Hell to Pay

Another down to earth and gritty visit to the D.C. underbelly (no, not the White House), where Black Lives don't matter, except to the readers. I personally felt the pain of these people, especially the young blacks who have few choices in life, and staying alive every day is the number one choice. This story was really sad when a young boy is shot and killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The really sad thing is that it's also hard not to feel bad for the boys that shot him. Their behavior is the only way they know how to cope with their pathetic lives of kill or be killed.

Fortunately, there are also some good people in the stories - good, but not perfect. Some are far from perfect, but still likable, and capable of show more improving, so we cheer them on from the comfort of the other side of the book pages, which is where I want to be when reading these stories.

The main hero is strange - Derek Strange, actually, a PI/former cop and owner of Strange Investigations. He has a couple of interesting assistants - the first being a younger, black man who worries more about his fancy clothes than most anything else. He doesn't like to wear his fancy coat in the car because it'll get wrinkled and look like something from Burlington Coat Factory. Then there's a newer part-time assistant, a former white cop, Terry Quinn, who left the force after accidentally killing a black undercover cop in what many thought had racial undertones. A somewhat strange pair, but they become good friends pretty quickly.

The book is written with a realism that makes everyone come to life, and the language sounds genuine and entertaining. I worked with a lot of Blacks in Oakland at the main post office way back, and got to know the talk pretty well, and this sounds right to me. show less

Another book with connection to The Wire: George Pelecanos is a well-known Washington, DC crime novelist infamous for writing the penultimate episodes for each season where terrible things happen to major characters. This was the first book of his I picked up and though I've read and enjoyed a few others by now, I think this is the best one I've read so far. It's the second book of his Derek Strange series, featuring Strange and his fellow private investigator (and fellow ex-cop) Terry Quinn trying to track down the perpetrators of a murder over a drug debt while also looking for a runaway girl who turned to prostitution. I can easily see why David Simon picked up Pelecanos for The Wire: the prose is taut, visual, and seems almost show more tailor made for a screenplay, and the dialogue's vernacular is note-perfect. Similarly, the plot would fit right in on a police procedural show or on a possible McNulty spin-off show. One thing that really impressed me was Pelecanos' musical tastes; both his range (some name-drops: Ennio Morricone, The Clash, Otis Redding, Springsteen, The Blackbyrds, Stanley Clarke, George Jones, James Brown, Randy Travis) and his skill at organically interweaving the book's soundtrack with its characters. Both the "good guy" protagonists and "bad guy" antagonists are fully rendered and alive, and right after I finished this book I immediately reached for another. show less

pretty damned good read. hard-boiled type of ex-cop detective with his own problems engaged me right away. GP has a great ear for dialogue--at least it seems so to me--and he's got his protagonist saying the most memorable line: "Can't no murder ever be SOLVED."

This is one of the best mysteries I’ve read in years. The strength of Hell to Pay lies with the meticulous detail Pellecanos imbued into his characters and neighborhood atmosphere. Pelecanos spends quite a bit of the book establishing his characters. The main crime happens over halfway through the novel. Despite the delay, the novel doesn’t drag in the slightest.

(Full review at my blog)

Fine for an airport/travel read. I'm not qualified to rank this against other private detective novels. As a former resident of Washington, D.C., I'm biased: Finally, a novel, geography and a voice that resembles D.C. And with a black detective! How does he know so much stuff when he was never a cop or private detective himself?

Also, FWIW, Pelacanos has writtern for The Wire TV series.

Here, Strange and Quinn are both former Metropolitan Police Department Officers. Strange is an older African-American man who keeps his office right in the city on Bonifant Avenue as sort of an example to younger men in the area. Quinn is Caucasian and a bit younger than Strange. Quinn left the police force after a controversial shooting in which internal affairs found his actions to be “right as rain.” This story takes place some time after the events in “Right as Rain” and Quinn now has a private investigator’s license and assists Strange with cases.

One case involves Quinn working on finding a teenage runaway who more than likely is now working the mean streets of Washington, D.C., and Quinn makes contacts with other street show more workers as he attempts to find Jennifer and free her from the life she has been reduced to. Along the way, he has to deal with Worldwide Wilson, Jennifer’s pimp, who towers over Quinn. Pelecanos does a great job of showing Quinn’s discomfort when Sue Tracy, another investigator, actually rescues Quinn.
Another subplot of the book is the Peewee football team that Strange and Quinn coach and how the uncle of one of the players is caught up in the life and how that eventually leads to trouble.

All in all, another terrific book in a top-notch crime series. One of the hallmarks of a Pelecanos novel is the backdrop of music and cars. You always feel the music pumping in the background of his books. show less

There’s a Stephen King quote on the cover of the next Pelecanos books I plan to read: “Perhaps the greatest living American crime writer.” I’m only two books in but I tend to agree. I was so impressed with A Firing Offense that I picked up this one though it is out of series order. Doesn’t matter. I wanted more.