In the
1990s, my good friend Joltin'
Jay Weesner introduced me to many of the
contemporary crime fiction writers I
enjoy, including
Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Greg Rucka, and
George P. Pelecanos. Like Pelecanos, I was born in
Washington D. C., only two years earlier. However we soon moved, and I enjoy reading what "might have been." Along with Dennis Lehane, George P. Pelecanos has spearheaded a contemporary approach to
"hard-boiled" or
"crime noir" fiction. When I was reading my fisrt GPP novel, I would enjoy pacing around my appartment exclaiming, "
The big blowdown --- the big blowdown -- the big blowdown."
Cribbed from
Wikipedia, "
George P. Pelecanos (b.
1957) the
Greek-American author whose works are mostly in the genre of
crime fiction are set primarily in his hometown of
Washington, D. C. He's also a
film and television producer and a
television writer. He worked
extensively on the superb
HBO series The Wire.
Novelist 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 (though some characters do cross over)
Shoedog, Pelecanos switched his
narrative style considerably and
expanded the scope of his fiction with his
D. C. Quartet. He has commented that he did not feel he had the ability to be this ambitious earlier in his career.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. (Stefanos and other characters do re-appear in subsequent works.)
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 (which won a
Gumshoe Award in 2003) 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, emulating
Michael Connelly who included a CD with his 2003 Harry Bosch book Lost Light.
In 2005, Pelecanos saw another novel published,
Drama City. This book revisited the examination of
dogfighting begun in his book
Hell To Pay. Pelecanos is a dog owner and has written about his views of dogfighting.
In 2006 he published
The Night Gardener, which was a major change of style and which featured a
cameo of himself. Pelecanos has also published short fiction in a variety of anthologies and magazines, including
Measures of Poison and
Usual Suspects. His reviews have been published in
The Washington Post Book World,
The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.
The Turnaround was published in 2008, reflecting a return to his roots, as the novel opens in the seventies in a
Greek diner, and a continuation of his more modern style in the portion set in the present.
Film and television
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
novelist Laura Lippman. Simon sought out Pelecanos after reading his work. Simon was recommended his novels several times but did not read his work initially because of territorial prejudice; Simon is from
Baltimore.
Once Simon received further recommendations, including one from Lippman, he tried
The Sweet Forever and changed his mind. The two writers have much in common including a childhood in
Silver Spring, Maryland, attendance at the
University of Maryland and their interest in the
"fate of the American city and the black urban poor". They first met at the
funeral of a
mutual friend shortly after Simon delivered the
pilot episode. Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of
The Wire as a
novel for television about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home. Pelecanos was excited about the prospect of writing something more than simple mystery for television as he strived to
exceed the boundaries of genre in his novels.
Pelecanos joined the crew as a
writer for the first season in 2002. He wrote the teleplay for the seasons's penultimate episode "
Cleaning Up" from a story by Simon and
Ed Burns.
Pelecanos was promoted to
producer for the second season in 2003. He wrote the
teleplay for the episodes "
Duck and Cover" and
"Bad Dreams" from stories he co-wrote with Simon. He remained a
writer and producer for the third season in 2004. He wrote the
teleplay for the episodes
"Hamsterdam" and "
Middle Ground" from stories he
co-wrote with Simon. Simon wrote the teleplay for the episode
"Slapstick" from a story he co-wrote with Pelecanos. Simon and Pelecanos' collaboration on
"Middle Ground" received the show's
first Emmy Award nomination, in the category
Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
Pelecanos left the production staff of
The Wire after the show's third season to concentrate on writing his novel
The Night Gardener. His role as a producer was taken on by
Eric Overmyer.
Pelecanos remained a
writer for the fourth season in 2006. He wrote the
teleplay for the penultimate episode "
That's Got His Own" from a story he co-wrote with producer
Ed Burns. Simon has commented that he missed having Pelecanos working on the show full-time but was a fan of
The Night Gardener. Simon also spent time
embedded with a
homicide unit while researching his own book
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Pelecanos and the writing staff
won the
Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2008 ceremony and the 2007
Edgar Award for
Best Television Feature/Mini-Series Teleplay for their work on the fourth season.
Pelecanos returned as a writer for the series fifth and final season. He wrote the teleplay for the episode
"Late Editions" from a story he co-wrote with Simon. Pelecanos and the writing staff were again
nominated for the
WGA award for
Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony for their work on the fifth season but
Mad Men won the award.
Following the conclusion of
The Wire Pelecanos joined the crew of the
HBO World War II mini-series The Pacific as a
co-producer and
writer. After a lengthy production process the series aired in 2010. He co-wrote
"Part 3" of the series with fellow co-producer
Michelle Ashford. the episode focused on
Marines on leave in
Australia and featured a displaced Greek family in a prominent guest role. Pelecanos saw the project as a chance to make a
tribute to his
father, Pete Pelecanos, who served as a
Marine in the
Philippines.
Novels:
Shoedog (1994)
Drama City (2005)
The Night Gardener (2006)
The Turnaround (2008)
The Way Home (May 2009)[36]
The Cut (August 2011)
The Nick Stefanos Series:
A Firing Offense (1992)
Nick's Trip (1993)
Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go (1995)
The D. C. Quartet Series:
The Big Blowdown (1996)
King Suckerman (1997)
The Sweet Forever (1998)
Shame the Devil (2000)
The Derek Strange and Terry Quinn Series:
Right as Rain (2001)
Hell to Pay (2002)
Soul Circus (2003)
Hard Revolution (2004)
What it Was (2012)
Your classic American hard-boiled private eye, television division. And I mean classic in every sense of the word. Accept no substitutes.
n a few short years, producers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts would return, helping to create bimbo dicks (
"In the first year of the show, when he worked for Intertech, Mannix, Joe drove a George Barris-customized convertible Oldsmobile Toranado. AMT or MPC made a model of it, in fact (this is true! I had one- ed. ) When he quit Intertech, he went downhill and drove various Dodge Challengers and Darts for the rest of the series. The book, 
