Feature:
Pelecanos Country
Washington’s very own hardboiled crime writer with no political baggage attached—only gritty stories with real characters and the voices of D.C.’s forgotten.
by Rob Lord
When it comes to the American political thrillers lining book shelves of your local bookseller they bring images of Capitol Hill, The White House, the Pentagon, crooked politicians and the next terrorists threat. Can all novels set in Washington, D.C. be this cliché? Believe it or not—no. The traditional Washington novel doesn’t fit the writing profile of local crime writer George Pelecanos.
Washington’s historic landmarks, halls of power and dinner parties in Chevy Chase or along Embassy Row are not part of his fictional landscape—far from it. His terrain of the nation’s capitol is not one of his own imagination, but one of stark realty. This is the underside of Washington tourists don’t see. Pelecanos makes the city along the Potomac River a major character who speaks volumes without having one line of dialogue: neighborhoods such as Park View, Shepherd Park and Petworth, watering holes off Georgia Avenue.
With no real predecessor, George Pelecanos became the founding father of D.C. crime fiction. He took what he learned as a young man in the late 1960’s delivering meals for his father’s downtown lunch counter to later washing dishes, tending bar and selling women’s shoes—molding Washington’s working class community into the backdrop for his now fourteen novels. Talk about writing what you know…
Pelecanos writes with a fury about Washington’s working class and the issues they face day to day ranging from drugs, illegal guns to parents needing to be more responsible for their children. Readers cannot escape the issues of race and class in his work. Pelecanos’ meat and potatoes prose paints a vivid landscape of the “other side” of Washington, D.C. which is rarely discussed, unless it’s on the local eleven o’clock news. He writes about young men getting shot over a drug deal, poverty blocks from the halls of Congress and organized dog fighting (Drama City) long before the Michael Vick’s indictment. The reader can’t escape the realities of what life is like for many who consider themselves Washingtonians and don’t have a vote in Congress. He may write fictional characters like Derek Strange and Lorenzo Brown, but many of the players in his books live in an environment that can’t be more real.
Pelecanos’ first three novels (A Firing Offense, Nick’s Trip, Down By the River Where the Dead Men Go) revolve around a young hard drinking and newly licensed Greek-American private investigator, Nick Stefonos. While Stefanos investigates, he enjoys his passion for punk music, muscle cars, women and plenty of alcohol along the way. In these straight forward PI stories the reader easily becomes attached to Nick Stefanos because of his flawed nature. In his next four books to follow, better known as the “D.C. Quartet” (The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil) Pelecanos covers a timeline in Washington from the 1930’s to the 1990’s that chronicles the city’s social changes. With these books Pelecanos’ readership grew following characters Dimitri Karras and Marcus Clay. The reader watches as they wrestled with their personal and public challenges in a city gone bad for so many. Pelecanos masterfully reintroduces characters from previous novels as an older and wiser Nick Stefanos makes an appearance to help guide the characters to resolve the situation at hand.
Called by Esquire magazine “The poet laureate of the D.C. crime world” his next series of novels (Right As Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus) introduced black private investigator Derek Strange and white Irish tempered Terry Quinn, both former men in blue for the Washington, D.C. Police Department. Strange and Quinn are an odd couple on many levels. Along the way they struggle with their own personal demons and each other which only make readers turn the pages even faster. But as former cops they share the same values when it comes to bringing justice. Pelecanos creates characters so real like Strange and Quinn you would think they were talking in next room or knocking on your front door.
One of Pelecanos greatest strengths is his ear for dialogue. This is evident in the case of the relationship between Strange and Quinn over these three books. In the voice of his characters, Pelecanos doesn’t hesitate to address the hot button issues that resonate within the Beltway: drugs, corruption, racism, illegal guns and many more. Pelecanos is fearless in his efforts and delivers a strong punch of honesty on what life is like for many in the nation’s capitol. Pelecanos does this on all fronts with passion and no apologies.
Then throw in the music. Music? Sorry, there is no i-Pod download to the novels (except for a CD that came with a limited number of copies with Hard Revolution), but Pelecanos’ love and appreciation for punk, soul, funk and R&B shine. The music and their bands becomes part of a characters stock and trade as the novel progresses. Pelecanos helps set many scenes by describing the music which his characters listen. It’s as if a soundtrack is included with each book, an extra bonus.
As time has passed with the publication of each of book, the crowd of readers and curious onlookers at D.C. area bookstores listening to Pelecanos read or discuss his world of writing has grown steadily and become more diverse. And even as the number of his readers has grown, there was one thing about this crime writer that hasn’t change: his level of modesty and appreciation for his audience, the crime writers ahead of him (Elmore Leonard and others), and the genre itself.
This past summer, I shared copies of Pelecanos’ books, including his latest stand alone novel The Night Gardner, with a co-worker who lives and works in the world found in his books. After finishing one book, she politely ask for another and then another and another. After finishing four of his novels, I asked the shy single mother if she liked Pelecanos’ work. She said with a half smile, her eyes not meeting mine, “He hasn’t let me down yet.”
“He won’t,” I said.
Bestselling author Michael Connolly said it best years ago: “The word among writers and those in the know has long been ‘Read Pelecanos.’” If you haven’t experienced his books, pick up a copy. Its here you will travel down Georgia Avenue and east of Rock Creek Park into Pelecanos Country where the writing is tight, the setting and characters are rapping on your front door with a fist, and the beat of the music starts early. And if this doesn’t do anything for you, then I guess you can go punish yourself and watch some bad television. There’s enough of that to go around.
About the Reviewer:
Rob Lord has worked as a dishwasher, paint factory laborer and aide to politicians in his hometown of Washington, DC. He has also worked as a researcher for fiction writers. His writing has been published in Powder Burn Flash and Muzzle Flash.