What It Was

Starred review from February 20, 2012
At the start of this action-driven novel, a special treat for longtime Pelecanos fans, two old friends, Derek Strange and Nick Stefanos, enjoy a few drinks in a Washington, D.C., bar, where Strange relates a story that has become the stuff of myth on the streets. Flashback to 1972, one of the most volatile and exciting years in the country's history. Strange, who left the D.C. police force after the â68 riots, has set up shop as a private investigator. A young woman hires Strange to find a stolen ring, and the case soon leads him to a homicide scene, where he meets up with his former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn. Vaughn is on the trail of a killer, Robert Lee Jones, whose street name, Red Fury, fits not just his temperament but his formidable girlfriend's sleek red-over-white Plymouth Fury GT Sport. As Vaughn and Strange work their respective cases, a series of increasingly brazen and violent crimes keep bringing them together. They quickly realize that the only way to take down Red Fury is to do it their own way. Inspired by a real chapter in D.C. history, Pelecanos (The Cut) gives us the rich period detailâthe cars, clothes, music, and attitudeâof the 1970s. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM.

Derek Strange knows something's wrong when a woman hires him to track down a worthless ring, but his private detective business is slow, and the woman is hauntingly attractive. In Washington, D.C., in 1972, the air is rife with change, if not outright revolution, when Strange gets caught up in something big and dangerous. Author George Pelecanos writes with the same streetwise authenticity he brought to the HBO show ÒThe Wire,Ó with memorable characters cut from the same cloth. Narrator JD Jackson's characterizations are so spot-on that listeners will see the hookers, pimps, junkies, killers, and a particularly talented cop named Frank ÒHound DogÓ Vaughn. It's strong stuff, pure adrenaline. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine