Turnaround

Great crime fiction challenges us. Not just our armchair detective skills, but our notions of justice, our assumptions of societal norms. The Turnaround is great crime fiction. Suspenseful, yes, almost painfully so, but not in a heart-stopping, breathless action sort of way. The suspense and drama are more heart-stretching. I followed this story with a sense of dread, knowing no good could come from the inevitable showdown, And yet, George Pelecanos reveals himself to be a crime writer concerned not just with the evil in the heart of man, but the goodness that resides in spite of it. Recommended By Lori M., Powells.com

Middling historian Lucas Paige visits St. Louis to give a sparsely attended readingnothing out of the ordinary. Except among the yawning attendees is someone he did not expect: Lola Faye Gilroy, the “other woman” he has long blamed for his fathers murder decades earlier. Reluctantly, Luke joins Lola Faye for a drink. As one drink turns into several, these two battered souls relive, from their different perspectives, the most searing experience of their lives. Slowly but surely, the hotel bar dissolves around them and they are transported back to the tiny southern town where this defining momenta violent crime of passionis turned in the light once more to reveal flaws in the old answers. As it turns out, there is much Luke doesnt know. And what he doesnt know can hurt him. Trapped in an increasingly intense emotional exchange, and with no place to go save back into his own dark past, Luke struggles to gain control of an ever more threatening conversation, to discover why Lola Faye has come and what she is afterbefore it is too late. A taut literary thriller in the gothic tradition ofMaster of the Delta.

PRAISE FOR THE TURNAROUND:

"Yet another gem of urban noir....A beautifully written and thought-provoking novel of crime, friendship, aging and redemption."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Pelecanos] tells a tight, suspenseful story. And he packs enough of a wallop to put THE TURNAROUND on an express bus of its own."--Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Pelecanos does what few, if any, American writers do: He tells the truth. Twain told the truth; Faulkner toyed with the truth; Hemingway told his version of the truth, and Chandler certainly told a cold, cynical truth. Pelecanos's truth is from deep in the heart, from places where red blood cells know more than all the sweet, heady words truth usually hides behind."--Randy Michael Signor, Chicago Sun-Times

"George Pelecanos is one of the most literary of America's crime writers, and like most of his books, THE TURNAROUND is more than mere entertainment. This beautifully written novel, rich with carefully wrought characters, is both a fine crime story and a thoughtful exploration of race relations in the lives of ordinary Americans."--Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press

On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever.

Thirty five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it.

The Turnaround takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the '70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war.

A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, The Turnaround is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, "the best crime novelist in America." (The Oregonian)

In yet another gem of urban noir, the bestselling author and writer for the award-winning HBO hit The Wire explores the possibility of making the turnaround, of starting over and building a new life, regardless of the past.

George Pelecanos is the author of several highly praised and bestselling novels, including The Cut, What It Was, The Way Home, The Turnaround, and The Night Gardener. He is also an independent-film producer, an essayist, and the recipient of numerous international writing awards. He was a producer and Emmy-nominated writer for The Wire and currently writes for the acclaimed HBO series Treme. He lives in Maryland.