The Gentlemen's Hour

The laidback calm of the Southern California surfing community of Pacific Beach boils over violently in Winslow's fast-paced sequel to The Dawn Patrol (2008). Surfer dude PI Boone Daniels reluctantly takes on two cases. First, fellow board rider Dan Nichols suspects his wife, "an eleven on a California scale of ten," is cheating on him and wants Boone to spy on her. Worse, Boone's new slow-burning flame, lawyer Petra Hall, wants him for the defense of 19-year-old Corey Blasingame, tied in with the Rockpile Crew, a surfing gang with a neo-Nazi skinhead agenda, from up the coast. Corey is accused of the beating death of surfing legend Kelly Kuhio, "Uncle K" to Boone, who worshipped him as a kid. Dumped headfirst into a dark ocean of "localism," Boone must also contend with surfers trying to keep their beaches for themselves and threats from the Mexican cartels. The title refers to the "second shift on the daily surfing clock" after the dawn patrol. Winslow ensures there's nothing "gentlemanly" about the action. (Aug.)