Bad Cop, Worse Cop
In bestselling author's seething crime novel, even the best intentions are corrupt.
I'm sharing a booth with best-selling crime novelist Don Winslow at a diner on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, right before the toniest part of the neighborhood bleeds into Morningside Heights, home to Columbia University and public housing projects. He lived a few blocks from here in the 1970s and ’80s, in a ninth-floor apartment with a bathtub he'd hide in when gunfire popped outside.
“Back then, there was small-arms fire,” says Winslow, who’s tan, slight and dapper in a crisp white shirt and navy blazer. “That was the nadir of the city. Summer of Sam. Freeze to death in the dark. Go to hell. It was bad, and we
