Where to Start with Don Winslow
- Best entry point → The Power of the Dog
- Best standalone → The Winter of Frankie Machine
- Start the Boone Daniels series → The Dawn Patrol
- What fans keep coming back to → The Cartel
- Best narrator for Don Winslow → The Border
- Highest rated by listeners → Broken
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The Cartel
Power of the Dog • Book 2
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Ray Porter
★ 4.61 ABR Score (49.8K ratings)★ 4.36 Goodreads (39.5K) ★ 4.63 Audible (10.3K)23h 24m listening time • Released 2015Ray Porter transforms a sprawling decade-long cartel saga into something unmissable—his voice carries the moral weight of Keller's obsession while keeping you locked in through 23 hours of brutal, unflinching storytelling that feels ripped from news headlines.
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The Power of the Dog
Power of the Dog • Book 1
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Ray Porter
★ 4.58 ABR Score (59.5K ratings)★ 4.37 Goodreads (49.4K) ★ 4.57 Audible (10.1K)20h 13m listening time • Released 2008Ray Porter's narration transforms this sprawling drug war saga into something unputdownable—his voice work across dozens of characters makes the corruption and violence feel intimately personal rather than distant.
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The Border
Power of the Dog • Book 3
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Ray Porter
★ 4.35 ABR Score (19.7K ratings)★ 4.47 Goodreads (19.4K) ★ 4.47 Audible (273)29h 3m listening time • Released 2024Ray Porter's narration transforms this sprawling cartel epic into an unforgettable audiobook experience, grounding 29 hours of geopolitical chaos in raw human devastation. The perfect closer to Winslow's trilogy.
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The Winter of Frankie Machine
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris
★ 4.33 ABR Score (18.5K ratings)★ 4.18 Goodreads (15.4K) ★ 4.44 Audible (3.1K)9h 7m listening time • Released 2006 -
Broken
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Ray Porter, Kaleo Griffith
★ 4.24 ABR Score (11.0K ratings)★ 4.15 Goodreads (9.3K) ★ 4.52 Audible (1.6K)12h 25m listening time • Released 2020Ray Porter and Kaleo Griffith transform Winslow's interconnected crime stories into a masterclass in dual narration, each voice shifting seamlessly between damaged cops, desperate crooks, and broken lives with devastating emotional precision.
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The Dawn Patrol
Boone Daniels • Book 1
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Ray Porter
★ 4.09 ABR Score (12.1K ratings)★ 4.02 Goodreads (8.7K) ★ 4.38 Audible (3.4K)9h 37m listening time • Released 2008Ray Porter captures the sun-drunk swagger of Winslow's surf noir perfectly—this is a crime novel that moves like a wave, propulsive and cool, with a narrator who gets the dark comedy baked into every scene.
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Savages
Savages • Book 2
by Don Winslow
Narrated by Michael Kramer
★ 3.97 ABR Score (24.7K ratings)★ 3.89 Goodreads (23.1K) ★ 4.09 Audible (1.6K)7h 25m listening time • Released 2010Michael Kramer's performance transforms this crime thriller into something lean and propulsive—his sharp narration cuts through Winslow's razor-wire prose to make every threat feel genuinely lethal.
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How We Rank Audiobooks
Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.
Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.
We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.
Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.