consolidating a few things -
I recently finished Pelecanos' "Down by the River where the
Dead men go" and
*wow*. Nick Stefanos was already my favorite crime fiction
"hero" based on the first two books but this one brought the
stories to a new level. Great story, great pacing (which felt
a little off in "nick's trip" where there was a bit too much
going on for me to keep it streaight), great depiction of DC,
and terrific secondary characters as always, with a cameo by
Johnny McGinnes for good measure. I'm now going to have to go
back and read the quartet books (particularly "Shame the
Devil") with this background and I'm sure I'll find all kinds
of new levels in them. Only one complaint I'll save for
spoiler space at the end of the post -
I'm interested in the discussion of Latino crime fiction; I
haven't read any yet but am storing up the titles for when
I've got time. It's interesting because I can think of lots
of American crime novels where Latinos, esp. Mexicans, figure
prominently, the sleuth goes to Mexico, etc, so I think it
would be an interesting perspective. One book that the
discussion of Cuba did make me think of is Martin Cruz
Smith's Havana Bay - though it's by an American writing about
a Russian protagonist, I thought this was a really
fascinating look at millenium-era Cuba; can't personally
vouch for the accuracy but Smith certainly seems to do his
research and can flat out write. Plus I've loved Arkady since
Gorky Park days; his female Cuban partner is extremely
well-drawn as well.
I commented a while ago that I'm not overwhelmed with Ian
Rankin's writing though I like his books. I guess what I mean
is that I don't ever recall stopping to savor a specific
phrase or bit of dialogue in his books the way I do with my
favorite writers. Definitely good books - "The Hanging
Garden" I thought was especially strong - but in the ones
I've read, which I'm sure is less than half the series, there
just haven't been those passages that absolutely blow me
away. I highly recommend the series though.
Now, a SPOILER coming up for Pelecanos books in general . .
.
S
P
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S
P
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Part of me is waiting for these characters to run into a
problem that cannot in any way be solved or addressed by a
gunfight in an empty warehouse
(apartment building, abandoned shack, etc). I'm sure there
are a lot of readers who look forward to these gunfight at
the OK corral moments but after about the third book or so
that I read I feel like, "OK, here it comes again," and I
can't get so worked up over the moral implications of
whatever action the characters are taking when it just feels
like a mechanical part of the plot.
Carrie
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