As in earlier novels such as the more ambitious “Power of the Dog’’ and “The Dawn Patrol,’’ a streamlined foray into surfer culture, Winslow’s writing has the vigor of action painting. Some pages are presented as film scripts as though the character at the center of the action is imagining his or her life as a film one, in which a key character, Ophelia, communes with Oprah and Dr. Phil, speaks tellingly to our celebrity-obsessed culture and Winslow uses words architecturally, breaking this book into tiny scenes and occasional one-word paragraphs that segue into one another effortlessly.
He also pivots easily from inside a character’s mind to omniscience. This command of viewpoint and linguistic flash almost make up for shortcomings: Ben, an environmentalist groovemaster who sells killer weed, and his partner Chon, a former SEAL and the warrior of the pair, are little more than action figures, and Ophelia, or “O,’’ the soulmate the two sometimes share sexually, rarely rises above Valley Girl status.
Maybe that’s harsh, but the book, an update of a Western in which chemicals substitute for cattle, feels thin. At the same time, it moves. Basically, this is a drug war book pitting Ben and Chon and their peaceful Laguna marijuana sales operation against Elena la Reina, the sexy, murderous head of Mexico’s Baja Cartel. When Elena’s goons attempt to take over the Laguna enterprise and turn it into a franchise, Ben and Chon balk, so Elena arranges to have Ophelia kidnapped. Only when Ben and Chon agree to that pact and pony up $20 million in ransom money for O will peace return.
Plot elements Winslow delves into but doesn’t develop include Elena’s relationships with men, O’s tenuous and often amusing bond with a mother from whom she gets her New Age leanings, and characters such as Esteban, a Baja Cartel drone who helps O pass captivity time.
