CRIME FICTIONBrokenDon WinslowHarperCollins, $32.99

If you havent read American writer Don Winslow, Broken is all the introduction you need. In six novellas, each different in focus and mood, Winslow showcases his best moves. These stories may worry you the first, Broken, is the most confronting but then, as Winslow makes clear, America itself is indeed broken.

Don Winslow is angry about the failed war on drugs.Credit:Slaven Viasic

Broken will make you laugh and cry, but in the end will explain why The New York Times thinks Winslow is simply the greatest. Not forgetting, of course, his prose. He crafts every sentence until it beats to a rhythm of its own. Take the opening to The San Diego Zoo, a story dedicated to Elmore Leonard: No one knows how the chimp got the revolver. Only that its a problem.

This is a tale about a young cop who loves his job but wants a promotion into the robbery division.

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Six stories from the brilliant and angry Don Winslow - The Age