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Although former award winning journalist George P. Pelecanos had no formal training in creative writing, he gave up his well-paid job to sit down and write a semi-autobiographical and quite successful novel, A Firing Offence. This and his subsequent very blokey books have lots of fast cars, loads of weaponry both sophisticated and unsophisticated , football , basketball, and two strong male protagonists.The tales are somewhat uneven in that they lack fleshed out strong female protagonists. Right as Rain, Nick's Trip ,Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go ,The Big Blow Down ,King Suckerman ,The Sweet Forever and Shame the Devilas well as Hell to Pay are all set in the city with which Pelecanos is most familiar: Washington DC. This author has spent a lifetime listening to the speech patterns, cadences and vocabularies of the people around him. Thus, one of his greatest strengths, dialogue, could also be seen as one of his greatest weaknesses in that to some readers his characters verge on the incomprehensible. That, coupled with the loud music that can almost be heard by sensitive readers and his concentration on all things masxuline could well alienate a goodly segment of readership. It would be unfortunate should mystery aficionados shun his books simply because of these facets of Pelecanos' work since they would be doing themselves a grave disservice in that the writer spins a very good, albeit very tough, yarn. Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, respectively black and white ex-cops working as investigators in Washington DC, first did their detecting in Right as Rain. Their initially uneasy rapport from that book has become stronger in this second outing, but Strange finds he sometimes regrets having confided in Quinn quite to the extent he has done. Both men have problems with their relationships with women, and Pelecanos is at pains to make clear that even good men can have big dilemmas in committing themselves to a single woman. Strange and Quinn help with a football team comprising young disadvantaged black males. Strange feels that the boys' lives may be salvaged from the ghetto if they are given some worthwhile pastimes to inspire them. One of the members of the team, eight year-old Joe Wilder is killed during the execution of his uncle Lorenze for non-payment of a drug debt. Strange and Quinn set out to bring the killers to justice. Their progress is monitored, inexplicably, by one of the crime bosses of the district. As always in Pelecanos' stories, racial discrimination and inequality plays a large part. The drug culture permeates the neighbourhood and few are immune from its effects. The sad fate of young prostitutes is also examined . Young runaways, when they arrive at a bus station are taken under the 'protection' of certain pimps until their useful working careers are exhausted. Pelecanos subjects his protagonists to different moral conundrums against the shifting background of variable rectitude in divergent situations. In the hearts of the unlikely crime solving duo is a genuine concern for the futures of the young black men whose perception of a successful career is vastly different from that of the two ex-cops. Pelecanos plots a tight tale. His writing style is succinct, although, as mentioned before, his use of street dialect may alienate some. The author does not shy away from depicting gore, grue and eviscerated bodies nor does he minimise his portrayal of cruelty and brutality. This having been said, his mainly-for-men stories are well worth the time spent in reading them. Editoržs Note: This review is based on the Australian edition published by Orion and released May 3, 2002
Reviewed by Denise Wels, May 2002
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