Rating: 
Summary: Dark, Gritty, Good!
Review: Right as Rain is gritty social realism at its best. Pelecanos works against the straight-jacket of the detective genre to bring us a novel that is equal parts detective novel, social commentary, and roller coast ride entertainment. In the end, it's easiest just to call Right as Rain a detective novel, but it could just as well fit on the literary or mainstream book shelf inside a bookstore. It is that good!One honest word of caution to anyone who may be reading this review trying to make up her mind whether or not to buy or read Right as Rain -- it is a very "male" novel. It is macho. It is violent and gritty in its depiction of drugs and drug use, and women take subordinate roles to men. If you want great women characters go read Jane Austen, if you want a shotgun and Sharmba Mitchell, Pelecanos is your man. Right as Rain is the story of private detective Derek Strange and former cop Terry Quinn's first meeting and first work together. Quinn has been forced into retirement for shooting and killing a plain-clothed black cop (Chris Wilson) in a morally compromised situation, and the story is primarily about his ability to redeem himself. The race issue is described in multi-textured layers where honesty proves the better line to walk than PC social convention. Both Quinn and Strange have mature issues to work through. For Strange, he must decide how much to commit to a role as father and husband, while working the thankless streets of D.C. And at the center of their work is the lost junkie sister (Sondra Wilson) of the cop Quinn killed. She may hold the answers to why Wilson was going ballistic on a slimeball kid named Ricky Kane, which drew Quinn into pulling his gun in the first place. All of this makes Right as Rain sound like a heavily weighted character novel, and while the characters are heavy the novel itself never gets weighted down. Pelecanos's pacing is about as good as any writer writing today, regardless of genre. You get the sense that he just writes each chapter on the fly, and when done well this makes for the best kind of novel -- one with a pulse, man. One with a very strong pulse. I highly recommend Right as Rain to ...anyone who likes really good fiction. I'd also suggest checking out "Shame the Devil," a novel who's opening twenty-five pages may be the best opening twenty-five pages I've ever read. Pelecanos doesn't mince words. When he gets into writing a novel, it's the fiction equivalent of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. The fight is for truth, justice and moral redemption, and the result is an undisputed knockout! Stacey...
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Crime Fiction
Review: Right as Rain is terrific crime fiction. Fast-paced plot, sparkling dialogue and little details, like a constant soundtract, all distinguish this novel. The story, which has a few different focuses, meshes well and makes for very quick reading. I really enjoyed this one. It's got a terrific ending, the lose ends don't all come together, yet it is still very satisfying. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: REALLY MIXED FEELINGS!!!
Review: This is my first book by George Pelecanos. I really liked the characters, the play between them and all the action. I did not like all the sex, the directions given when someone was going somewhere or several pages of just talk. The take down of Sherman Coles was great. Ray and Earl Boone were very well described as the slum bums they were. Strange and Quinn worked good together as a team. Pelecanos wites so you can feel like you are there, you can see the people and their actions in your mind. I guess I liked it more than I disliked it but it was close. I did not need to know that if I walked down this street I would come out in the alley and go up to a swinging bridge and across a hill and back around to some building. If you lived in DC this might have been good but not to a country boy.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty Realism Addresses Important Themes
Review: This is the first story I've read by the highly regarded George Pelecanos. It is found in an "Advanced Reading Copy" that also contains "Hell To Pay", his next book, which is scheduled for publication in February, 2002.
"Right As Rain" is gritty, often humorous in a perverse sort of way, but still able to seriously address the issue of racism. Set in the mean streets of Washington D.C., Derek Strange is hired to find the daughter of a Black cop who, while off duty was killed by White policeman, Terry Quinn. Derek meets Quinn and wonders if he is racist or if he is being judged unfairly. Quinn and Strange begin to work together and uncover a father son duo that brings out the best of Pelicanos' descriptive writing skill. They are Earl and Ray Boone and are working for Colombian drug suppliers by delivering product to Afro American dealers. The Boones are portrayed to a T in appearance and dialogue as poor white trash; anti-social personalities who aren't too bright and let their basic human drives govern their crass behavior. Without spoiling the story, I'll just say that all the pieces, including themes of trust, friendship, and justice are expertly brought together in the book's climax and the stage appears set for future Strange-Quinn interactions.
Rating:
Summary: Right as Rain is right on
Review: This was an excellent depiction of life on the street in D.C. I was taken a back by how well Pelecanos was able to paint such a vivid picture of the scenary and characters. The story line was interesting and I liked how he went back and forth between scenes and tied them together at the end. Strange is a retired cop who has an investigation business. He is asked by a dead cops mother to investigate the shooting that killed him to try and clear his name. He involves the cop who actually did the shooting to try and figure out what really happened. The investigation uncovers crooked cops, drug dealing and cover-ups. Pelecanos creates an atmosphere that pulls you into the action. Looking forward to the next one....
Rating:
Summary: I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!
Review: This was my first Pelecanos book, and I am fairly new to the modern crime genre. I've read Dennis Lehane and have enjoyed all his books. When I saw that he was a Pelecanos fan, that's what drew my interest. Not only did this book entertain and keep me guessing, but I found myself re-evaluating my own attitudes about discrimmination and stereotypes that plagued the complex character of Terry Quinn in the book. It matters not to me what genre I'm reading, if it makes me rethink my own attitudes and in the process I learn something, I consider it a "great" book.
Rating:
Summary: What a great movie this book would make!
Review: This was my second Pelecanos book, after Hell to Pay, and I liked it even more than the first. This guy can really write a mystery! Again I found the character development to be outstanding and his way of painting word pictures of the scenes to be exceptional. If you like gritty, edgy crime mysteries, I think you'll love this one. I couldn't help thinking what a terrific movie could be made from this book. Samuel L. Jackson or Danny Glover (mentioned in the book) would be great as Derek. Matt Damon could be Terry. I see Gary Busey as Earl, but haven't figured out an actor to play Ray. If you read this book as I think you should, see what you think about my casting suggestions and how you can improve them.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written
Review: Too many authors over-write in this genre and it is nice to read an author in a series who allows his characters to develop slowly and through action. In some ways this book is quite typical of the genre (one thoughtful guy and one explosive guy...see Spenser and Hawk, Cole and Pike, etc.) but in other ways very atypical. D.C. is a character and I enjoy the music and western allusions. I end up wading through a lot of poor writers in this genre before every now and then finding someone who can write like Pelacanos.
Rating:
Summary: Strong, gritty suspense
Review: Washington D.C. private-eye Derek Strange, a black ex-cop in his mid-fifties, is hired by the mother of a slain young cop to clear her son's name in this gritty, character-driven novel. The dead cop, Chris Wilson, an off-duty black man in plain clothes with a gun to the head of a white man in a tough neighborhood, was shot by a white cop while trying to identify himself. Sound familiar? In Pelecanos' capable hands the story takes several quirky turns. Strange interviews the shooter, Terry Quinn, who subsequently joins his investigation, determined to prove himself colorblind. Although cleared, Quinn left the force and now works in a second-hand bookstore, passing his days reading Westerns. A cocky, impulsive young man, quick with his fists or whatever else comes to hand, Quinn makes an unlikely match for Strange, laconic and self-assured, who feels no need to defend every slight to his manhood. But Quinn makes himself useful and a wary partnership develops as Strange delves into Wilson's life, seeking reasons for his presence with that white man on that dark street. The D.C. streets, the ones our country's leaders never see, teem with simmering rage, wrecked lives, drug dealers, crumbling neighborhoods held intact with affection and traditions, good music, family restaurants, friends. Gritty, dangerous and lively, the city is home to a varied cast. The narrative shifts among them from Strange to Quinn to the leaders of a black heroin operation and their vicious white-trash go-between suppliers, with cameos by various girlfriends, hangers-on, and junkies. Each character is placed firmly in their home setting - the abandoned-warehouse headquarters of the heroin operation, the rural fortress of beer-soaked Earl and his hopped-up son, Critter, a pair who make their city connections look wholesome. Strange punctuates his methodical investigation with stops at favored neighborhood haunts, leaves his lonely rowhouse for evenings with his longtime girlfriend, Janine and her teenage son Lionel, but remains wary of commitment. Quinn moves in a new world, trying to be his cocky white self in black society, proving himself. The story is well-paced and absorbing. Pelecanos ("Shame the Devil," "King Suckerman") explores racial and social issues without sentimentality or preaching and with a hefty dose of dark, city humor. But the real movers in this fine novel are the characters, particularly Derek Strange, and the D.C. he calls home.
Rating:
Summary: Why isn't Pelecanos better known?
Review: With Elmore Leonard, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane writing blurbs on the book jacket, you know this guy can write a crime story with great characters and dialogue. It's set on the streets of D.C., different from what you see on Brokaw and Rather. Derek Strange, a retired black cop, is asked by Chris Wilson's mother to clear her son's name. He was a black off duty cop with a gun standing over a white guy when he was shot and killed by Terry Quinn, a white off duty cop. Derek and Terry become buddies. The story reels in redneck Earl Boone and his dumb son Ray (Critter), a couple of dope smugglers, a few Colombians and Cherokee Coleman, a local hoopster of some note, good point guard but not good enough for the big time, who runs the drug operation. When you cut to the chase, Terry's old partner Eugene Franklin was a bad guy and Chris Wilson was onto him. Strange figures things out, of course, there's some great action and the kind of not quite tied together ending that Pelecanos presents so well. The Metro Police don't know exactly what happened, but they have enough to give Chris Wilson the posthumous recognition he deserved. Derek and Terry go back to their separate day to day lives, but they'll be back in "Hell to Pay". I thought both stories were great!
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