Rating: 
Summary: Uneven at best
Review: I know I'm in the minority here, but I found this book to be mostly boring, with not much to distinguish it from the one that came before it. There are too many similarities: Strange has to get his [hair] correct a few times, multiple unnecessary mentions of music choices, gratuitous conversations between Strange and Quinn. For me, the repeated music references were particularly grating. They seem like the author's way of telling you how hip and varied his music tastes are, and often don't seem to serve much purpose in the story. There is still plenty of good stuff in here, but you have to wade through the bad to get to it.
Rating:
Summary: Rather be "At the Circus"
Review: I loved the first two Strange/Quinn tales and had high hopes. Sorry to say this story never engaged me and I can't really recommend it. Time for GP to move on to a new venue and some new characters.
Rating: 
Summary: a good book
Review: i new reader to this guys books. i just say that of what i have read i look forward to reading this guy next books.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read For A Detective Novel
Review: I usually don't read books about gumshoes since I didn't have an interest in the genre. But I read this book because it takes place in Washington, DC, and the author is also a Washingtonian. I throughly enjoyed this book but I don't think the character Terry Quinn was well rounded. He just seemed like a stereotypical angry white male who can't seem to understand "street life". It's not like living in Beirut when you live in Anacostia nor is it a place you want to get caught in walking at night when you're not from around there. Though I found Quinn more interesting than the protagonist Private Investigator Derek Strange, mostly because Quinn played an oddball. He was made out to be at least somewhat knowledgable in what he was doing since he was a former District cop. Then again I was mystified as to why he couldn't figure out how to navigate the urban territories to find this missing girl he was looking for. I found this a little annoying, I mean you don't walk up to people with a gun when you don't plan on shooting them. His death (or possible death?) could've been avoided if he wasn't so stupid in the end. Overall I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading another book with Derek Strange as the main character.
Rating:
Summary: Murder Capital Once Again...
Review: I've lived in DC for 20 years and Pelecanos is only the second author I've come across who writes about the DC that I know and recognize (the other is Edward Jones, check out his story collection "Lost in the City" if you can find it). The third book in the Derek Strange series picks up immediately where Hell To Pay left off. In the wake of drug lord Granville Oliver's arrest (as detailed in Hell To Pay), two street gangs are attempting to fill the void his departure has left on the drug market. Meanwhile, Strange is working for Oliver's defense team, gathering background information on various witnesses. This surprising assignment mainly involves the search for one woman, and it soon becomes apparent that someone doesn't want Strange to find her.Here, Pelecanos weaves a critique of the city's treatment at the hands of Congress into the story. Despite the city's 1981 repeal of the death penalty, and a 1992 citywide referendum that rejected the death penalty by a 2-1 margin, federal prosecutors have sought the death penalty in high-profile D.C. cases (such as the "Starbucks murders") with support from Congress. Strange tells himself he's working for the ex-drug lord as a matter of anti-death penalty conscience, but as in all of Pelecanos' books, there's more to it than that (as readers of Hell To Pay will know). The one misstep in his treatment of this is the appearance of a "big brother" conspiracy element that threatens to push the story into the "24/X-Files" zone. Fortunately, this never becomes too overt, and the story is allowed to move at its own pace. Even more than in the first two books, Strange and his fiery white partner, Terry Quinn find themselves tilting at windmills in a crusade to make just a tiny difference to their community. It's been ten years since the "Murder Capital" days of the early '90s, but little change is evident in the worst parts of the city as the city regains the dubious title. If Right As Rain was about racism, and the last one about hopelessness, this one is about how guns and hopelessness form a lethal brew that threaten entire communities. Pelecanos' other target in this book is guns, more specifically, the ease by which they can be bought in Maryland and Virginia and then transferred into DC. He's clearly talked to ATF people to get the lowdown on waiting periods, and how straw purchases work. It's remarkably simple, and there's no remedy in sight. Some readers may find Pelecanos to have too much of a personal agenda woven into the plot, but he's walked the streets of Southeast DC and seen what goes down and why. This is easily the darkest and most depressing of the three Strange books to date, gushing humanity, anger, and frustration. Strange and his creator clearly feel that the only way to turn things around is one kid at a time (Pelecanos has adopted several children), and that's the one good message to take from the book. As always, the cast of characters is large and distinctive, although Terry becomes more of an enigma filled with demons that never quite make enough sense for the reader. For fans of Pelecanos' earlier work, Nick Stefanos makes a cameo appearance here and there's a hint that he'll have a larger role in the next novel. All in all, another solid entry in Pelecanos' D.C. sagas.
Rating:
Summary: disappointment
Review: In a particularly dramatic sequence in Geoge P Pelecanos' newest book, SOUL CIRCUS, he writes, "...In his rearview he saw a red import, tricked out in gold. He looked to his left. A white car with tinted windows rolled up had pulled alongside him. He couldn't see the occupants of the car. He heard Strange's voice in his head: 'A classic trap'..." I'm afraid Pelecanos may have been the one trapped this time. This novelist, who has written with such realism about characters and places I knew growing up in Washington DC that I have been convinced while reading "King Suckerman" that I might somehow appear on his pages myself; has, in this book, chosen to write an ill-conceived and poorly disguised polemic against gun rights and death penalty advocacy in the guise of a novel. And it is a pity, for Pelecanos is a real artist of his genre. I have no problem with a writer's personal political views becoming part of the fabric of his or her work, nor do I begrudge a detour into the landscape of political punditry. It is, after all, the author's work. But there is a line, and not a thin one, between a detour and a carjacking. Pelecanos' last three novels have featured Terry Quinn, a former cop with a past, and Derek Strange, a... well, former cop with a past, who form a partnership across generational and racial lines. Both characters are interesting and, until SOUL CIRCUS, have had a three dimensional realism to their personae that pulls the reader into the plot. Unfortunately, Quinn loses his third dimension, little by little, in this book and becomes little more than a straw man in the gun control debate, there with little more purpose than to be knocked down. There is an interesting scene, in an Adams Morgan bar, where Strange and Quinn become the characters they have been in the other two novels, engaging in real debate and revealing the intensely personal inner workings of their respective opinions. This harkens back to the more human and believable relationship that characterized HELL TO PAY and RIGHT AS RAIN. Indeed, there are substantial sections of the work in which Pellecanos writes with his usual savvy and artistry. For any fans of this series (like me), this book cannot be overlooked if for no other reason than to keep up with the characters. But this is a thinner work than one comes to expect from a writer of this caliber. Art transcends polemics, and in so doing demands that its audience do so as well, perhaps allowing us to re-examine our worldview from another perspective; even to change our minds. By failing in the first respect, this novel has no chance in the second. Ubfortunately, Pelecanos has chosen to grind an axe, to use his art in service to a cause, rather than to let this cause exist, as it does, on its own merit, to be encountered and wrestled with by the reader on her or his own terms. I look forward to the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Another home run for Pelecanos
Review: Once a person establishes a solid track record, you begin to feel confident that they will deliver when they step up to the plate. That's the way it is with A-Rod and Barry Bonds and that's the way it is with George Pelecanos. With Soul Circus, big George again goes yard with a solid crime novel. Drug dealers, good and bad ex cops, illegal firearms and street smart operators on both sides of the law populate this well written story set, as always, in the Washington D.C. area. The main thing you need to know about this book is that if you like crime fiction, you ought to read this. Pelecanos is an emerging superstar writer and this is prime time work. My only problem with him is that he doesn't write as fast as I read. I'll try not to hold that against him as long as he keeps writing great stories like this one.
Rating:
Summary: George Pelecanos has written a taut and compelling story
Review: Reading fiction is a form of escape, of course. If you want reality, you read nonfiction. But after reading SOUL CIRCUS, the latest novel from George P. Pelecanos, you may find yourself wondering what it is about reality that made you want to escape into a world so dark and disturbing and so, well, real. The eleventh novel from Pelecanos and the third to feature private investigators Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, SOUL CIRCUS also includes a number of characters that have appeared in previous Pelecanos novels, including Nick Stefanos, another private detective whose character is based on Pelecanos himself. SOUL CIRCUS finds Derek Strange searching for evidence that will mean the difference between life in prison and the death sentence for Granville Oliver, a dangerous gang leader and drug dealer on trial for murder. Strange has resolved to perform this service, despite Oliver's reputation, for a couple of worthwhile reasons, not the least of which is that decades before, while serving as a police officer, Strange killed Oliver's father. Strange feels that, in depriving Oliver of a father, he set a boy on the path to gangs, drugs, guns and violence, and therefore bears some responsibility for the situation in which Oliver now finds himself. But as Strange explains it to those who question his judgment in the matter, he is not defending Oliver --- he is defending Oliver's rights. Strange's investigation leads him to a young woman who may have evidence that will keep Oliver off the injection table. But there are those who prefer to see Oliver dead and not just the prosecution. These people have long since rid themselves of the burden of conscience that might otherwise interfere with plans for kidnapping, extortion, murder and the other tools of the bad guy trade. In the midst of this investigation, Strange and Quinn take on another small case: locating an absent girlfriend for Mario Durham, a petty crook and no deep thinker whose motives, unbeknownst to Strange and Quinn, have more to do with settling a score than they do with faltering romance. Mario, it turns out, is the brother of Dewayne Durham, another feared gang leader and drug dealer. It is Mario's desire to impress his brother that leads to the death of the absent girlfriend and sets in motion a series of events that trigger a cascade of gunplay and violence that winds its way back to Strange and Quinn. SOUL CIRCUS intricately weaves several subplots into a taut and compelling story that plays out in neighborhoods of Washington D.C. that are so removed from the pomp and photo-op politics of the nation's capital that they might as well be in some third-world hellhole. Pelecanos very effectively demonstrates that living within sight of those familiar, gleaming white symbols of democracy are citizens whose voices are never heard and whose issues offer insufficient political payback to draw the attention of those in power. But while Pelecanos has a political agenda, his message integrates seamlessly with the story. There's no preaching here and no soapbox --- just finely wrought characters playing out their interconnected destinies in prose that snatches you up and propels you along like a cigarette butt being washed down a storm sewer. While the story is indeed dark and populated with cold, stone-hearted people, Pelecanos peppers SOUL CIRCUS with details and crisp, often funny dialogue --- particularly between Strange and Quinn -- that provide a precise balance of elements that keep the narrative well within the parameters of noir, without tumbling into a thoroughly depressing, hundred-proof nightmare. But be warned, there's enough violence and nasty business here to make you check to see that the cat is in and your doors are locked. Readers already familiar with Pelecanos will find in SOUL CIRCUS the unblinking realism and relentless pace they have come to expect. Those new to Pelecanos will find themselves reaching eagerly into his backlist to devour every delicious, hyper-hardboiled scrap. As a vehicle for escape, SOUL CIRCUS will take you as deep into the urban battlefield as you can go without having to actually dodge bullets. --- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart
Rating: 
Summary: LOST SOULS ON PARADE
Review: SOUL CIRCUS is a crime drama about the drug game and the consequences those
involved in it face. Set in the backdrop of the violent Southeast section of
DC, SOUL CIRCUS gives a glimpse into the lives of local drug dealers fighting
over turf and trying to establish reputations in the absences of the fallen
kingpin, Granville Oliver, who is involved in a capitol murder case. Derek Strange is a private investigator in Washington, DC tasked with finding
witnesses that will make his blatantly guilty drug czar client seem less
lethal than he actually is. Strange is a hardworking ex-cop turned PI who is
on a quest to right wrongs and heal a thirty year old wound. Strange is from
a different era than the modern drug gangsters. He often reminiscences about
past times, music from the Seventies, and recollections of old western
flicks. He has been a presence in his community for over two decades and has
managed to maintain a respectable and moderately successful investigation
business. SOUL CIRCUS is a slow deliberate read that lays out the drug scene and players
in the South East section of Washington, DC. The supporting characters are as
quirky and stereotypical as are their dilemmas. George Pelecanos' writing
style affects the reader like a weathered newspaper reporter who has been
working a beat for years. He knows all of the players and has heard all of
the stories and is not surprised by the outcomes. SOUL CIRCUS is a gritty
story that leans on the tragic familiar. The story would have been richer if
Mr. Pelecanos had delved further into the main characters and showed what made
them tick. For instance, while readers meet Granville Oliver and know that
he's on trial for murder, the heartless criminal side of him is not shown.
What readers see is a reflective man who has come to terms with his situation,
but they are not privy to the details of what landed him in this place.
Despite that, Mr. Pelecanos paints a vivid picture of street culture in this
story that is intriguing and chilling at the same time. Perhaps one of the
reasons the story feels predictable is because of the realness of his
descriptions and portrayals. Mr. Pelecanos is either a great story teller and
possibly a great recorder of this tragic culture. Reviewed by Diane Marbury (HonestD)
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: Soul Circus Delivers
Review: Soul Circus is a winner, with an ending that will blow you away. I think the ending Pelecanos chose was brilliant as I believe now it will become Strange/Stefanos Investigations :)
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