I read George Pelecanos' new book a couple of weeks back (it
was a McNaughton title at the library where I work--sometimes
it seems like we're getting these four or five days before
they show up in bookstores). I took it home on a Friday
afternoon and could not put it down until I finished, about
midnight. I hate rushing through a new book like that, but
sometimes with favorite authors, I find I can't stop
myself.
It was a very good book, one of his best. I still think _The
Sweet Forever_ is better, but this might come in a close
second, and the story is a similar one, though set in the
present day. Derek Strange and Terry Quinn sponsor a
neighborhood football team for young kids, to try to draw
them away from violence and drug dealing and other negative
pursuits. When one of their more promising young talents is
killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,
they get involved in a search for the killer. This is
heartbreaking stuff and Pelecanos' gift is in showing that
even the killers, kids who got sidetracked, are human, too,
with good things in their lives (one of the trio has a soft
spot for his dog, which he's been training for dog fights).
Pelecanos has a message as strong as any writer, but he
doesn't let it get in the way of telling his story.
Craig Larson Trinidad, CO
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