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George Pelecanos

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George Pelecanos

George Pelecanos (born 1957 in Washington, D.C.) is an American author of detective fiction set primarily in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C.

Overview

Greek-American by descent, Pelecanos's early novels were written in the first person voice of Nick Stefanos, a Greek D.C. resident and some-time private investigator.

After the success of his first four novels, the Stefanos-narrated A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, and Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, and the non-series Shoedog, Pelecanos switched his narrative style considerably and expanded the scope of his fiction with his D.C. Quartet. The quartet, often compared to James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, spanned several decades and communities within the changing population of Washington. Now writing in the third person, Pelecanos relegated Stefanos to a supporting character and introduced his first "salt and pepper" team of crime fighters, Dimitri Karras and Marcus Clay.

In The Big Blowdown, set a generation before Karras and Clay would appear (the 1950s), Pelecanos followed the lives of dozens of D.C. residents, tracking the challenges and changes that the second half of the twentieth century presented to Washingtonians. King Suckerman, set in the 1970s and generally regarded as the fans' favorite, introduced the recurring theme of basketball in Pelecanos' fiction. Typically, he employs the sport as a symbol of cooperation amongst the races, suggesting the dynamism of D.C. as reflective of the good will generated by multi-ethnic pick up games. However, he also indulges the reverse of the equation, wherein the basketball court becomes the site of unresolved hostilities. In such cases, violent criminal behavior typically emerges amongst the participants, usually escalating the mystery. The Sweet Forever (1980s) and Shame the Devil (1990s) closed the quartet and Pelecanos retired Stefanos and the other characters that populated the novels.

In 2001, he introduced a new team of private detectives, Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, as the protagonists of Right as Rain. They have subsequently starred in the author's more recent works Hell to Pay and Soul Circus. While these books have cemented the author's reputation as one of the best current American crime writers and sold consistently, they have not garnered the critical and cult affection his D.C. quartet did. Rather, they seem to be continuing the author's well received formula of witty protagonists chasing unconflicted criminals behind the backdrop of popular culture references and D.C. landmarks.

Perhaps sensing this, Pelecanos again switched his focus in his 2004 novel, Hard Revolution, taking one of his new detectives, Derek Strange, back in time to his early days on the D.C. police force. In another interesting move, Pelecanos attached a CD to the book itself, making it perhaps the first novel to literally include its own soundtrack. In 2005, Pelecanos saw another novel published, Drama City.

Pelecanos has written and produced for HBO's The Wire and is part of a literary circle with non-fiction writer and The Wire producer David Simon and Laura Lippman.

As of 2006, Pelecanos lives in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife and three children.

Bibliography

Novels

  • Shoedog (1994)
  • Drama City (2005)
  • The Night Gardener (2006)

Nick Stefanos Series

  • A Firing Offense (1992)
  • Nick's Trip (1993)
  • Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go (1995)
  • Stefanos Novels: Down By The River, A Firing Offence, Nick's Trip (omnibus) (2002)

D.C. Quartet Series

  • The Big Blow Down (1996)
  • King Suckerman (1997)
  • The Sweet Forever (1998)
  • Shame the Devil (2000)

Derek Strange and Terry Quinn Series

  • Right As Rain (2001)
  • Hell To Pay (2002)
  • Soul Circus (2003)
  • Hard Revolution (2004)
  • Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus (omnibus) (2005)
Articles
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