The best fireworks displays keep your heart in your throat and escalate until you don't think you can take another boom, and then everything goes up at mindboggling speed for the finale. Bang bang bang. That is what we have here.

Winslow has said the Danny Ryan trilogy is his final work. If you see this, Don, I am not holding you to that and would be delighted if the rumors of your retirement were premature. If, however, this really is the last book, you went out with a very satisfying series of bangs of both the firearm and fornication variety.

Each of the Danny Ryan books shows us Danny in a new city, at a new point in his life, trying to escape his circumstances and choices. (The stories tale place in Providence, LA, and now Las Vegas.) And each of these books gives us a new Danny, one who matures, who learns from his losses, who is changed by love for two (or more) women, and who is driven by his bone-deep pure and ever-growing love for his son, Ian, whose birth starts the first book in the series. Yes, this is a crime drama with a Soprano's worthy antihero, but it is so much more of that. It is the story of becoming a man after a rough start. In this era where people scoff at tales of reinvention and healing and are gleeful about tearing down successful people for one misstep, it is hard not to see Danny through that lens. He is a man who works and works to live a clean life, to protect and support his family and friends, but everyone wants to define him by the worst things he has done. Granted, unlike people who get attacked for using racist language, mistreating employees, or hooking up with the wrong person Danny's past acts involve a lot of murder (of bad people), theft (from bad people), and other crimes (that mostly or wholly impacted bad people.) Early on most of Danny's moral missteps came from fear, greed or hubris, but the desire to protect those around him was always there, and as he ages it becomes his raison d'etre. Danny is the most ethical immoral person one can imagine.

It bears mentioning that everyone here, no matter how colorful, feels fleshed out. The circumstances are amped up, I don't think this is how people actually live, but the character's decisions make sense, the obstacles don't seem contrived, and the love and the hate that drive most things feel dead on.

A couple last notes. First, I have railed in my reviews for a couple of books, most notably the execrable The Murder Rule, that authors do not do the necessary research to write legal thrillers, especially courtroom scenes, and I find it inexcusable. Winslow did the research. In this book there is a trial at the center of one of the storylines (for a murder committed in the last book) and it is beautifully written. Hats off. I felt like the rest of the book was just as well researched. Though this is fiction, there is a lot of stuff about gaming rules and historical norms in Vegas, and as far as I can tell Winslow stayed in the lines and the things that impact Danny's and Vern's businesses seem well crafted. Second, I listened to this read by Ari Fliakos, as I did for the last two books. Once again Fliakos is just great. I can't explain why, there are no unique voices or flourishes, but Fliakos' tone and pacing just works so well for this series.

Hats off to Don Winslow. Thank you for your service. ( )

Don Winslow's last book wraps up his trilogy about New England mobster Danny Ryan, who is now living in Las Vegas, having fled Rhode Island with the Feds, the mob and assorted others in hot pursuit. Ryan is now at the head of a casino and gaming empire and prospering as a result. Until his past catches up to him and Ryan is forced to make an alliance with his chief competitor. City of Ruins is a fitting end to Don Winslow's novel writing career. ( )

This one should be subtitled, a series of unlikely events.

The third books in Don Winslow's Danny Ryan trilogy is a engrossing read, as long as you allow the exceptional writing to blind you the unlikely and loosely hung together story.

For those of you unfamiliar, Ryan is former New England mobster who was forced to flee Rhode Island with the mob, the Feds, and assorted others hot on his heals. Magically, he overcame all of that and has now risen, in a short 10 years to a preeminent position in the Las Vegas gaming industry.

Danny overreaches though, and the kingdom that he's built begins to crash around him. But fear not, no challenge is too much for our hero.

The book, purportedly Winslow's last, is saved by his writing skills. In a lesser's hands, it would be dismissed as the work of a hack and the holes in the plot considered a sense of amusement. But Winslow is among the best in the use of language in spinning a yarn, and this one is no exception.

It'll give you a sugar high, but be careful the crash is right around the corner. ( )

Didn’t mind this one, but more of the same & predictable, sticks to his formula w/out fail, his last book & seems more focused on getting it over with ( )

“Trust?
Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.”

Nearly the beginning 60 pages are a recap of how Danny Ryan made the move to Vegas, ala the Corleone family in the first Godfather. With the same exact goal, going completely legitimate. So just start reading with chapter 10, if you read the previous two books and have seen “The Godfather”.

I felt like this book was going to be a snoozer, but by Part 3, the story really hits the lift-off button!

“It’s a lesson they’ll learn - castles of sand don’t last.”

And, if I’m reading the Acknowledgements accurately, this is the author’s last book. Thank you Don Winslow for the many, many hours of reading enjoyment!

“If the sea wants you, she gets you.” ( )