Scan barcode
duparker's review against another edition
4.0
For a second time read, this book still is interesting and engaging. The characters are interesting and felt really comfortable. I love the detail about Washington DC as a city you live in, and not as a political background.
kathieboucher's review against another edition
5.0
This is the prequel of a series? I'm in. One great read. DC in the period between 1959 and 1968--the action builds up to the events of the day of Martin Luther King's assassination. The locations were fun and recognizable, the music was right, and other period details were right on.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
The Strange brothers grow up in Washington DC in the 1950's and 60's and take radically different paths. Derek becomes a cop while Dennis doesn't become much of anything. Can Dennis avoid ending up in jail for running with the wrong crowd? Can Derek keep his personal feelings out of his police work?
The fourth Derek Strange tale is a story from Derek's youth, showing what decisions he made that made him a bad ass private detective in the present day. Pelecanos uses historical events and the music of the time to paint a vivid picture of what it must have been like to be young and black in Washington DC in the 1950's and 60's.
Hard Revolution reminds me more of the DC Quartet than it does the other Derek Strange books. It feels more literary and, while there are elements of crime fiction, the book is more about the characters. Derek, who walks the straight and narrow for the most part, and Dennis, who is young and angry and living off of the Strange parents and a military pension. Strange, while thirty years younger, is still recognizable as the Derek Strange of the past three books. Even at a younger age, he's a ladies man, into Westerns, and into soul music. Some things never change.
All the usual things that thrill me about Pelecanos novels are here: period-appropriate pop culture references, cameos by other characters living in Pelecanos' DC, Big and Little Nick Stefanos in this case, and tensions simmering until they come to a explosive climax.
The assassination of Martin Luther King is the pin that gets pulled from the grenade in Hard Revolution and sets Washington DC into chaos. Strange and the other cops work themselves nearly to death trying to maintain order while the city burns. By the end, it's pretty apparent why Strange decides to quit being a cop sometime after this novel.
That's about all I have to say. Hard Revolution is yet another enjoyable novel from George Pelecanos. At this point, I expected nothing else.
The fourth Derek Strange tale is a story from Derek's youth, showing what decisions he made that made him a bad ass private detective in the present day. Pelecanos uses historical events and the music of the time to paint a vivid picture of what it must have been like to be young and black in Washington DC in the 1950's and 60's.
Hard Revolution reminds me more of the DC Quartet than it does the other Derek Strange books. It feels more literary and, while there are elements of crime fiction, the book is more about the characters. Derek, who walks the straight and narrow for the most part, and Dennis, who is young and angry and living off of the Strange parents and a military pension. Strange, while thirty years younger, is still recognizable as the Derek Strange of the past three books. Even at a younger age, he's a ladies man, into Westerns, and into soul music. Some things never change.
All the usual things that thrill me about Pelecanos novels are here: period-appropriate pop culture references, cameos by other characters living in Pelecanos' DC, Big and Little Nick Stefanos in this case, and tensions simmering until they come to a explosive climax.
The assassination of Martin Luther King is the pin that gets pulled from the grenade in Hard Revolution and sets Washington DC into chaos. Strange and the other cops work themselves nearly to death trying to maintain order while the city burns. By the end, it's pretty apparent why Strange decides to quit being a cop sometime after this novel.
That's about all I have to say. Hard Revolution is yet another enjoyable novel from George Pelecanos. At this point, I expected nothing else.
gregtrob's review against another edition
4.0
I had issues with this book, just due to having read books later on that had some of the characters from this one. All in all an excellent read as expected from Pelecanos.
evipefi's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
I had to fight me through more than half of the book until I got honest interest in how the different individual stories would turn out. At the beginning, it was just too many characters that confused me and I didn't really enjoy reading.
A pity, because for me, the last chapters were really thrilling and didn't want to put the book out of my hands anymore.
I had to fight me through more than half of the book until I got honest interest in how the different individual stories would turn out. At the beginning, it was just too many characters that confused me and I didn't really enjoy reading.
A pity, because for me, the last chapters were really thrilling and didn't want to put the book out of my hands anymore.
martyfried's review against another edition
4.0
This book tells about Derek Strange and his family from his early days, up to his days as a policeman, including why he left and became a PI. If you're a fan of this series, this will be an interesting read. As usual, it's down-to-earth gritty and violent, but also educational, telling about what life is like for blacks in Washington, DC. This one includes the days of MLK and his death, and the violence that broke out in DC afterward.
And by the way, this was a new narrator for me, Charles Canada, and I thought he did an excellent job.
And by the way, this was a new narrator for me, Charles Canada, and I thought he did an excellent job.
nonna7's review against another edition
5.0
This book introduced Derek Strange a rookie cop in Washington, DC. The description of the book in Goodreads is incorrect. Terry Quinn doesn’t appear in this book even though it says it is a Derek Strange/Terry Quinn novel.
The book opens in 1959 when Derek Strange is only 12 years old. His ambition is to be a police officer. His father is a short order cook at a local diner. His mother is a domestic worker. One of her employers is a police detective, Vaughn, and his wife, Olga. Vaughn loves his wife but he strays on a regular basis. Derek hangs with kids with several different kids including one who will feature in the book when they are both adults.
This prologue sets the stage for the meat of the book which is in 1968. It’s April and spring is in the air. If you know anything about April of 1968 in American history, you will soon see where this book is going.
However, it’s still early in April when things begin. Derek is now a rookie police officer who has been paired with another rookie, Troy, who is white, Princeton educated and a Peace Corps graduate. Derek has made up his mind about Troy and resists efforts by his partner to be friends outside the job.
Derek has his own apartment but visits his parents every Sunday for dinner. His older brother, Dennis, is still living at home. He is disable and a Navy veteran who has never been able to find himself and has fallen in with some bad company. One of them, Alvin, is particularly cruel and violent. He makes plans to rob a local store and involves his cousin plus Dennis Strange, Derek’s older brother.
Meanwhile we meet three young white men whose lives revolve around their cars and good times that start with alcohol and drugs. One of them, Mancini, is a tortured Vietnam veteran who once persuaded Derek as a 12 year old to try shoplifting. They also make robbery plans but on a much grander scale. However, before they do it, one of them commits a horrific crime.
A LOT goes on here and I don’t want to give anything away. This is a Washington DC simmering with racial tension. Blockbusting has been changing the population. The kind of jobs that are available require a high school diploma and college neither of which are plentiful in DC’s black population at the time.
Meanwhile Martin Luther King has completed his march on Washington and is working in Memphis on the garbage strike. When he’s assassinated Washington burns.
Despite the different circumstances this book is almost eerily reminiscent of the racial and class issues in present day American society.
There are several books in this series. Right As Rain was the first one and Derek is a middle aged private investigator in this book. This book was written later and is really a prequel to the series.
This is a violent and bloody book something that is usually not my style. However, Pelecanos is an engaging writer who writes in a very literate and clear style. He really knows his music which sets the scene. In addition he is an encyclopedia of knowledge about stores and bars and what was located where. Even though I don’t know DC well I can visualize a lot of it.
Despite the different time this book is almost spooky in it’s setting. Unfortunately times haven’t changed as much as they should have despite what people think.
verbalken's review
2.0
SLOW!!! BORING!!! Man, this book took about 2/3rds of the way through to actually get going. Lots of times spent telling me who all lived on the street, what kind of car they drove and what music they listened to. And when it did get going, he missed a lot of opportunities to build tension and suspense, and to make me care about the people this was happening to. I may try another of the author's books one day, but if it doesn't get going quicker than this one, I'll abandon it.
moreadsbooks's review
4.0
Strange & Stefanos are currently engaging in fisticuffs in my heart in order to determine who will be the number one man in my life. I love Derek Strange, but I didn't realize just how deeply those feelings ran until I met the young, police officer version of him. So, swoon! I didn't quite twig to the whole Alvin Jones connection & what that all meant, so it was a pleasant surprise to meet baby Granville Oliver, even though I didn't particularly care for the ending of Hell To Pay.