The Blue Flame by George Pelecanos

Final power rotation author: George Pelecanos' The Blue Flame

First, a word about Pelecanos. He has something like 24 

novels, novellas, graphic novels, and story books to his credit. All are based in 

and around Washington, DC. Want more? How’s this: he was one of the 

original writers and producers of what many critics say is the best crime series 

on TV . . . EVER: The Wire. Add to that writing/producing credits for streaming 

series Treme, The Pacific, The Deuce, We OwnThis City. IMDB notes 68 credits 

to his work. Nominated twice for Emmy awards (The Wire, Treme). To top it all 

off, he gets quite the nod from none other than Stephan King who calls Pelecanos

 ‘The greatest living American crime writer.’

And I bet you aren’t reading his books. I’m borderline offended. 

 

The Blue Flame continues one of Pelecanos’ regular characters, Derek Strange,  

owner of Strange Investigations, a black PI who owns and runs his own business 

right there in front of all who inhabit his corner of NE DC. A black business

owner who is open dang near 24/7 to help out his neighborhood. Derek 

is a DC native, grew up in NE DC, was a DC cop until the 14th St. riots after 

the death of Martin Luther King, after which he quit and opened up a PI 

agency. He knows his limits. What he can do, what he should do, where 

he might gently step over the line, and importantly understand the relationship 

between a PI and DC Metro police. Nearing retirement, but still can get the job done. 

Billy Lake, a local defense lawyer known for his work mostly with drug dealers seeks 

Derek out. Antone Anthony sits in the DC Metro jail on a murder charge. Lake thinks 

the young man isn’t a killer (dealer: yes; killer: no). Wants  Derek to talk to his friends 

for background information.

Background info: Nigel Walker, Cynthia Barnes, Ricardo Lennox, Antone, and Kenneth 

Norton were all childhood friends. Now in their 20s and trying to figure out their place in 

the DC world. Cynthia had an older brother they all looked up to, but he was cut down 

by a drunk driver. And her mother had died (or run off, can’t remember to be truthful). 

The rest of the boys took in on themselves to look out for Cynthia. Which they did. 

Cynthia and Nigel had this occasional friends with benefits thing going on. But Nigel 

never parked outside of her house cuz he was afraid of her father, a retired DC cop. 

One night, Nigel told Cynthia that he was headed over to see Antone about a money 

beef. Something about cash flow in Antone’s dealing business. Only he never made it. 

A couple blocks removed from Cynthia’s, Nigel is shot in his car. When the police 

investigate, they check out the apts of all five friends and find the gun in Antone’s 

apartment. 

Derek talks to them all. Comes away with some observations, types up his report for 

Bill Lake, gets paid. Short story? He doesn’t think Antone killed Nigel. 

Maybe three weeks later, someone a few streets over from Antone’s calls in a foul odor 

from a junkyard. A body had been squeezed into an old freezer and the smell of decay 

was everywhere. It was Cynthia. 

The problem is that now one set of cops thinks the two crimes are connected and 

another thinks Cynthia was just wrong-place-wrong-time. A coincidence. Word gets to 

Derek and he approaches Lake asking for his contract in the Antone case extended so 

he can dig around a bit further . . . and not piss off the cops. 

Here’s the thing about Pelecanos. He has lived his whole life in Silver Spring, MD. 

Grew up working in small local corner cafes listening to the ebb and flow of DC life. I 

seem to remember reading he volunteered with DC Metro juvenile counseling kids to 

get out of the life. The stories he writes are mostly about DC street crime. Nary a 

mention about the DC intrigue of guv’ment, politics, FBI, CIA, etc. His beat is the 

streets. Based on his history, he comes by his plots and, importantly, the dialogue of 

the DC streets honestly. His brilliant portrayal of the landscape, geography, 

neighborhoods, streets, local details, is, in my opinion, among the best in the crime 

business. He makes DC come alive. Hey, I grew up in Silver Spring, MD. He and I 

attended the same high school (albeit maybe 6-8 years apart). As a local, I am 

continually impressed with his attention to detail about DC and for me, that is an 

enormous selling point. 

Bottom line: Get off your lazy hindparts, head to your local library, Amazon, or 

wherever you get your books and get busy reading Pelecanos. Don’t trust me? See the 

quote from Stephan King above. His previous book was published in 2012, 'What it Was'. 

I do hope we won't have to wait another 14 years for his next. I was getting impatient. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader copy. Expected publication date is August 4, 2026

 

ECD

Owning Up by George Pelecanos

Pelecanos is a supremely gifted crime writer. 21 crime thriller/mysteries to his credit - I've read them all. He's also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter/producer best known for what many critics have said is/was the best crime show ever on television: HBOs The Wire. Add to that other HBO titles like The Deuce, The Treme, and We Own This City. Look him up on IMDB.com

And he graduated from my high school, the venerable Northwood HS in Silver Spring, MD . . . yeah, I'm biased. But I didn't know he was a fellow alum until well after I'd been hooked by his work. 

Owning Up isn't a crime novel. It's four short stories, as always, based in Washington DC:

1. The Amusement Machine: a small timer out of jail after passing some bad checks. On a lark, he puts his name in as an extra for a TV show being shot in Baltimore. Makes friends with an ambitious extra who wants more than to just stand in the background. He's after a speaking role. The check grifter? He's just looking for a score.

2. No Knock:  a successful book and magazine writer's home is the subject of a no-knock warrant being executed. Seems the writer's oldest son was part of a mugging/hold up involving a drug dealer.

3. Knickerbocker: A young woman aspires to write. Wants to write an historical novel. She decides to narrow her research to her family history specifically in the years after WWI. She manages to locate a couple elderly relative and engages in some revealing oral history particularly around a disaster in a movie theater in the pre depression years.

 4. Owning Up: A grown man remembering racial confrontations that have repeatedly descended upon DC over his lifetime. 

Now these are a bit of a departure from his usual street crime forte. From the very start, these seem to be personal. Really personal. All of his books are respected for his skill at developing characters. While searching for a .jpg of the cover, I came across an NPR interview from Feb 2024 (at the time of publication). Turns out, No Knock actually happened to Pelecanos. 2009. Just blocks across the DC/MD border. Lights, cars, SWAT, rifles, to the floor, zip-tied, made fun of by the cops. In the 4th story is considerable detail about being in high school and getting talked into participating in a break-in. Does it sound like the author got roped into driving his car one night?  And who knows just how much else were tales from his life. Betting there are plenty. 

And while there are many reasons to admire his work, one aspect runs true through all his books - Washington, DC. He manages to portray DC geography and its sense of being into a critical character in all his books. I've read tons of mysteries/thrillers based in, or pass through, DC where the authors take liberties with the city (e.g., started walking from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol arriving about a half hour later. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. Given the current DC traffic you'd be lucky to drive that distance in a half hour). Not Pelecanos. He give DC to us as it is, warts and all; importantly, nary a mention of the federal government. Don't believe me? Have a DC atlas open and follow along. 

And he STILL lives in Silver Spring, MD. Has stayed true to his roots. No Hollywood suck up here.

Pick up this book. It's short. You can read all 4 stories in an undisturbed day. And if it's your first Pelecanos book, plan on heading to your library to dive in and appreciate the gift Pelecanos shares with us. 

Dennis Lehane says, "The guy's a national treasure." Stephen King has called him "Perhaps the greatest living American  crime writer." Who are we to argue with the likes of Lehane and King?

East Coast Don (Northwood HS class of '67)

The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos

Michael Hudson makes some bad choices as a D.C. youth and ends up in prison.  There he meets Anna, the prison librarian who changes his life.  She engages Michael in reading, the classics primarily, which make him want to be a better man. 

Michael is suddenly released from prison when a P.I., Phil Ornaizon intimidates a witness into withdrawing his testimony against Michael.  Michael returns to his D.C. neighborhood, finds a job washing dishes, and becomes a voracious reader.  Coincidently, Anna lives in his neighborhood and continues to recommend books to support his new found hobby.  Ornaizon, however, has other plans for Michael.  The P.I. runs a criminal side business where he robs crooks of ill-gotten gains and continually pesters Michael to join him.  Michael feels some loyalty to Ornaizon but truly wants to go straight.

I love the way Pelecanos brings out both the good and bad in his characters.  They are all flawed but have many redeeming qualities that make you root for them and hope they make good choices… such an honest and intimate view of humanity.  No one does this as well as Pelecanos.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance look.

The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos

I’ve been waiting for months for my name to come up on the wait list for the latest from one of my power rotation authors.

“the martini shot”. (n). Hollywood term for the last shot of the day, because the next shot is out of a glass.

For the uninitiated, George Pelecanos is a Washington, DC based mystery writer of 19 previous books, all based in Washington, DC (my home through high school) over different eras in the 20^th century. He is also an Emmy-nominated writer/producer for HBO’s magnificent Baltimore-based The Wire. If you are familiar with IMDB, you know just how persnickety the readers are when it comes to rating movies and television shows. The average viewer rating for The Wire is a whopping 9.4 out of 10. That’s #4 on IMDB’s list of the top 250 TV series (behind Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The World at War; I know you were wondering). He has written and produced for HBO’s New Orleans-based Treme. This guy delivers the goods . . . consistently.

And I think he graduated from my high school in suburban Maryland. I know his older sister did.

His latest effort contains 7 short stories and a novella. Pelecanos is known for his gritty street stories of crime in DC with nary a mention of the US government. Better than anyone I’ve ever read, he captures the rhythm of the time, the people, and especially, the dialogue. For some, me included, the first taste of his books can be challenging because of the street dialect, language, and the in-the-gutter stories of drugs, crime, and both the humanity and inhumanity that exists in neighborhoods many of us avoid.

And in The Martini Shot, he delivers again . . . a couple of days in the life of a confidential informant . . . the problems between a good playground high school basketball player, with a chance to escape the neighborhood, and some street punks he helped whip in a pick-up game . . . just over the DC line millennials looking for drugs.

But Pelcanos takes us elsewhere, too, well out of his comfort zone that readers expect . . . a sweet tale of a Greek immigrant, his wife, their natural born child, and their three African-American adoptees . . . a Miami-based insurance investigator tracking an insurance scam in Recife, Brazil . . . an off-the-boat Greek immigrant trying to make it in DC between the wars.

The novella that gives the book its title appears to draw from his time working on Treme. It, too, is based in Louisiana (unstated, but seems obvious) on the set of a TV mystery where he gives us a behind the scenes look at the day-to-day, and after hours, goings on of the show.

As I said, every story delivers. And while the locales change and some seem almost cherubic in comparison with his novels, death still lurks. Pelecanos is not one of the mainstream, grocery store rack writers who frequent the couches of the talk shows. Check out some interviews or his readings on YouTube.  Even after watching some, I suspect that some might still be on the sideline, unsure about attempting one of his street-smart novels. If so, this would be a good place to sort of ease in. I suspect that those who choose this as their first Pelecanos title will want to jump right in to his novels.

ECD

Right as Rain by George Pelecanos

On the recommendation of fellow blogger ECD, I decided to try something by George Pelecanos.  I chose Right as Rain because it is the first in the author’s acclaimed series featuring Derek Strange and Terry Quinn.  Strange is a black man and former DC cop but now in middle age runs his own successful private detective agency.  Quinn also a former DC cop left the force after he, a white man, shot and killed a black off duty police officer.  Quinn was cleared of any wrong doing but is haunted by the incident as he struggles to come to grips with his own racial prejudice… a prejudice he previously was sure did not exist.

Strange is hired by the off duty cop’s mother to clear her dead son’s name.  Derek tracks down Quinn working at a used book store and finds him forthcoming with details about the shooting.  Because Quinn himself seeks closure about the incident, he agrees to partner with Strange on his fact finding mission.  The two discover they have common interests beyond the case.  They both love music, old westerns, cars and boxing and begin to form a friendship.

 

Their investigation leads to the crime that envelops the grity streets of Washington DC.  They uncover an illegal drug operation that includes prostitution, police corruption and violence.  In dealing with this evil under belly of society and placing their own lives in jeopardy, Strange and Quinn each find their own social and moral consciences.  Strange who has been a ‘player’ most of his life realizes he has feelings for his long time secretary, Janine.  Quinn realizes he has deep seated prejudices that he unknowingly has tried to disguise in his own life.  Their partnership and their friendship seem to fill a void in their respective lives and make them both want to be better people.

Pelecanos is a good story teller and does a great job with character development in Right as Rain.  We learn a lot about the Derek Strange and Terry Quinn characters from the music they like, the books they read, the bars and restaurants they frequent and the cars they drive… all interestingly entwined into the plot.  Even Quinn’s ride a 1969 Chevelle SS 396 with a four speed Hurst shifter tells us something about his personality.  But mostly we learn about how two human beings deal with each other in a backdrop of poverty, violence, and racial prejudice. Herein lies the author’s true gift.

The Double by George Pelecanos

Quick reminder of Pelecanos’ current continuing character: Spero Lucas is one of 3 black children adopted by Greek parents. After high school, Spero joined the Marines and did a tour in Fallujah where he came out physically fine, but his family worries about emotional wounds. Now, he is an “investigator” for a Washington, DC defense lawyer and also freelances finding items of value for a hefty fee.

Three concurrent gigs here:

First, Spero’s lawyer/boss knows he can’t get his current client off a murder charge, but wants Spero to look into the case to see if there is a crack in the evidence, maybe get a reduced sentence. To mull over his next steps, he bikes to a favorite bar where a chance meeting gets the phone number of one muy hot (and married) lobbyist. Second, the bartender has a friend who got taken by a gigilo who snatched a very expensive painting of hers that she desperately wants back and thought Spero was the kind of guy who could find it. Third, Spero’s brother Leo is a high school teacher and can’t believe that Metro PD has struck out on the murder of a former student.

A call a couple days later puts Spero and the lobbyist squarely between the sheets in a pricey boutique hotel. She and Spero become friends with benefits.

Case 1: Spero learns that the victim of the lawyer’s client had some skeletons and her history with a former boyfriend puts doubt in the jury’s mind.

Case 2: A team of 3 scumbags took the painting titled The Double. Billy ‘Hunter’ seduced the lady and his buddies burgled the house and prepare to fence the painting. They also run one of those Nigerian Internet scams and it’s this that Spero uses to track them down.

Case 3: The cellmate of Case #1 says another inmate bragged about killing a high school girl. During an interview at the jail, Spero’s cellmate gives him the details needed to track down the perp.

In and around all three jobs, Spero and the lobbyist continue to boink each other.

Pelecanos brings all three stories to their own righteous conclusion. Just how is what makes his books so damn readable and keep him firmly in the top 2 or 3 in my power rotation along with McCammon and Stella. Spero is, of course, a flawed hero. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong, but it’s somewhat situation dependent. On one hand, he is bound and determined to do right by the defendant, get back the stolen goods, and flesh out a murderer. But at the same time he has no problem contributing to the demise of a marriage and a family. And, based on his military history and the stories about souls tortured by the war, his family tries and tries to get him to seek help. So, stay tuned for Pelecano’s next superb journey into the mind of Spero Lucas.  Damn, another year-long wait.

East Coast Don

What It Was by George Pelecanos

Current day: Derek Strange and Nick Stefanos are lounging in Leo's Bar, high up on Georgia Ave; 2 longtime friends and experience storytellers. Song comes up on the 'box that reminds both of 1972. To some that was the year of Nixon. To Derek, it was the year Red went off. Red? Went by Red Fury - it's a long story. We got all afternoon (words of comfort to we readers).

June 1972: Robert Lee Jones has clawed his way up from street muggings. Now he wants it all. Light skin, tall with reddish hair, rust colored bells, 3" stacks, print poly shirt opened to show his concrete abs. His girl is Coco, equally tall with a look like she's trying for afro of the year. She runs a whorehouse on 14th, drives a red over white Plymouth Fury with gangster whitewalls and a 4 barrel. Fonzo Jefferson runs with Red. Both guys are going to make this summer the summer of Red.

First victim is Bobby Odom, a weasel drug tester for a local dealer. Red wants the dealer's name, gets it, blows Bobby away, steals a ring, 2 tickets to the Roberta Flack-Donny Hathaway show at the Carter Baron, then casually drives away in the Fury.

Hot chick walks into Strange Investigations asking Derek to track down her ring, stolen from now dead Bobby Odom. It's a fake but it has sentimental value, she says. Derek's former partner with Metro PD, Det. Frank 'Hound Dog' Vaughan draws the Odom murder putting them back on the same case, sort of.

Red finds the dealer, shoots him in an alley, steals his stash and his cash. Problem is that this particular dealer is tight with the NY mob. And when no money is coming their way, two thugs are sent down to DC, perhaps their least favorite city.

Red and Fonzo are not done. More vics to kill, reputation to stake. Derek and Hound Dog are a few steps behind, plodding along, 1 clue at a time - from whores, transvestites, barkeeps, tips in NW, Malcolm X Park, Upshur, the Booker T theater. Derek takes his girl to the Carter Baron Amphitheater, sees Red and Coco. Calls Hound Dog and starts to track them. So do the two hitters from NYC and all converge at the same time for the eventual shootout.

Authors write about what they know. Pelecanos is a DC native and all 18 of his books are based there, dating from post WWII to current day. He was a writer/producer for HBOs The Wire and now for Treme. A few years ago, my wife found one of his books in the bargain bin, saw it had two pluses that made it perfect for me: DC setting (my homet0wn), and crime. What sets Pelecanos apart from the rest is he exposes what most of us are glad we never see. His stories are sparse and direct, about characters so real that the stories almost read like a true crime story. I absolutely love his use of DC as an integral character and his attention to period detail that most readers can identify with - there were dang few details that were foreign to me. There is no Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, Joe Pike in his books. You feel that Derek could be the guy sitting in the four top next to you in the corner diner . . . I've never felt that about Reacher or Pike. He even has a Spotify playlist highlighting the tunes he mentions in the book. 'Like' him on FaceBook and get access to short video tours of DC showing the settings he uses in his books. Get used to the melody of the street dialogue (guessing that's the hardest thing for most people), and you are following Strange and Hound Dog around, eavesdropping on their shoulder for the best seat in the house. His previous offering, The Cut, was terrific. So is this one, keeping Pelecanos firmly entrenched in my power rotation.

Learned one other fact about Pelecanos that makes him a bit of a compadre . . . already knew he lives in Silver Spring, MD where I grew up . . . just found out we graduated from the same high school.

For me, this makes two straight winners (this and The Five). Got a feeling I'm in for a three-peat as I'm into Elmore Leonard's "Raylan" featuring the TV's best show (Justified) and lead character (Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens). Life is good.

East Coast Don

The Cut by George Pelecanos

To bastardize a line from the old Houston Oiler's head coach Bum Phillips, "Pelecanos may not be in a class by himself, but it sure doesn't take long to call the roll."

Spero Lucas is one of 4 children, 2 natural and 2 adopted - 2 Greek and 2 African American. Spero spent an important part of his 20somethings as a Marine in Fallujah ending the lives of men bent on ending his. Back home in DC, he now works as an investigator doing legwork for Tom Peterson, JD. Peterson, whose appearance and long blond hair make him resemble the late Brian Jones of the Stones, is defending the guy locked up on a weed trafficking charge. Anwan Hawkins was a wholesaler for marijuana. He has FedEx ship 30 lb. boxes of weed to addresses where he (and his 2-man crew) know no one will be home. Five minutes later, his 2 guys just walk up to the door and pick up the package. Neat.

Except 2 shipments were picked up by persons unknown. Hawkins hires Spero to find either the product of the money from its sale. Spero's cut is 40% (thus the title). Spero takes a liking to Hawkins 2 young aides. But they were seen (by a HS senior neighbor) putting the latest package into a cop's trunk. They've been turned, and DC's MPD is involved. When they go to get paid, they get blown away. The cop part of this 'gang' (the son) is not happy and hates his dad for using him (he never knew his father when growing up. All he wanted was his dad's acceptance, but the old man paid him no attention until he found out the kid was MPD).

Spero does what he does best. Starting with the witness's description of the cop, he tracks the case back to the cop's father, a deflowered former MPD cop who was nicknamed 'Rooster' by IAD back in the day, and his partners. Spero was hired to recover the weed or the money, so he learns where the creep dad lives, breaks in, steals the money, trashes the apartment and leaves a taunt on the bathroom mirror. He takes his cut and returns the remaining, as promised, to Hawkins wife. He's done.

Fat chance. The cop's dad is one very pissed off ex-cop turned thief/murderer. So he grabs the witness and tells Spero it'll be a simple exchange - the money he stole for the kid. Of course, everyone knows Rooster is going to kill both Spero and the kid. So Spero is going to go in hot, but as he is suiting up, he sees the cop leaning on his car. Spero confronts him but the cop convinces Spero his dad is out of control, that his dad plans to kill Spero, and wants to help Spero bring him down, with extreme prejudice. They cook up a plan.

With some slick manipulating, the kid sneaks the victim out one way and he leaves by another. But he calls back to the hideout saying he forgot something and for them to open the door. Only thing is that our cop friend has the victim in his car and is off site. When the door is unlocked, Spero relives clearing a house in Fallujah, sending them all off to their maker. Now he's done, right?

Again, fat chance. Spero still wants to know why Hawkins's partners were killed. They were decent kids earning a living, so to speak. Well, once Hawkins learned that these 2 guys were stealing from him, Spero learns that the Rooster had visited Hawkins who essentially put out a hit on these two kids cuz they had disrespected him and made him look weak on the street. Had to be done. Payback, that's all. Funny thing, attorney Peterson has a few bad days in court and Hawkins is found guilty and put away for a very long time. What goes around, comes around. Payback payback, I guess.

I've been a huge Pelecanos fan for years. Gritty, tough stories all centered in DC where I grew up. And DC and neighboring MD (rarely VA, good move GP) are both integral characters. It's easy to get involved with a story when the picture painted is so vivid and familiar - sort of why WC Don likes TJeff Parker who writes about San Diego.

I remember the first time I read one of his books, how it took almost half the book to get into the rhythm of the dialogue. While reading a recent interview with him, I now know why. GP works as a volunteer at the DC jail trying to counsel juvee offenders to give up the life - that's were he gets his spot on dialogue.

GP has 17 books and I've read them all. Let's see, I think that means of the crime writers in my power rotation, I've read every book by only Pelecanos and Charlie Stella. I think I see a pattern here; I've run the table on 2 authors recognized for the quality, authenticity, and directness of dialogue. Add that to realistic and thoughtful plotting, and making the location integral to the whole package = one o u t s t a n d i n g book. Pelecanos is setting up Spero as the central player in his next few books. And that's the bad thing about being caught up with an author . . . that damn wait.

East Coast Don

The Way Home by George Pelecanos

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a Pelecanos fan on a number of levels. he writes of Washington DC where I grew up, he writes some of the most literate crime fiction today getting compared to Robert Price and Michael Connelly, but stays a bit under the radar of most folks. I've read them all and would find it hard to have much bad to say about any of his work.

Thomas Flynn and wife Amanda have carved out a decent, if unspectacular life with a carpet installation business in NW Washington. A daughter, Kate died at 2 days and their son Chris seemed to get involved with the wrong kind and his history of petty crime and run-ins with the DC court system gets him sentenced to a couple years in the juvenile jail. As the only white kid in his unit, he has to stand up for himself for respect. Once released, he flounders a bit before getting on as a carpet installer on one of his dad's crews where he partners with one of his juve friends, Ben. They work hard, get girlfriends, apartments, and try to keep the fire that burns inside to a slow simmer. They are installing carpet for a snooty lady flipping houses and find under the floorboards, an old gym bag full of money. Chris gets Ben to put it back, but in a weak moment, Ben tells another juve alum, Lawrence, about the find and the money disappears. Not long after, the owners of the money want it back and now Ben, Chris, and Lawrence are drawn back into a life they tried so hard to leave behind. Each day for them is like a day in a 12 step program: Today, I will not be who I once was.

Pelecanos explores the small details and decisions that affect the lives of the DC that lives beneath the more visible government. Past stories have focused more on the crime and retaliation, but this one is more of a journey into the just-under-middle-class social structure and less on the violence (don't worry, that's there, too). He slowly unveils his characters as real people with real everyday problems and the small circumstances that can change one's life. We see Thomas wrestle with his failures as a father with Chris. We see Amanda trying to keep the family unit together by being a gentle mediator. We see Chris, trying to do the right thing, waiver and wrestle with a code from juve that when one of yours is wronged, you don't look for help-you handle it yourself. We see sacrifice, standing up for buddies, redemption and reconciliation on a number of levels. In some ways, this story is a little like the prodigal son (that says more about the father and less about the more visible son). While the old "found lost money" may seem like a trite plot point, Pelecanos makes it real and we feel the exhilaration and temptation at the found treasure, the remorse when they realize it will just lead to trouble, and even when the money is left, the anger that comes from attempts to right wrongs inflicted on friends. In the end, based on the title, you can guess the last couple pages, but that is about all you could guess. I would have titled it "Signal 13". You'll have to read this story to find out why. While it's not up to his best (e.g. "Hard Revolution", "The Lost Gardener"), and his easy way of drawing the reader into the characters might seem pedestrian to some readers, Pelecanos is still on top of his game and loyal fans, like me, will not be disappointed.

East Coast Don

p.s. I goofed on the Star Trek review. Karl Urban (McCoy) did appear in The Bourne Supremacy, but not the character I thought. He was the Russian security guy who chased Bourne all over Moscow in a high speed car chase and ended up getting crushed in that accident in the tunnel.