The Winter of Frankie Machine was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2006. Frank Machianno — “Frankie Machine” in his former life — is in his sixties, retired from the Mafia, and living a life of meticulous ordinariness in San Diego. He runs a bait shop on the pier. He surfs at dawn. He makes fresh pasta from scratch. He has a good relationship with his ex-wife and an active role in his daughter’s life. He is also the most lethal hit man the West Coast Mafia ever produced.
When old associates ask him to provide security for a sit-down between rival factions, Frank agrees — and the meeting turns out to be a setup. Someone wants him dead, and finding out who requires Frank to work backward through decades of hits, each one a story with consequences that are still unfolding. The novel’s structure — a series of flashbacks triggered by the present-day investigation — allows Winslow to tell the history of the San Diego Mafia through the career of a single man.
Frank is Winslow’s most appealing character: intelligent, competent, genuinely likeable, and a murderer many times over. The tension between his decency (he is unfailingly polite, generous, and loyal to friends) and his profession (he kills people for money) is not resolved but presented as a fact of character: Frank is both things simultaneously, and the novel’s refusal to reconcile them is its most honest quality.
Collecting The Winter of Frankie Machine
First edition (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $30–$80
- Very good/very good: $10–$30
- Signed: $50–$150