Synopses & Reviews
The crime novels of George P. Pelecanos are unrivaled for their authenticity, edginess, and humanity. With Washington, D.C. the city, not the capital as his backdrop, Pelecanos explores a violent landscape of drugs and danger, loyalty and love. In
Right as Rain, he introduces two new characters, both former cops: one who walked away from the job with his pride and a life and another who didn't.
Derek Strange is black and successful. Terry Quinn is white and barely holding on. Now Strange has been hired to investigate a police shooting in which Quinn played a major role. For Strange, a savvy and careful man, the investigation goes against his style and instinct. For Terry Quinn, Strange's questions are a chance to absolve his conscience and shake out a little truth. But in a city that lives in the shadow of a nation's dream, neither man can foresee the dirty little war that will break out around them...or how deadly being right can be.
Review
"What is perhaps most remarkable about this outstanding novel and, in fact, about all of Pelecanos's work is the way his plot-rich, extremely violent stories parallel the turbulence of his characters' inner lives. We care about these characters passionately." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"[T]he characters...give the story the gritty, dark twists that have become the author's trademark. The cast is wonderfully varied....It's Strange, however, who steals the show." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"Slangy, hip...one of the very best young mystery writers....Pelecanos is the spikiest, stylewise, and probably the most menacing." Esquire
Review
"The language is as rough as kissing asphalt, and Pelecanos vividly portrays the nuances of racial tension, the territorial braggadocio of cops and pushers, and youth slang. Bottom Line: Chilling, cold-blooded tale." People
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"Those in the know read Pelecanos." Michael Connelly, author of The Closers
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"One of the best." Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River
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"A terrific book, full of characters I wish I had thought of. With Right as Rain Pelecanos goes high on my list of writers I have to read." Elmore Leonard
Review
"Pelecanos once again delivers the goods, and the promise of yet another must-read series." Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
The mother of a young police officer killed by another cop hires Derek Strange to clear up the lingering doubts surrounding her son's death. After Strange interviews the accused cop Quinn, he joins the investigation, even though in part he is investigating himself and whether his own prejudices led him to pull the trigger.
Synopsis
Derek Strange is a black ex-cop in Washington D.C. who now makes a living running his own private detective agency. He is hired to investigate the killing of an off-duty black policeman by a white police officer -- a killing that was supposedly accidental, but that has opened difficult questions about racism on the force. In the course of that investigation the white officer, Terry Quinn, becomes Strange's friend and then his partner. Together they try to uncover what really happened that night, when Quinn came upon a confusing and treacherous crime scene. Along the way they confront the kingpins of a flourishing drug trade and some of the most implacable, dead-eyed killers ever to grace the pages of a novel.
About the Author
George Pelecanos is an independent-film producer, an award-winning journalist, a producer and writer on the HBO hit series The Wire, and the author of a bestselling series of novels set in and around Washington, D.C., where he lives with his wife and children.