PRAISE FOR THE TURNAROUND
"One of the finest novels of the year. . . . Although Pelecanos pays homage to his crime-writing roots . . . it is the central questions of how men can have purpose and atone for their sins that makes THE TURNAROUND an indelible read." —Los Angeles Times
"THE TURNAROUND tells its stories masterfully, constricting the characters' lives into a white-hot singularity of violence . . . THE TURNAROUND isn't an oddity in the author's stellar career—it's just another intimate, suspenseful, gritty, hopeful slice of life—but it does indicate that Pelecanos can chart his own course through the crime genre and beyond." —The Onion AV Club
"George Pelecanos is characterized as a crime-fiction writer. As his 14th novel reinforces, however, he?s more interested in sketching the lives of Washington, D.C.?s working-class people than recycling chic pulp postures. . . . THE TURNAROUND concentrates less on the rush of violence than on the reverberations it has on people?s lives." The reviewer credits Pelecanos for "the ability to guide readers through urban terrain with such tastefully terse prose and anthropological acuity." —Time Out New York
"The change in Pelecanos' writing mirrors the change in a typical Pelecanos character. . . . This is unquestionably a good thing: If he's abandoned the longueurs about whiskey and Dischord bands, it's in favor of sentences that say the most in the least amount of time. . . . in THE TURNAROUND, every line behaves like there's serious work to do." —Washington City Paper (Includes "Pelecanos Dictionary")
"Mr. Pelecanos is a writer with formidable gifts. He builds a suspenseful story, both harsh and humane, and resolves it in a satisfying and plausible way. And like the best social-realists, he shows an understanding of each of his characters, from the least sympathetic to the most benign." —Wall Street Journal
"Features some of Pelecanos's most precise and effective writing. . . . even without the gunplay that's long been a cornerstone of his work, his books have the potential to become true classics of urban American life. THE TURNAROUND makes that abundantly clear." —Minneapolis Star Tribune
"George Pelecanos, the working man's champion among genre authors, is still keeping close neighborhood watch in THE TURNAROUND, alert to signs of the social rot and moral decay that contribute to crime. The home truths he examines here . . . are familiar themes of his gritty Washington-based novels. But he has rarely pushed these articles of faith to such painful extremes or seemed so optimistic about the chances for redemption." —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
"It almost seems that George Pelecanos is hard-wired to write superbly observed urban crime dramas." —The New York Daily News
"As George Pelecanos's storytelling style increasingly takes on a blunt economy like Elmore Leonard's, his central concerns become ever more clear: He writes about manhood....He tells a tight, suspenseful story. And he packs enough of a wallop to put The Turnaround on an express bus of its own."
—Janet Maslin, New York Times
"It's a mature story, told with easy mastery, and no one who cares about Washington and about excellence in American writing should miss it."
—Washington Post
"Pelecanos does what few, if any, American writers do: He tells the truth. Twain told the truth; Faulkner toyed with the truth; Hemingway told his version of the truth and Chandler certainly told a cold, cynical truth. Pelecanos' truth is from deep in the heart, from places where red blood cells know more than all the sweet, heady words truth usually hides behind."
—Chicago Sun-Times
"[Pelecanos's] dialogue is dazzling."
—Arizona Republic
PRAISE FOR THE WAY HOME
"Nobody can teach George Pelecanos anything he doesn't already know about the inherent drama in the father-son dynamic." —New York Times Book Review
"The Way Home remains true to its titular purpose; as a result, the structure is perhaps less weighted toward a classic narrative arc and more toward the journey itself. As with his last two novels, Pelecanos demonstrates that redemption, if it comes at all, is hard-won." —Los Angeles Times
"In George Pelecanos's The Way Home, it's the little things that matter—he's fascinated by the minor decisions that end up making a huge difference in the long run, and the ripples that result when good but imperfect people try to do the right thing—even when they're not exactly sure what the right thing is." —Washington Post
"Between the wonderful dialogue, the characters who unpeel like onions before your eyes, and action that punches from the shoulder and hip — the very technique Thomas Flynn taught young Chris — Mr. Pelecanos brings things off with bravura." —The Washington Times
PRAISE FOR THE NIGHT GARDENER
The New York Times' Janet Maslin raves, "The Night Gardener is another of Mr. Pelecanos's beautifully delineated moral tales, filled with gut-wrenching turns of fate and razor-sharp, boisterously vivid characters."
"Pelecanos' latest stunning novel, The Night Gardener, shows yet again why there is no finer American crime writer working today." —Chicago Sun Times
The Night Gardener was included as one of Salon.com's Summer Reading Picks.
"George Pelecanos has written a novel that has everything a reader could possibly want in a book. " —BestSellersWorld.com
"Pelecanos is probably the finest writer in the crime fiction field, and people will still be reading him in 50 and 100 years time. The book is riveting, powerful and poignant." —ReviewingtheEvidence.com
"Pelecanos's grasp of the crime story has never been in question—which is also clearly evidenced in his writing for the non-pareil HBO series, The Wire. In The Night Gardener he powerfully extends his scope in a fashion that tempts me to call him the Tolstoy of Washington, D.C. " —TheMorningNews.org
"An ultimately hopeful book, it's also a breathlessly readable one." —AARPMagazine.com
"Pelecanos manages to create tension-filled plots that propel the reader into situations that render the social causes and costs of crime with stark clarity, by revealing his carefully created characters. It gives his novels a literary feel that makes them extremely satisfying to read." —The Agony Column
"It's worth picking this book up if you enjoy Pelecanos's work." —WantzUponaTime.com
"With numerous subplots and a variety of characters, this book challenges you to think outside your life to understand how others live, and die. Very well done." —FreshFiction.com
"Wistfulness gets washed away by the pure power of Pelecanos' narrative in The Night Gardener. And that power is fueled by the things that, really, fuel us all: The desire to do for our family, and to live a life of consequence. It's what makes The Night Gardener such a powerful piece of, yes, literature." —NewMysteryReader.com
"The plot is carefully crafted, as are the characters. The story is tense, subject to blow at anytime. It's a great read that reminds readers that things aren't always what they seem." —NightsandWeekends.com
"Cops trying to solve a 20-year-old crime make for a good story." —ArmChairInterviews.com
"The Night Gardener has Pelecanos shooting for a bigger target than your usual detective or mystery novel. There is a clear attempt here at a more philosophical novel about the good and evil sides of society as no one in this novel is simply a good guy or a bad guy" —TheMysterySite.com
PRAISE FOR DRAMA CITY
The New York Times' Janet Maslin calls Drama City by George Pelecanos "lean, stirring, knife-edged" and "red-hot." And raves, "Drama City transports the reader directly into its characters' struggles and gives a visceral sense of each little challenge or victory. . . . Although a downhill trajectory seems inevitable, Drama City leads up to a daring and unexpected finale."
"Drama City may well be the finest example of his recent work." Grade: A- —Entertainment Weekly
"Drama City has the natural shape of a good movie. But it's also a thoroughly satisfying read, making us hope that Brown and Lopez will make another appearance." —Dick Adler, Chickago Tribune
"Pelecanos is showing his softer side here. He's not saying he has all the answers. But he's clearly an optimist." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Without compromising or preaching, Pelecanos works as a social historian, charting the progress, decline and hope of the multicultural, multiracial nation's capital through the trials of a few people. Drama City is a real as it gets." —Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"In this lean, stirring, knife-edged novel, Pelecanos puts the forces of good and evil on a collision course, igniting the kind of suspense that hinges of heartbreak." —The San Jose Mercury News
"Very few contemporary novelists write about the inner city any better than George Pelecanos, and his new one is Drama City." —Bill Reynolds, Providence Journal
"He's a writer of enormous talent, whose work we've come to anticipate with great excitement. So far, Pelecanos has given us no reason to expect anything less than a terrific ride." —Chicago Sun-Times
"Drama City doesn't reinvent or redefine, but demonstrates yet again how fine a writer Pelecanos has become." —Baltimore Sun
"The beginning of what could be a tremendous shift for him [Pelecanos]—a move from hipsterdom to wisdom, from three-chord pop to something more layered and orchestral." —Minneapolis Star Tribune
"He drenches this novel, actually all his novels, with the explicit knowledge of criminal life. Here he also shows his deep familiarity with earned redemption." —New York Daily News
"George Pelecanos owns Washington D.C., the way Raymond Chandler owned Los Angeles. . . . Lorenzo Brown is one of Pelecanos's most finely sketched flawed heroes." —Men's Health
"The increased moral shading staves off predictability and cements Pelecanos's standing as one of the finest crime writers of his generation." —Time Out New York
"Drama City is a stark, dark read that eschews simplistic characterizations. The story, and its characters, will get under your skin and stay there. Highly recommended." —BookReporter.com
"There's greed and hatred and violence in Drama City, but there's also friendship, loyalty, and hope for a better future. I look forward to more of Lorenzo Brown." —BookLoons.com
"No one captures the mean streets of the D.C. neighborhood like Pelecanos. His gritty prose, street-smart dialogue, fast-paced narrative and wonderful character development are what make his books bestsellers — literate ones!" —MostlyFiction.com
"Drama City defies convention . . . his prose is perfect for the subject matter . . . We know what a street corner looks like; Pelecanos shows us what that corner feels like to Lorenzo and Rachel. That's the novelist's job and he does it well." —Collected Miscellany
"While the characters are more complicated, Pelecanos offers his usual transparent prose, stripped down to a burnished shine." —The Agony Column
"George Pelecanos is a very talented writer and this book is highly recommended." —BestSellersWorld.com
"Pelecanos is an intelligent, clear-eyed writer on the top of his form and continents ahead of most of the pack." —ReviewingtheEvidence.com
"Pelecanos paints a gritty, vivid picture of urban life and the people who, for better or worse, live in it." —TheRomanceReadersConnection.com Mysterious Corner
"Drama City is a well written account of struggle and survival in the inner city. I read each page and didn't dare take a breath until I felt it was safe to do so. I found I was riding that emotional rollercoaster as I got closer to the end of the book . . . not wanting it to end but needing to know what happened to the characters I came to care for. Get it . . . read it . . . you'll love it!" —NightsandWeekends.com
"George Pelecanos perfects a sense of effortlessness in his latest crime novel." —ShakingThrough.net
"Readers who are already fans of Pelecanos will find this to be yet another entertaining novel in what is developing into a remarkable career. Those who have not yet had the chance to read his books are in store for an excellent, accessible introduction to the work of one of America's finest novelists." —MysteryInkOnline.com
PRAISE FOR HARD REVOLUTION
The New York Times' Janet Maslin calls George Pelecanos "one of today's most stellar writers of hard-boiled crime fiction" and claims he "writes clean, tight, cogent prose with a heartfelt urgency."
The Washington Post calls Hard Revolution "powerful" and says "no one who lives in this city and reads fiction and cares about the world we live in can afford not to read these books."
People Magazine describes George Pelecanos as "masterly at depicting black-white relations and a cop's moral dilemmas."
The San Francisco Chronicle raves "Pelecanos is in top form as he intercuts between one story line . . . and another . . . the dialogue is real and raw, and, as in the author's other works, the story is set to a rich R&B soundtrack."
The Los Angles Times calls George Pelecanos' novels "beautifully written and sociologically astute."
The Chicago Sun-Times raves, "George Pelecanos has as good an ear for the vernacular of urban America as any writer working in or out of the genre . . . for Pelecanos' loyal fans, Hard Revolution will be an essential addition to the repertoire; for the uninitiated, it will serve as an introduction to one of this country's finest writers, no matter the genre."
Details magazine reviews Hard Revolution: "Pelecanos continues to straddle the racial divide in his new crime novel. . . . No one writing today is better at drilling down to reveal the deep-seated anguish and anger of the working class."
The New York Daily News praises George Pelecanos for being "at the pinnacle of the noir tradition, without pity but with great humanity. Hard Revolution throbs with explicit detail to its conclusion. And though it's a foregone conclusion, its inevitability grabs the reader by the throat even as it reaches for the heart."
New York Newsday raves, "Down the home stretch, Pelecanos is rocking back at the top of his sparkling game."
The Philadelphia Inquirer calls Hard Revolution "Pelecanos' 12th and most ambitious urban western."
Publishers Weekly gives Hard Revolution a starred review, "Written in rich, observant prose, the novel is a brilliant study of a society tearing apart as racial tensions escalate after the King killing; no wonder some observers have pointed to Pelecanos as the kind of thriller writer who should be nominated for a National Book Award."
BookLoons.com writes, "Hard Revolution is brilliant and disturbing, yet it offers glimmers of hope about societal evolution."
"Pelecanos is a great writer and this is a very good book." —MostlyFiction.com
BestSellersWorld.com calls Hard Revolution "everything you would want in a novel."
RebeccasReads.com calls the book "a sobering, atmospheric & engrossing read."
ReviewingtheEvidence.com raves, "George Pelecanos is one of the most compelling crime writers of the present generation. . . . Hard Revolution must count as one of his finest achievements.
"Highly recommended." —The Romance Reader's Connection
"Hard Revolution is a rich, dramatic, totally engrossing story . . . George Pelcanos is flat out the best mystery writer working today and one of the best writers period." —Exclusive Magazine
ThisWeekNews.com writes, "Hard Revolution is a pitch-perfect evocation of a time and place and a certain kind of light now as gone and unrecoverable as the chrome and wing windows adorning the Fords and Chevys prowling Pelecanos' '60s streets."
BookReporter.com notes, "Pelecanos's description of the era in which Hard Revolution is set is simply first-rate."
"George Pelecanos is a brilliant, hard-biting writer...his latest, Hard Revolution, will not disappoint." —ILoveaMysteryNewsletter.com
PRAISE FOR SOUL CIRCUS
Soul Circus is one of USA Today's Best of 2003. They write, "In the realm of crime noir, few contemporary writers connect criminal acts and the society that spawns them as efficiently as Pelecanos. His writing in his 11th novel is as polished and exquisitely honed as the guns that wreak havoc in the neighborhoods where his novels are set."
PRAISE FOR HELL TO PAY