent nature of the story, the book is also laced with a black humor that has a lot to say about how goddamn silly this country can be at times.

I loved the unique writing style of this, too. Winslow has done several books in a conversational So-Cal tone of voice, and he’s also played around with a clipped and brusque style in The Power of the Dog. In this one, he’s fused the two into a unique read that reminds me of James Ellroy mixed with Charlie Huston and a dash of Chuck Palahniuk. Anyone interested should read it and not listen to an audio version because even the layout of the words on the page becomes part of the structure of the story.

Dark, funny, violent, tender, tragic, and a story that makes it an obsessive page turner, this has instantly become one of my favorite crime novels.

**Movie Update** The movie version was decent but disappointing. Although the basic plot remains the same, a lot of the details and plot points are changed for no real reason related to adapting it. And anyone who thought that Hollywood wouldn't have the balls to do the book's ending was right.