
This book is billed at Amazon as the first book in "The Danny Ryan Trilogy". So (spoiler!) he survives to the end. It's a near thing, though.
As the book opens, Danny is a minor thug in the Irish mob in Rhode Island. The occasional friendly truck hijacking, some collections of high-interest loans and protection money, that sort of thing. He has a day job working on a fishing boat. There's also an Italian mob, And a Black mob. But everyone seems to know their place, corrupt cops and judges are divvied up between them, so there's some semblance of peace.
But it only takes one little spark to cause a conflagration: one of the Irish guys cops a feel from the girlfriend of one of the Italian guys. And she does not take it well. A beatdown occurs. But then the girl switches her allegiance to the Irish guy. And… well, before you know it, the body count is on the rise, betrayals, cowardice, revenge, and … all associated stuff you've seen in movies and read in other books. (There's also a lot of soap-opera stuff with family.) Danny starts to take charge as his peers are either killed or wuss out.
I started reading Don Winslow because of the quirky little mystery-thrillers he wrote back in the 1990s. This one is pretty generic, although it moves along, maintained my interest in what was going to happen next. Although, to be honest, I didn't care much about what would happen next. None of the characters are very sympathetic or likeable. (Well, one exception: a baby shows up at some point.)