George P. Pelecanos

Reviews
Nick Stefanos Books
D.C. Quartet Books
Derek Strange And Terry Quinn Books
Other Books
Links

For much of the nineties, author George P. Pelecanos has been the best-kept secret in the mystery field, which is surprising given the quality of his work. His books sank without a trace up until the release of King Suckerman, which got a lot of overseas press, and he quickly became a star.

Pelecanos writes about men, and what it means to be a man, a theme he started exploring in Down By The River Where The Dead Men Go and really emphasized in his D.C. Quartet, a historical series ranging from World War II to today. The good guys in his book usually end up on the same side, no matter what side they start on. He's especially good at his well-drawn depictions of bad guys, who are never stereotyped eartless monsters, but have human wants and needs. Like James Crumley, who Pelecanos says has influenced his work, these books are mainly about the lives of his characters. The crime story plots are almost incidental.

Much like his friend Dennis Lehane, Pelecanos uses a strong sense of place as an additional character in his novels. Not just Washington, D. C., although he clearly loves his hometown, but specific places as well, like Big Nick Stefanos' Nick's Grill, Marcus Clay's Real Right Records, or The Spot, where Big Nick's grandson (also named Nick) tends bar. Pelecanos also has a sure feel for other times, and perfectly marries the period with the action, whether it's the debut of a new blaxploitation film in 1976 or Len Bias' exploits in the NCAA basketball tournament a decade later.

If it weren't enough that he's a tremendously talented writer, Pelecanos also worked at Circle Films, the company that produced the early films of Joel and Ethan Coen (like Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing) and brought John Woo's The Killer to the U. S. In fact, Pelecanos wrote the tag line for the U.S. release of that film: "One bad killer. One tough cop. And 10,000 bullets."