This novel features Pelecanos' most famous character, Derek Strange. Readers of Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, and Soul Circus know Derek as a 50-something P.I. working the streets of DC. But in this novel, Pelecanos takes us back to two earlier eras of Strange's life. The book's initial chapters are set in 1959, when Strange was a young boy. We see him through some pivotal moments that will determine his character later in life and are introduced to some characters who will figure prominently both later and the book and in the larger story of Derek Strange.

Then we fast forward to the spring on 1968, just before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King sparked the DC Riots, an event that would change the city forever. Derek is a young cop, struggling with the job and with family troubles. His older brother Dennis, whom Derek once admired, is a changed man since returning from Vietnam; Dennis is running with a bad crowd and selling drugs to survive. Derek tries to help, but can't seem to lead his brother back to a better path. But events soon force Dennis to choose between a life of crime and the straight and narrow. Dennis prevents a robbery by alerting the owner of a local grocery of an impending stickup. But is it too little too late?

Pelecanos has done a masterful job of portraying DC as it really is; a conflicted city where nothing is ever simple. He also tells the story of the riots and their impact on the city with clarity and compassion. ( )

Part of a series featuring Derek Strange. This is not the first one written but it is the first chronologically. It features kids & young adults in Washington DC in the 60's; the main part takes place in the days leading up to the assassination of MLK Jr., and the immediate aftermath. It is well-written with lots of period color, particularly the music (although I wondered if he would have mentioned Solomon Burke if Burke hadn't re-emerged.) There are ugly Black criminals & ugly White ones, and heroes & ordinary people. He gives little credence to th honest revolutionary sentiment that some people would have felt at the time.