With books like The Power of the Dog, Savages and City on Fire in his bibliography, Don Winslow is a go-to author if you love American crime fiction. So, we were disappointed a few years ago when he announced his retirement. However, a little while back, we received some great news from Don’s publicist. In short, Don Winslow is back.
Watch our video to find out more.
Originally scheduled for release on 16 September 2025, The Final Score has been put back to 27 January 2026. It will contain six novellas set in different parts of America with a varied cast of characters from up and down the crime and enforcement food chain. Let’s take a first look at our early reading copy of the book to see what it’s all about. The delay in publication is so that the release coincides with the launch of Crime 101, a film adaptation of a Don Winslow Story in Broken.
The Final Score has a forward by Reed Farrell Coleman, another great American author who’s featured on our site.
The first story in the book is entitled The Final Score, and it starts with plans for a risky casino heist by a career criminal who knows that he’s going to jail anyway. The next two stories are set in Rhode Island, where Winslow grew up. There’s The Sunday List set in the 1970s and The North Wing, which takes place in the 1980s. True Story is another East Coast tale told by a couple of wise guys just talking. It’s all dialogue and starts with the words ‘true story’. Boone Daniels, the PI who appeared in Dawn Patrol and The Gentleman’s Hour, features in Lunch Break. Here, he’s a bodyguard for a difficult celebrity who’s got a hit out against her. Finally, there’s Collision, the fallout of a one-punch fight that sends a family man to jail for manslaughter.
We loved Don Winslow’s last short story collection back in 2020, which was entitled Broken, and it looks The Final Score this offers more of the same – stories that reflect the American experience through the lens of crime fiction. Petty criminals, grifters, gangsters, ordinary folk who make mistakes. These are just some of the things to expect from The Final Score.
Keep an eye out for our review when the book comes out in September. You can pre-order your copy using the buttons below.
