New Releases by George Pelecanos

Derek Strange is a black ex-cop in Washington D.C. who now makes a living running his own private detective agency. He is hired to investigate the killing of an off-duty black policeman by a white police officer -- a killing that was supposedly accidental, but that has opened difficult questions about racism on the force. In the course of that investigation the white officer, Terry Quinn, becomes Strange''s friend and then his partner. Together they try to uncover what really happened that night, when Quinn came upon a confusing and treacherous crime scene. Along the way they confront the kingpins of a flourishing drug trade and some of the most implacable, dead-eyed killers ever to grace the pages of a novel.

On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever. Thirty-five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it. The Turnaround takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the ''70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war. A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, The Turnaround is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, "the best crime novelist in America." -Oregonian

Gus Ramone is "good police," a former Internal Affairs investigator now working homicide for the city''s Violent Crime branch. His new case involves the death of a local teenager named Asa whose body has been found in a local community garden. The murder unearths intense memories of a case Ramone worked as a patrol cop twenty years earlier, when he and his partner, Dan "Doc" Holiday, assisted a legendary detective named T. C. Cook. The series of murders, all involving local teenage victims, was never solved. In the years since, Holiday has left the force under a cloud of morals charges, and now finds work as a bodyguard and driver. Cook has retired, but he has never stopped agonizing about the "Night Gardener" killings.The new case draws the three men together on a grim mission to finish the work that has haunted them for years. All the love, regret, and anger that once burned between them comes rushing back, and old ghosts walk once more as the men try to lay to rest the monster who has stalked their dreams. Bigger and even more unstoppable than his previous thrillers, George Pelecanos achieves in The Night Gardener what his brilliant career has been building toward: a novel that is a perfect union of suspense, character, and unstoppable fate.

Responsable de la publicité des magasins Nutty Nathan de Washington, Nick Stefanos n''a rien d''un homme d''entreprise. Solitaire depuis l''échec de son mariage, attiré par la bouteille, il s''est pris d''amitié pour Jimmy, employé au stock, un jeune type révolté et fragile qui va de petit boulot en petit boulot... et qui a mystérieusement disparu après avoir été renvoyé pour " absences répétées ". Enquêteur improvisé, Nick se lance sur ses traces, dans les bars à skinheads et à junkies d''un Washington bien éloigné de son image officielle. Une enquête dont il ne comprendra le danger que lorsque deux inconnus le passeront à tabac dans le restaurant chinois où il a ses habitudes. Fils d''immigrés grecs, George P. Pelecanos vit à Washington dont il connaît les quartiers, les gens, les bas-fonds, qu''il nous fait découvrir avec réalisme et humour au rythme d''un suspense sans faille.

Um passo à frente no romance policial, ''Revolução difícil'' expande o mundo do crime do indivíduo infrator para a sociedade doente e confronta o jovem policial negro Derek Strange com dilemas morais que, aos 21 anos, ele não esperava. A ação se dá em Washington, onde a maioria da população é negra. Cercando os edifícios públicos, monumentos e bairros de classe alta, a periferia opõe negros e brancos, e a zona de pobreza tomada por favelas e cortiços reúne igualmente negros e brancos - que em comum só têm o fato de serem miseráveis. Num estilo de grande poder de impacto, Pelecanos descreve policiais, marginais e cidadãos comuns com a agudeza do escritor seguro de sua força. Os acontecimentos que envolvem Derek Strange atingem seu ponto máximo na rebelião que se segue à notícia do assassinato de Martin Luther King. A polícia é insuficiente e a Guarda Nacional também. Só as Forças Armadas conseguem pôr ordem na cidade. Enquanto isso, Derek se concentra na caça a um assassino ligado ao confronto de grupos marginais que espelham, em sua violência, os conflitos raciais que incendeiam a cidade.

In this epic showdown from "one of the best crime novelists alive" (Dennis Lehane), police officer Derek Strange hunts his brother''s killer through a city erupting with rage.

Bleak, gritty and moving, Soul Circus superbly brings to life a devastating story of life and death in Washington''s black ghettos. Private Investigator Derek Strange and his partner, Terry Quinn, are running a detective business in the seedy underbelly of Washington, DC when they are approached by a young man asking them to find his girlfriend who has gone missing. And so Strange and Quinn find her. Just another day? Not quite. In the grimy underworld inhabited by Strange, nothing is that simple. For Strange and Quinn''s efforts have led to a young mother being brutally murdered -- a devastating discovery that causes them both to question the morality by which they live. And yet at the same time they need to continue the search for another missing girl, a teenage runaway who shows up in a porn video. And who hasn''t been seen since. Step by step, Strange and his partner are drawn into the darkness, confronting gunrunners, crime lords, drug dealers, and ordinary people caught up in the ruthless violence of the business. Soul Circus is a heart-stopping thriller that could only have been written by George Pelecanos, the writer who "has gone from cult favorite to acknowledged master" (Booklist).

Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, the team of private investigators who made their stunning debut in Right As Rain, are hired to find a 14-year-old white girl from the suburbs who''s run away from home and is now working as a prostitute. The two ex-cops think they know D.C.''s dangers, but nothing in their experience has prepared them for Worldwide Wilson, the pimp whose territory they''re intruding upon. Combining inimitable neighborhood flavor, action scenes that rank among the best in fiction, and a clear-eyed view of morality in a world with few rules, Hell to Pay is another Pelecanos masterpiece for his ever-expanding audience to savor.