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

The Brothers McKay by Craig Johnson

Second power rotation author: Craig Johnson’s The Brothers McKay.  #22 in

the Walt Longmire saga. 

There is no love lost when a cantankerous, but wealthy, local is found dead in a fishing stream back up Crazy Woman Canyon in Wyoming (Remember the crazy woman from the movie ‘Jeremiah Johnson.’

Year, that one). Not a single person liked Pepper McKay. A prominent

unlikeable wealthy citizen, Pepper McKay, not his family of four 

sons (make that 3.5. One of his sons is illegitimate) all who have motive, are the obvious suspects. His adult sons include a journalist, a monk from a nearby mountain monastery, an accountant (? Not sure about that one). The fourth lives as a ranch hand whose most critical project is breaking a big-ass mule named Borax. 

But there is more. All around the county, the locals are watching the wind as multiple wildfires are threatening valleys, farms, and small towns. Another body is found extending the list of possible suspects. We can’t ignore a former Russian spy, Maxim Sudorov who Walt is

acting as sort of a parole officer (a leftover character from the 

previous book, Return to Sender). The chemistry between Walt and Sudorov is tres interesting. It’s Maxim who points out the similarities of familial treachery to Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (hence, the significance of the book's title) to the case.

The book begins in Johnson’s typical meanderings with locals and co-workers. Walt 

slowly puts pieces of the puzzle together amid the genial back-and-forth typical of the 

Longmire series that makes the characters so comfortable and compelling.

Until the Highway Patrol issues the GO order forcing everyone to get the hell out of 

dodge to seek safety. All that ‘aw shucks’ banter suddenly disappears. The monk runs 

off into the wilderness and the fire. Walt goes after him to stop him from being engulfed 

by the flames.  The smoke and flames become so intense that Walt takes a fall - 

messed up his ankle. As he rolls over to contemplate his immediate future, he sees a 

familiar face: Borax. And now we witness the travails of the cowboy and his trusted 

steed (maybe that’s giving Borax more rope than deserved) as they try to get to safety. 

The whole survival episode is where Johnson earns his chops. The reader may 

wonder if Walt will get out unscathed (probably), but what about the monk? And Borax? 

Compelling story telling at a fever pace after nearly three-quarters of the story was 

more like Gunsmoke on a Saturday afternoon and Miss Kitty’s saloon.  And don’t forget 

why we are all here? The murder of Pepper McKay. 

You need to check this out. But if you already worship at the alter of Longmire, you 

don’t need me to push this book on you. It’s an easy read. Straightforward storytelling. 

Fun characters (well, most are fun), plenty of humor, Native American mysticism, that 

Wyoming landscape.  

What more could you want?

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy. Available May 26, 2026

the advance reviewer copy. Available May 26, 2026

The Crossroads by CJ Box

I hit the jackpot this past month. Three of my power rotation authors have a new release or soon to be published titles. 

 

First power rotation author: CJ Box’s The Crossroads by CJ Box. 

By now, readers of this blog know that the MRB boys are big fans of CJ  Box’s 26 (!) Joe Pickett books. Started in 2001 and has published a book every year since. You’ll recall that Pickett is a Wyoming game warder whose primary task is ensuring that hunters, fishermen, etc. all have their licenses up to date and aren’t exceeding state mandated hunting limits. But always seems to end up being involved with cases that are (well) outside hit state mandates. And this one is no different. Sort of.

Joe’s been told by a hunter of seeing what appeared to be a drunk elk on a ranch. This 

falls under his authority so he goes to check it out. The ranch in question is a bit of a 

drive that takes him out of cell phone coverage. He drives out to where Antler Creek 

Rd crosses some other back country road. At this crossroads, Joe stops to consult his 

map. There are three ranches out here. One biggun’ owned by an Atlanta hedge fund 

manager (code word for ‘loaded’). Another ranch is owned by two borderline crackpot 

sisters. The third is owned by a long-time couple/resident who just wants to be left 

alone and isn’t afraid to face down trespassers, hunters, lawmen, anyone.

So far, basic Joe Pickett plot. 

Until he is ambushed. Shot in his own truck, including a head wound. Left for dead. 

This ain’t your ordinary Joe Pickett book now. A guy out hunting comes across the 

aftermath, calls it in and promptly disappears. Word gets out across the law

 enforcement community like a runaway wildfire. Wife Mary Beth is yanked from a 

library board meeting and taken to the crossroads. Daughters are called in. Eldest 

Sheridan is working as an investigator in the mountain area (works for Cassie Dewell 

featured in Box’s six ‘The Highway’ books). April helps run Nate Romanowski’s bird 

abatement business. Both are tough and not to be messed with. Lucy has just returned 

from a university experience in Europe. Not to mention there is a new sheriff in town 

and this is his first big case. Box and Mary Beth are airlifted to Bozeman, MT. Before 

doing anything drastic medically, the brain swelling must be controlled and the medical 

team puts Joe into a medical induced coma. 

Have to admit, when the primary protagonist for 25 books is gunned down in the first 

chapter, it’s painfully obvious that other typically secondary characters will have to step

 up. And the three daughters do just that. Each daughter gets one of the three ranches 

at the end of this road to find out who is behind the attempt on their father.

The Joe Pickett series is legendary for the devotion of its readers and Box certainly 

knows how to set a hook. When was the last time an author put the lead name out 

front and then nearly blew the lead into kingdom come? Had I not had a life that 

demanded attention, the sheer audacity of the plot would’ve kept me glued to my seat 

to see how Box puts the daughters front and center in the storyline while Joe is 

attended to by a team of neurosurgeons. The girls are up to the task because they are 

tough, resourceful, committed, and seriously angry. 

Gotta love it. Should be painfully obvious that Box is taking us into the world of the 

Pickett daughters while daddy recovers (and maybe retires?). Leave it to a great 

storyteller to leave us breathlessly waiting for episode #27 next year. 

And it’s in bookstores so you won’t have to wait. 

 

ECD 

 

The Keeper

 This is not actually a review of the content of Tana French’s new book The Keeper.  I did not realize just how important the voice is in an audiobook, but I quickly realized it with this one. I only got about 2% into the book when I simply could not stand to listen to the narrator. The voice was too slow, too dramatic and hysterical, so I gave up. Although I liked and gave positive reviews of a couple of her early books, and although I did review six of her books, I’ve not been a great fan of her writing and haven’t read her work since 2018. Anyhow, perhaps this book would have turned the tables for me since she is obviously a very successful writer. But, the narrator soured my mood. I even tried to listen to it a day later – just could not do it. Now, duh, I've developed a new appreciation for most of the great narrators that have brought me so much pleasure. I didn't realize that I was taking them for granted. No more! Maybe you won't be turned off to this reader the way that I was.

The Butcher's Boy

 The Butcher’s Boy by Thomas Perry, a very prolific writer, published his first novel in 1982, and he won an Edgar Award for it. Although I listened to this audiobook to the end, I thought the best part was the introduction, I’m guessing it was written in the early 2000s, by Michael Connelly. He wrote about struggling with people who were complimenting his own writing only to have someone say they still liked his first book the best (The Black Echo published in 1992).  Connelly wrote this introduction at a time when Connelly had already written 12 books, so he lamented that such a back-handed compliment meant his time since the first publication must have been time squandered. He described feeling some difficulty with his feeling that The Butcher’s Boy was also Perry’s best work. Connelly added that his own reaction to such a compliment did eventually change and he was able to respond more kindly to those compliments. (I’ve read The Black Echo several times, and while I think it was a very good story, Connelly is the master of this genre, and he has in fact written more and better works.)

My primary problem with this audiobook was the narrator. The man spoke in too slow a cadence and there was a slight slur to his words, as if he was a bit drunk. The story itself was quite solid as you might guess given its history of winning the Edgar, but I think the novel would be better received by reading it and not just listening. I’m not really motivated to read the second book in the series, at least not in the audiobook format with the same narrator. The reviews of the four-book series have been quite favorable.

 

Against All Odds

 It was about a year ago that I read and reviewed my first Richard Danzig novel, The Collectors. It was the third in a series of novels about Chance Cormac, a Brooklyn attorney. Against All Odds is the fourth book in the series and I thought it was a better read than the prior one. There were three main story lines in this novel. One had to do with Chance’s choice to confront a very dangerous woman who was the head of a corrupt triad group based in Hong Kong. It was a story that was a sequel to The Collectors, and once again, it showed Chance’s willingness to put his life at risk in order to help his friends and to right a wrong.

The second storyline had to do with the ICE arrest of Dr. Lyla Abda. She was born in Syria where she overcame the most difficult circumstances at home in her country and win scholarships to a university. Her successful scholarship next won her admission to a medical school in London. After medical school, she began working on various projects to feed impoverished and malnourished refugees in various locations in the world. She ended up writing a paper about malnourishment that was published in a medical journal. She was then invited to do research on that subject at Yale. Based on the misinterpretation of that research paper, in the US, she was charged as being a terrorist. When she was ordered to be released from custody, the government shipped her off to a notorious prison in El Salvadore. Chance took on that case which ended up leading to him getting shot in the chest while delivering a public challenge to the ICE operation. He barely survived. You’ll have to read the book to learn about the resolution of this matter.

The third story line was the continuation of Chance’s troubled personal life. He had a relationship with Sally that he was very certain would lead to marriage. As a younger woman, Sally had a daughter via IVF from a sperm donor. The pregnancy resulted in the birth of Melody who turned out to be a bright and talented student and athlete. Chance loved both Sally and Melody. When Melody was in high school, they investigated who the sperm donor might have been and learned that it was a man named James, a pro tennis player who had briefly played on the pro circuit, but who had retired to become a tennis teacher. He then became Melody’s coach, and she loved the attention of both men. James became a part of the family, and Chance felt quite threatened by is love for the two women. But James had a serious and eventually fatal diagnosis of cancer, and Sally decided that the father of her child deserved to have a true family experience with what a short life he had left, and she agreed to marry him. Chance was incredibly wounded by the experience, and he exited himself from the family although his live for Sally and Melody was unchanged. As James’ disease progressed to its fatal conclusion, Melody became severely depressed and withdrawn from school and her tennis activities. The resolution of those problems was most touching and brought this novel to an end.

I enjoyed the author’s three stories, and I look forward to see what will happen with Chance’s personal life, as well as learning what important social issues he chooses to write about.

The Conviction

I’ve reviewed at least eight novels by Robert Dugoni, most of which I’ve commented about very favorably. The Conviction does not stand up to the author's prior efforts. This is meant to be a thriller about the never-loses lawyer, David Sloane. Written in 2012, the story surrounds Sloane and a friend choosing to take their boys on a wilderness hike. The story surrounds the boys running afoul of the law in a small California town which has been purchased in its entirety by a very wealthy man who wants to run a tight ship with regard to even the pettiest of crimes, or really, just bad manners. The boys are arrested for sneaking out at night and breaking into a small store at night, and before Sloane and his friend can even wake up the next morning, the boys have been tried and sent off to a juvenile boot camp respectively for 6 months and 12 months. Then Sloane and his friend are arrested for being rude to the judge who had sentenced the boys.

I thought the story was ridiculous. Those of us who love thrillers and murder mysteries must suspend judgement to some extent regarding the circumstances that we’re reading about, but the stories can’t go too far away from reality to keep us interested. This one crosses that line the wrong way. I got to the one-quarter mark of the book and decided I had better things to do with my time.

I’m not recommending this one. Good authors can’t write a winner every time, and this is just one of those books that does not qualify.

I Shall Not Want

 

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming is this author’s sixth book in her Fergusson/Alstyne murder mysteries. If you’ve been following my reviews of these books, you’ll know that I’ve had quite favorable opinions of those novels. Please search for those comments in this blog. In this story, the relationship between the two protagonists is finally consummated, this being made possible by the murder of Alstyne’s wife of 25 years. However, as seen in the earlier books, Spencer-Fleming does not make that happen easily. Both parties are torn between living according to high ethical standards and the obvious sexual craving that they have for one another. In addition, the mutual self-tortures of Clare and Russ are accompanied by serious criminal activity of others that must be solved. As we’ve seen in prior stories, this involves Clare overstepping the usual boundaries expected of an Episcopal priest and Russ rushing into a dangerous circumstance and getting injured. This time he was shot in the chest, and while close to death, he survives to fight and love another day.

 At this point in the series, I was screaming for the consummation to finally happen. I thought the author really took much too long to get there. From the above paragraph, you get my sense that these stories have gotten a bit formulaic. I just did not enjoy this book much as the earlier ones, but I also know that even the best authors do not always write winners. I do find it remarkable that this reviewer is a nontheist and it is a surprise, even to me, that I’ve gotten this far with a character who is a deep-faith Christian who makes frequent referrals to scripture. Given that I started reading about Clare and Russ in the 11^th book, At Midnight Comes The Cry, and I gave that one a 5-star review.

Theo of Golden

Theo of Golden is not a murder mystery, and it’s not a thriller. It is a wonderful read. Theo, an 86-year-old man suddenly appeared in Golden a small southern Georgia town. He was a wealthy man, but he was quite secretive of his own history. He talked only guardedly about his past and the source of his wealth. He did make friends of the locals, and he was especially enamored with the work of a local artist who was trying to market himself by drawing portraits of local people who frequented a certain coffee shop. The portraits were for sale, but no one was buying them, and the owner of the shop began posting them on the walls of his establishment. Theo hit on the idea of buying the inexpensive works and giving them to the subjects as long as they would reveal to him their stories. He also began to anonymously pay for other needs, like the medical care of those who could not afford it and rehabilitation costs to those in need.

Theo had talked about staying in Golden for at least a year. In that time, he became friends with many people, but when a year went by, he heard the sounds of an assault going on just outside the apartment he was renting. He went to intervene, but fell in the process and died. It was in response to Theo’s death that the author revealed some of Theo's secrets.

I’ll just say that this was a beautiful story about the benefits of charity and generosity. It is certainly not a story that I would seek out, but my daughters and my wife who are prolific readers all convinced me that I would enjoy the story. They were right. It left me thinking how I might be more generous and how listening to others tell their stories could be so enlightening and helpful. I’m not sure I’ve done the plot justice in this review, and I should add that the cast of characters with whom Theo interacted were most interesting. I’ll give this book a 4+ rating and I think you’ll be happy after diving into the story.

 

No Prisoners by Ellis Blake

The proverbial happy family living a comfortable life in the wooded mountains outside of Santa Fe. Hannah and Adam Lyon are PhD physicists. She is the breadwinner working in a private research organization. Adam may also have the degree but is lacking is something else. Drive? Ambition? He'd tried for some time to solve an unsolvable equation in physics (the Yang-Mills equation. It's real. Look it up. Way way way above my paygrade. Even Sheldon Cooper would be stumped) before giving up on physics and his career. In looking for other work he ended in construction. They have a 10yo son, Adam, who is a Type 1 diabetic. We don't learn much about Adam's background. Hannah's background? Yuck. Abusive father and submissive mom. Father continually beat up his wife and had no qualms about telling Adam he was a total loser who didn't deserve Hannah. 

Life in the Lyon household was going along OK until it wasn't. Adam just up and disappeared. No clues. No warnings. Just here today. Gone tomorrow. Without a trace. Police assume basic domestic issues. Guy got fed up and just left to find something, anything, better. 

Hannah isn't convinced. Lou Hunt is the detective who caught the case. He's a late-career Santa Fe police detective with a heart problem. Married with an adult daughter. He thinks Adam either bolted or got caught up in some criminal activity, drugs or human trafficking, and got his just rewards. And Hunt has issues of his own that he isn't proud of and must eventually make amends with his family.  

Not Hannah. Adam's been missing for 5-6 weeks when book begins. She constantly badgers the police who've effectively written her off. Except for Hunt. He'll al least talk with her about possible theories and continually pesters Hannah to tell him every possible scenario for a connection. Even back to her father who, mysteriously, also just up and disappeared a few years earlier. Hunt now ends up with two missing persons cases. 

Hannah's inability to let it go, that he's just gone, ends up making her paranoid when she repeatedly sees a red Jeep Cherokee following her around. As they say, you're not being paranoid if someone really is following. Returning from an outing, she finds her home has been broken into. Whoever did quite the job on her house. She looks high and low for anything that could be missing. Nothing. 

After searching every square inch of the hillside house, she ventures underneath the deck to check on the crawlspace that was unopened and undisturbed. But she also notices that a few of the overhead joists have been sealed. She pries open one seal and finds neatly stacked bundles roughly the size of a paperback. Odd. She pulls one out, tears off the paper and finds bundles of $100 bills. Pulling out all the bundles, she has discovered a whopping $3.9 million. Only reason to find that kind of money has to be drugs. 

Up until now, the story has been plodding along. Now the story skips into high gear. Hannah won't tell the cops because they think she's loony. She's got the money that means she's got some leverage. So she takes the investigation on herself. Think about that. An amateur with a bundle of cash (which someone is really gonna want to get back), a mostly disinterested police force, a missing husband, and a diabetic  child. 

Prepare for multiple twists (might help to keep a notepad nearby to keep track) over the last quarter of the book. 

The 'about the author' blurb says that Ellis Blake is a pseudonym for a NZ-based writer with nine mysteries to his credit but not much else. What I can say is that once Hannah uncovers the cash, the book really does abruptly accelerate to a breathtaking pace with most (but not all) issues being resolved without a tidy storybook happy ending. Have to say, I found Blake's writing style to be right up my alley. Lean, aggressive and sparse without a lot of unnecessary narrative clogging up the story. Pretty sure I'll be checking the library for any of his earlier eight books. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader copy. Publication date is 21 July 2026. 

 

ECD 

   

A Gift Before Dying

 

A Gift Before Dying by Malcolm Kempt is a detective novel that takes place in Alaska, specifically above the Arctic Circle in desolate territory that is barely inhabited by the Inuit. Not only is the territory sparsely inhabited, but there is only minimal infrastructure. Cell phones don’t work. This is one of the darkest stories I’ve read about a failed detective who has essentially been assigned to this territory as a punishment for botching a prior famous murder investigation. Corporal Elderick Cole’s life is further troubled when he finds the hanging body of a teenage girl, Pitseolala, who he had vowed to protect. Initially, the case is thought to be a suicide, but Cole figures out it was murder. Meanwhile, the Inuits with whom he interacts are often drunk, and the skies are always without sunlight. Plus, the temperatures, snow, and wind are nearly always brutal. 

As Cole pursues the case, he constantly reflects on his own failed marriage and the failure of his relationship with his only child, a teenage daughter. If he can solve the case of Pitseolala’s murder, at least he would have saved one aspect of his failed life. It’s a well-written story, but all the characters are depressed, drunk, stoned, and otherwise troubled. As a reader, I found it hard to find someone with whom I could identify.

After posting this review, I received the following suggestion for correction: "I believe the story took place in Northern Newfoundland, an Eastern Canadian arctic location, not Alaska. Author is Canadian."