Written in the language of the streets Pelecanos relates the story of the investigation of the death of Asa Johnson. Asa's body was found in a local community garden and the crime is remarkably similar to three unsolved serial killings, from a twenty-year-old case, that detective Gus Ramone remembers all too clearly. The past becomes quickly intertwined with the future dragging the original, now retired, lead detective T. C. Cook and Ramone’s ex partner “Doc” Holiday back into Ramone’s life. These three vastly different men have one soul purpose to catch the killer with or without each other.

George Pelecanos has the uncanny ability to drop the reader in the middle of a brutal crime and the stark reality of eastern Washington D.C's streets, peopled with gangs, drug dealers, and prostitutes, and humanize it; he deftly interweaves the stories of all those involved from the victims, their families, and the neighborhood kids, to the perpetrators and the investigating police officers.

The gritty streets, violence, and stark language are what are expected but the careful construction of all of the characters, their home lives, work environments, and just the background noise of everyday life are the extras that Pelecanos delivers. It is a crime novel that becomes much larger than the crime, tackling issues of race, identity, and choice. If you are looking for a conventional crime novel, one that's neatly tied up, this isn’t it. It is a compelling, very well written story that will have you tracking down more books by George Pelecanos as soon as you set this one down. ( )

I can't call this book a thriller. It is so much more. It is, simply, the best crime novel I've read in several years. This book was my first introduction to George Pelecanos, and already I've added several more of his books to my TBR pile.

The Night Gardener begins in 1985, at the scene of a homicide committed by a serial killer known as "the night gardener"who has been targeting teenage victims. It is here that we are first introduced to three police officers: patrolmen Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday, and detective T.C. Cook. We are offered only a brief glimpse before the novel jumps to 2005. Gus Ramone, now a detective, divides his time between work and family. Dan Holiday is a cop no longer, but provides chauffeur services with security to the wealthy. T.C. Cook, now retired, is haunted by the faces of the serial killers victims, and longs to bring the killer to justice. The discovery of another homicide that bears remarkable similarities to the unsolved cases of twenty years ago brings these three men together.

Let me start my review with a warning. The dialogue in this book is extremely raw, including almost constant profanity and vulgar references. That being said, Pelecanos writes some of the best dialogue I've ever read. Personally, I wish the language could have been cleaner, but it might not have felt so authentic if that had been the case.

The Night Gardener really surprised me, in a good way. I was expecting a page-turning murder mystery which would resolve itself in a tidy black and white ending by the last page. Instead, I found a book which was almost a constant shade of gray, and which compelled me to keep reading because of the powerful questions it made me ask myself. I was especially impressed with the ending of the novel. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll simply say that for me I don't feel that it could have ended any other way.

I also appreciated that Pelecanos avoided so many of the typical plot devices that are present in so many crime novels. For once, I appreciated reading about a police officer who was a devoted husband and father, as opposed to a self-destructive hero. I was also fascinated by Pelecanos presentation of the racial tensions that are present in Washington D.C., and I appreciated that he was able to present more than one viewpoint. Pelecanos has made a fan of me with this one.

If you are looking for a crime novel with true substance, you can't do better than this. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the potty talk. ( )

Synopsis:
The book opens with glimpse at a crime scene in a community garden in Washington D.C. in 1985 where Pelecanos introduces three key detectives. T.C. Cook, a sergeant with 24 years on the force, known as "The Mission Man" with a 90% closure rate. Dan Holiday, known as Doc, is tall, thin, and is results oriented but with little respect for the rules. Gus Ramone, like Doc Holiday is on his second year at Metro DC police force, but he prefers to follow the playbook, stay safe, put in his time and move on. Holiday and Ramone are handling crowd control. T.C. Cook is examining the crime scene surrounding Eve Drake, a young black teenager and the third and latest victim of the "Night Gardener". There is considerable pressure to solve and catch the culprit of the "Palindrome Murders".

Pelecanos then takes the readers to Washington D.C. in 2005. Doc Holiday has been eased out of the police force and instead owns and manages a limo company while Ramone has remained on the force and risen up. As a senior detective, Ramone plays on his strengths to close cases and liberally relies on the skills of those around him. His life centers on his wife and their young daughter and their fourteen year old son who is undergoing some adjustment problems in his new Maryland school.

With Holiday's accidental discovery of another teenage corpse in a community garden in the Southeast D.C. area twenty years later, Holiday and Ramone's paths intersect. Ramone's teenage son had been friends with Asa Johnson, the victim, and Ramone takes an interest in the case.

The Palindrome Murders had suddenly ceased in 1985 but the Night Gardener had never been caught. Holiday suspects that the Night Gardener may have become active again and that Asa was his latest victim. Though he'd left the police force years ago, Holiday finds himself thinking about Asa Johnson and the Palindrome Murders and doesn't trust that Ramone and the detectives will solve the case. Holiday reaches out to retired T.C. Cook to see if together they can help the police locate the killer.

Review:
George Pelecanos has built a strong reputation for authentic dialogue and interesting characters through fifteen Washington D.C. based detective novels and his Emmy-nominated show The Wire. The Night Gardener is my first experience with his work and I can see how he's developed a strong and loyal fan base.

The Night Gardener is carefully crafted and comes together smoothly. While the three main detectives and Asa Johnson's murder is the primary storyline, there are several other narratives and crimes that occur simultaneously. Even the subordinate plot lines and characters are well developed, which heightens the level of suspense. I couldn't tell until the ending how everything would fit together. But when I reached the end, then the details that were floating around in the periphery somehow made sense and I realized how The Night Gardener was so carefully crafted.

I would recommend this book to people fond of forensic and police thrillers, and detective novels. I think it would have special appeal to those familiar with the Washington D.C. area. ( )

Although I knew of George P. Pelecanos before I became obsessed with The Wire (where he was a writer/producer), I hadn't really read him. He's typically categorized with Richard Price, who try as I might I just can't read (& no, I'm not really sure why). I think it was this pairing in my mind that made me wait so long to try one of Pelecanos' books, but I'm glad I got around to it.

The Night Gardener is a police procedural set in Washington, DC. There are murders (both old & new) & cops (both old & new) & perps & victim's families & the world that swirls around all of these. The story is a good one with plenty of twists & turns & some genuine surprises as well as some sadness & futility.

Pelecanos excels, however, in the nuances of relationship & the ways that this is expressed through language. What is said & what isn't said & the choices that people make or don't - this is the bright thread that runs throughout the book. I liked the characters & the way the book muses about partners & fathers without being overtly about partnering & fathering in the same way that it is a book about solving crime with that being both central & at the same time somewhat ancillary.

& maybe all of the above is what makes this book interesting. We often write about writers who transcend genre, as if all genre writing is limited & a book must become something else to transcend it. I'm not sure this is a fair assessment in most cases. Dashiel Hammett wrote books that are squarely in their genre, but that doesn't diminish them. The Night Gardener is a book about crime, but it's mostly a book about people - those who commit crime, those impacted by it, those who look for its perpetrators. Pelecanos acknowledges in some unique ways that these people all have lives & relationships that stand outside of the crime & that those elements in their lives are ultimately more important than the single event. I like that thought & I like that he writes that way & I liked this book. ( )

Solid Pelecanos stuff. Nothing we haven't seen before...save for the lack of a noir ending. It's a good Pelecanos entry point for people who might not be ready for his four-and five-star hard-core books. ( )