Surf Noir

   The Wall Street Journal printed an interview yesterday with Don Winslow, crime novelist and former private investigator, about his new book, a "surf noir" tale titled The Dawn Patrol, set in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego. Winslow has had previous successes with his book The Death and Life of Bobby Z, made into a movie featuring Laurence Fishburne, and The Winter of Frankie Machine, optioned by Robert DeNiro. Two secrets of his creative process include getting started at 5:30 in the morning, writing until 10 then hiking six or seven miles before going back to work, and writing two books at a time since "when one horse gets winded, you jump on the other."

In answer to the question "Why is crime fiction such a popular category?", he replied "I think it's a power thing. Criminals in fiction do things that most people would never dream about really doing. Why is The Godfather saga so fascinating? We all have fantasies of living in a make-it-thus world. Somebody comes in with a problem and you solve it by saying 'make it thus.' And the henchmen go out and do it.In a complicated society we get tired of restraints. Criminals cut through. Also, the crime story has a lot of inherent drama, a hyped sense of reality. We're all curious about the underworld. In these books you find a structure, created by a crime, and then you get a solution, which is unlike most of life. It's satisfying."