Rating: 
Summary: Far above average; from the author of PRESSURE POINTS
Review: Unless you have the patience of a hardcore TV addict, the first half of this book will sustain and satisfy you with its pure though slightly forced style and energy. Then, while somewhat predictable, the second half kicks into a much more urgent pacing that makes the investment in the first half well worth the time. The characters really come to life and, while gratuitously flawed (it's pretty hard to buy into the protagonist's jones), the reader is emotionally invested in the outcome. Pelecanos paints a gritty landscape of both the physical and emotional worlds in which the story unfolds, and while you'll be glad you don't live there (the D.C. tourism folks will want this thing banned), you'll definately feel like you've had an extended visit, one from which you barely escaped with your wallet and your health. This is a refreshing change of pace from the by-the-numbers crime thrillers by all the predictable names (you know who they are), and while the author's hipper-than-thou narrative crosses the line from characterized street lingo to look-at-me-I'm-so-dark author narcisism, this is a book you'll remember. If they ever make a movie capturing the author's persona (as opposed to one of his books), Pacino is the only guy in contention for the role.
Rating:
Summary: Edgy, soulful, masterful suspense
Review: Washington D.C. private investigator Derek Strange, a 50-something black man who keeps a well-run office in his old neighborhood, but prefers working from the street, and his younger, hot-head, white associate, ex-cop Terry Quinn, team up again (after "Right as Rain") to rescue a 14-year-old suburban white girl from her new life as a prostitute.It's an old story with a predictable arc, like the tragic act of senseless violence brewing separately from page one. And that inevitability is a central theme in George Pelecanos' warmhearted, gritty, streetwise series. While the music pounds, shouts and wails to fit his (and others') moods, Strange fights the ugly lure of street swagger by coaching a youth-league football team and instilling respect not only for teammates but the opposing team as well. Meanwhile he's wrestling his own demons and endangering his relationship with Janine (also his office manager) by massage parlor sorties. Though the spotlight stays on Strange, Pelecanos switches viewpoints to include boys trifling with murder; Strange's young office helper, Lamar, a frightened kid trying to stay alive; Quinn, his life saved by the woman he's falling for, and others reflecting the streets that make up Strange's D.C. - pimps, broken drunks, young mothers, prostitutes. The story, with its throbbing undercurrent of violence and wasted lives, generates plenty of suspense. Quinn ready to meet any insult with his fists, Strange working on a longer, slower, but perhaps more deadly fuse, work both sides of the color divide, mixing it up with dangerous, confident, soulless people, death an inflection away. Strange is an involvingly complex character, wise and impulsive, moral and angry, goodhearted, blunt, smart, sometimes annoyingly opaque. And Pelecanos brings D.C. alive as an edgy place of thriving, striving neighborhoods marred by drugs and easy money, hot cars and dead-eyed kids. A stand-out series.
Rating:
Summary: Taut gritty urban investigative tale
Review: Working for the Aiding Prostitutes in Peril non-profit organization, Montgomery County sleuths Karen Bagley and Sue Tracey specialize in locating teenage runaways. They hire DC private detective Derek Strange to help them with cases in the District. After proving his worth to his retainers, Derek and his partner Terry Quinn are sent to bring in fourteen-year-old Germantown runaway Jennifer from the cold mean streets of the city.
While Terry works the child prostitution case, Derek has a more personal vendetta to handle. Someone(s) killed the quarterback of the Pee Wee football team that Derek coaches while the kid was at an ice cream stand. At the same time Derek anguishes over the lad's murder, his longtime lover is all over him for his frequent visits to the massage parlor.
No one describes the neighborhoods of Washington DC better than George Pelecanos who take his audience on quite a vivid tour of the other side of Washington. The two subplots are well written and exciting, but the action is the streets of the city, homicide hot even on a wintry night. The characters are believable and make the story line sing while augmenting Mr. Pelecanos tour guide of the nation's capital. Fans of gritty urban investigative tales will want to read HELL TO PAY and its predecessor RIGHT AS RAIN because these are some of the best the sub-genre offer. Harriet Klausner
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