police procedurals

George Pelecanos is one of those writers you start reading and then in spite of having to take out the garbage, or check the parking meter, or pop a prescription pill, you can't put the book down. What he does is hook you by making his characters so fleshed out, so well drawn, so real, that it's all you can do to stop--even if your wife, husband, girlfriend, or boyfriend is yelling at you because they need something immediately.

Hard Revolution, set in the late 50s, then the late 60s around Pelecanos' neck of the woods, Washington DC, seamlessly fuses a tale of social issues, day to day life of the working class, and hard crime. It does this by focusing on, as noted, the characters. Pelecanos does this a whole lot better than a slew of other writers working today. It's the characters that drive the situations they're in--whether they create the situations, or are forced into them, or stumble upon them.

Derek and Dennis Strange, brothers, are anything but two peas in a pod. The sons of a solid black working class couple, they live their lives the way they see fit. Dennis drifts--by the time the main action gets underway--1968--he's a VietNam vet and is directionless. This prompts him to move in drug circles, with those a lot nastier and more violent than he is. After getting caught by the proprietor of the store he tried to steal from when a kid, Derek gets his life straight and becomes one of the first black cops on the DC force.

No Pelecanos novel would exist without Greek characters and they're here too. But more than that are three lowlife white guys (Buzz and Dominic are two of the names, instantly giving you a sense of the time) whose actions ignite the black-white tension that forms the crux of the novel. Martin Luther King figures prominently here, so Pelecanos has made this far more than a crime novel--although crime itself is present, thanks to both the white and the black guys who just have to get what they want right away, whether it's the murder of an innocent black teenager, or the theft of a piece of jewelry.

One of the author's trademarks is definitely in evidence here as well--the music of the time. While this can even be slightly annoying (over and over, he quotes the name of the song and of the artist who sang it, listened to by a number of characters), eventually you really sink into the feel of the street in 60s DC, the atmosphere of the time, the rhythm of day to day life.

And in fact it's the description of this day to day life at which Pelecanos excels, and because of which this is such a compelling read. It's not so much the minutiae that he describes, but the way the characters respond to very select details of their lives as they're lived that gives this novel its meat and flavor both. When crime does erupt, it's sudden and violent and inevitable and intense, and at the same time it's what you KNOW will happen because it's what the character who's committed it HAS to do.

This is a great, immensely satisfying novel that is a solid addition to the Pelecanos canon. Highly recommended.

In HARD REVOLUTION, George Pelecanos takes Derek Strange (hero of his three previous books) back in time to age 13, and then up through his early 20s to 1968. Much of the book involves the choices that Derek and his older brother Dennis make, and by extension, choices that face young economically disadvantaged men in the inner cities. Derek, after being caught shoplifting, vows to stay on the straight and narrow and eventually becomes a cop. Dennis, who does have good intentions, falls in with two friends planning a crime spree.
Pelecanos is often categorized as merely a "crime" writer, but let's give him more credit than that. Who else is writing with such clear-eyed intensity about the difficulty that black and white have understanding each other? This theme is explored further in RIGHT AS RAIN and the other Derek Strange novels. Derek's father works under a white boss at a diner...the two men have a long relationship but are still awkward with each other. Derek finds that his white partner, despite his liberalism, doesn't really understand the experience of being a young black man.
Derek commits a violent act in HARD REVOLUTION, during the climactic riots after the Martin Luther King assassination. This act, which resonates in the earlier Strange novels, prompts him to find a more meaningful way to be a part of his community and really changes his entire life. Pelecanos has come to own DC the way Connelly and Crais owns LA and Parker owns Boston....Highly recommended, but try RIGHT AS RAIN first.

HARD REVOLUTION is another stunning book by Pelecanos, taking us back to the turbulent year of 1968, after first making a brief stop in 1959. Pelecanos is an acquired taste because when he tells his story he holds nothing back no matter how distasteful the acts may be. Modern hardboiled at it's nastiest but brilliant in capturing the mood of the people and the time.

Before HARD REVOLUTION came the Derek Strange trilogy of RIGHT AS RAIN, HELL TO PAY and SOUL CIRCUS. Set in present day Washington D.C., they featured the black private detective struggling to earn a buck while making every effort to ensure the children from his neighbourhood had a chance to make something of themselves rather than being drawn into the gang lifestyle. Now we are taken back in time, first to 1959 and then to 1968 to meet the young Derek Strange.

Unrest simmers close to the surface as everyone senses that there is a social change in the air. This part of the story is paced by constant updates about the approaching rally in Memphis that Martin Luther King JR is due to speak at. So apart from the fictional tension built up by the actions of Pelecanos' characters, there is also the added tension that comes from knowing the true events that about to take place.

This is not what I would term your usual crime novel because there is no clear single plot. Rather, it travels along many paths and gives an insightful commentary about social unrest in a tumultuous period of modern history. Murders take place, murders are solved, but they are more or less incidental to the story which is more a focus on the characters and the period of time in which they lived. It's a powerful book that deals with sensitive issues in a hard-nosed way.