Right as Rain

by George Pelecano
332 pgs  (Derek Strange & Terry Quinn series #1)

Right as Rain is the first book in George Pelecanos’s series featuring private investigator Derek Strange and Terry Quinn. Once again, this series is set in Washington D.C., but not the part of the District tourists ever visit. The book takes place in the inner city of Washington, where drugs and violence are a part of daily life for many.

Derek Strange is a black ex-cop who now owns his own PI company. He’s hired by a woman whose son, Chris Wilson, an off-duty black policeman, was killed by a fellow officer during a street altercation. The officer who killed him, Terry Quinn, came upon Wilson, who was holding another man on the ground with his gun pointed at him. During the altercation, Wilson turned his gun towards Quinn and his partner, and Quinn killed him. Wilson’s mother hired Strange in an effort to clear her son’s reputation. She knows her son was a good cop and not one of the many corrupted by drug money.

Quinn, who was exonerated by the department but decided to leave the force because of the cloud of suspicion that always hovered over him with his colleagues, is interviewed by Strange during his investigation. Quinn realizes his road to redemption tied to Strange’s investigation, and begins assisting him as he tries to uncover the truth behind the events of that fateful night.

This is the ninth book by Pelecanos I’ve read, and I’ve yet to read a bad one. Strange and Quinn are each compelling characters who could easily anchor a series of books by themselves. Together, they create a team that has me very excited to read the rest of the series. As with the other books of his I’ve read, the plot in this one is gritty but full of heart. The pace is slow at first, but it gradually accelerates to a thrilling conclusion. If you haven’t read any of his books before, this is a great one to pick up and try.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Turnaround

by George Pelecanos
294 pgs

The Turnaround begins with an incident that takes place in Washington D.C. in 1972. The incident involved six teenage boys--three white and three black--and forever altered the course of their lives.

The three white boys were stoned and driving around the streets of D.C. late one night when the driver decides to drive through a black neighborhood and yell a racial slur at three black boys hanging out on the side of the road. As they speed away laughing, they soon learn that the road they're on is a dead end, and that they'll have to turn around and pass those same boys again in order to leave. When all is said and done, one of the boys is able to jump out of the car and escape, the driver is shot and killed, and Alex Pappas, who had been sitting in the back of the car and hadn't said anything as they initially drove past the boys, is brutally beaten and left with a facial disfigurement that he'll carry with him the rest of his life.

The black teenagers are two brothers: Raymond and James Monroe, and Charles Baker. Charles, who was the one who brutally beat Alex, ends up spending a year in prison, while James is convicted of murder and is locked up for many years. Raymond is never charged with anything.

Part two of the story takes place 35 years later. Alex and Andrew have had no contact with each other since the events of that night, but now in their fifties, they share much in common. Alex ended up taking over running his father's Greek diner. He had a son that was killed in the war in Iraq and he now makes regular donations of pies and other sweets from his diner to the injured veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Andrew is now a physical therapist at Walter Reed who one day recognizes Alex when they bump into each other during one of Alex's deliveries.

Pelecanos is a great storyteller, and his strength is in his characters and his ability to show how one event in the lives of his characters can cast a very long shadow over the rest of their lives. Most of his books are part of a group of three or four books that follow a group of characters through their lives. But The Turnaround is a stand-alone book, and therefore a great "gateway" book for the uninitiated to discover this fantastic author.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Double

by George Pelecanos
292 pgs  (Spero Lucas series #2)

When The Double, a painting valued at over $200,000, goes missing from Grace Kinkaid's residence, she realizes that she's been the target of an elaborate hoax. She realizes that the man she recently met and fell in love with was not who he claimed to be and that all along he only had eyes for her painting. Now she wants her painting back and to exact revenge on her ex-boyfriend, and she's willing to pay thousands of dollars for both.

She's introduced to Spero Lucas, a veteran from Iraq who now puts his unique skills to use finding things for people willing to pay. His methods usually fall outside the parameters of the law and the job Grace Kinkaid offers him is right up his alley.

I'm a really big fan of Pelecanos, and I enjoyed The Cut, the book that introduced Lucas a lot. But this one was a little disappointing. The story was interesting, but it felt like Pelecanos went out of his way to show that his new central character is not your stereotypical hero. He's conflicted and at times amoral, not unusual for one of his main characters. But Lucas falls for a married woman in The Double and their repeated rendezvous quickly became a distraction from the story and they never ended up adding any value to it. I'm hopeful Pelecanos will right the ship if he brings Lucas back a third time.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Shame the Devil

by George Pelecanos
299 pgs  (D.C. Quartet seres #4)

Shame the Devil is the last of the four books that make up George Pelacanos's D.C. Quartet books. It picks up a few years after The Sweet Forever and begins with a robbery of a pizza joint. The robbery doesn't go off as planned and one of the robbers is killed, but not before they end up killing the employees, shooting a cop, and speeding off. To make the crime even more violent and tragic, they end up running over  and killing a small boy crossing the street as they make their getaway and seemingly disappear from the face of the earth. That boy, young Jimmy Karras, is the son of Demitri Karras, a central character in the series and a man who had just recently gotten his life back in order and found the happiness that comes from having a family.

The book skips forward three years and Demitri has separated from his wife and is still grieving for the loss of his son. The crime that took his son was never solved and Demitri is once again going through life without purpose or direction. It's not until Nick Stephanos contacts him about working at a neighborhood diner that Demitri's life finally starts to have some structure and contentment again.

The  men who pulled off the robbery of the pizza joint have been living on the other side of the country and are planning to return to the District to exact revenge for the death of the man who was killed. They have no idea that the father of the boy they hit has been hoping for the day he'd be able to exact his revenge as well.

Pelecanos is such a fantastic author. He does for D.C. what Dennis Lehane does for Boston, and the District itself is central to his storytelling. It's not requisite that you read the books in this quartet in order, but the payoff at the end, if you do, is great. Pelecanos ties each of the stories together and shows just how big the story he set out to tell actually was.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Sweet Forever

by George Pelecanos
(D.C. Quartet series #3)

In The Sweet Forever George Pelecanos picks up the story of Marcus Clay and his best friend Dmitri Karras ten years after the events told of in King Suckerman. It's March of 1986 in Washington D.C. and March Madness is in full swing, with first team All-American Len Bias leading the University of Maryland team into the second round of the big dance. But the same thing that will end bias's life two days after the Boston Celtics draft him second overall in the upcoming NBA draft is causing a war on the streets of the District--cocaine.

Karras himself is quickly progressing from being a casual user of the drug to a habitual one, and works for Clay, helping him run his four record shops in various parts of D.C. One day both of them witness a deadly car accident which takes place right in front of one of the shops. They watch as a car being driven by a young drug runner for the area's supplier of cocaine crashes, decapitating the driver. What they don't see is what a bystander named Eddie Golden does immediately after the crash occurred. Eddie had driven his girlfriend into that part of the District to score a gram of cocaine and witnessed the crash as well. he was the first one to approach the burning vehicle to see if he could help anyone. When he gets there he sees the state of the driver but then notices a pillowcase full of cash in the backseat. He impulsively grabs it and flees the scene, unknowingly setting off a series of events that will lead to several deaths, force Karras to reassess his life, and drag Marcus Clay into a battle for the streets of the city he loves.

This is the third book in what's known as Pelecanos's D.C. quartet series, but the books are so loosely related to each other that reading them in order is unnecessary. As I have with each of his books that I've read, I enjoyed this one. The story is engrossing and even though many of the characters live a lifestyle that I would never want to be able to relate to, the characters are still multi-dimensional and relatable. And even though Pelecanos usually shows the less appealing side of the nation's capitol, it's obvious from the way he writes about it, that it's a city that he knows very well and is close to his heart.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Cut

The Cut by George Pelecanos
(Spero Lucas series #1)

With The Cut Pelecanos begins a new series with a whole new protagonist, Spero Lucas. Lucas is a recently returned veteran of the war in Iraq who freelances as an investigator for a defense attorney in D.C. The skills he learned in the Marines are now serving him well as he specializes in recovering lost or stolen property for owners willing to pay considerably for his services.

But it's not just little old ladies who have lost their jewelry that Lucas is willing to work for. His abilities have also gained him the attention of one of the largest drug dealers in the District. Someone has been disrupting his network by stealing shipments of marijuana and he wants Lucas to find out who is doing it and recover either the drugs or the money they were worth.

Tempted by the opportunity for a huge payday, Lucas takes the job and in a very short time becomes involved in something much bigger than he anticipated.

Once again, Pelecanos shows why many of his contemporaries consider him the best writer in this genre. With Lucas, he's created another protagonist who lives in the real world, where right and wrong are shades of grey rather than the black or white we'd hope them to be.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Drama City

Drama City by George Pelecanos

Lorenzo Brown has gotten his life back in order. Having recently been released from prison for drug and gang-related crimes, he's now gainfully employed as an officer for the Humane Society, walking the streets of D.C. looking for cases of animal neglect and cruelty. He loves what he does, he's good at it, and he's determined to never return to the lifestyle of his youth that led to his incarceration.

That's not going to be as easy as Lorenzo would like though. Walking the same streets now that he was back when he was selling drugs, constantly surrounded by the people and temptations of his past, Lorenzo discovers just how much willpower and internal strength it takes to truly change who they were, if it's even possible at all.

Drama City is another great example of Pelecanos's writing talent. It's a character-driven story containing characters that are well developed who feel real. Pelecanos has the ability to both showcase the character flaws of those characters he gets his readers to pull for as well as give glimpses into the humanity of the characters acting against them. It's this level of talent that is making him quickly become one of my favorite authors writing today.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Big Blowdown

The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
(D.C. Quartet series #1)

Following WWII, Pete Karras and his friend Joe Recevo return home to Washington D.C. to find that the best money to be made comes from working as collectors for the local crime boss. But it's a job that Joe finds himself better suited for than Pete does. One night, after Pete goes soft with one of the men he's supposed to strong-arm, Joe is forced to abandon Pete so that their boss can mete out his punishment.

A couple of years later, Pete, left with a permanently useless knee, works as a short-order cook at a restaurant owned by Nick Stefanos - a central character in four previous Pelecanos novels. Their paths cross again when Joe and his gang enter Stefanos's restraunt to extort protection money from him. Nick and his team are not the types to be pushed around, and the events that follow are classic Pelacanos.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about Pelecanos's books is the way he ties them all together. He doesn't use the same character over and over as the main protagonist. For example, in The Big Blowdown, Pete Karras and his wife have an infant son, Dimitri, who grows up to become a central character in King Suckerman. Pelecanos is a compelling storyteller whose characters are flawed, but who I couldn't help but care about.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

King Suckerman

King Suckerman by George Pelecanos
(D.C. Quartet series #2)

Awhile back the owner of a local independent bookstore recommended Pelecanos to me when I was buying a book by Dennis Lehane. He said if I liked Lehane, I'd enjoy Pelecanos, "They're gritty crime stories" he told me. King Suckerman is the second book by him that I've read. The first one was The Way Home which was excellent. Interestingly, while I was reading it, the list of books President Obama took with him on vacation to Martha's Vineyard was reported on and it was one of the books. Apparently Obama and I agree on at least one thing.

Pelecanos's books take place in Washington D.C. This one in the summer of 1976 when the District is preparing for the huge bicentennial celebration of July 4th. Marcus Clay and Dimitri Karras are two young men who spend most of their time talking about music, playing basketball, and getting high. They quickly find themselves in way over their heads when they inadvertently get involved in a drug deal that goes bad, finding themselves in possession of the drug dealer's drugs, cash, and girlfriend - not an ideal situation to be in. As Clay and Karras find themselves, and those close to them, being targeted for revenge, they have to make some decisions that will change the path their lives were on.

To describe this book as gritty is a little bit of an understatement. It's not the type of book I would ever recommend to my wife or her book club. Although since most if its members rarely read the actual book the majority of the time, it probably wouldn't really matter.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆