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A review by martyfried
Hell to Pay by George Pelecanos
4.0
Another down to earth and gritty visit to the D.C. underbelly (no, not the White House), where Black Lives don't matter, except to the readers. I personally felt the pain of these people, especially the young blacks who have few choices in life, and staying alive every day is the number one choice. This story was really sad when a young boy is shot and killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The really sad thing is that it's also hard not to feel bad for the boys that shot him. Their behavior is the only way they know how to cope with their pathetic lives of kill or be killed.
Fortunately, there are also some good people in the stories - good, but not perfect. Some are far from perfect, but still likable, and capable of improving, so we cheer them on from the comfort of the other side of the book pages, which is where I want to be when reading these stories.
The main hero is strange - Derek Strange, actually, a PI/former cop and owner of Strange Investigations. He has a couple of interesting assistants - the first being a younger, black man who worries more about his fancy clothes than most anything else. He doesn't like to wear his fancy coat in the car because it'll get wrinkled and look like something from Burlington Coat Factory. Then there's a newer part-time assistant, a former white cop, Terry Quinn, who left the force after accidentally killing a black undercover cop in what many thought had racial undertones. A somewhat strange pair, but they become good friends pretty quickly.
The book is written with a realism that makes everyone come to life, and the language sounds genuine and entertaining. I worked with a lot of Blacks in Oakland at the main post office way back, and got to know the talk pretty well, and this sounds right to me.
Fortunately, there are also some good people in the stories - good, but not perfect. Some are far from perfect, but still likable, and capable of improving, so we cheer them on from the comfort of the other side of the book pages, which is where I want to be when reading these stories.
The main hero is strange - Derek Strange, actually, a PI/former cop and owner of Strange Investigations. He has a couple of interesting assistants - the first being a younger, black man who worries more about his fancy clothes than most anything else. He doesn't like to wear his fancy coat in the car because it'll get wrinkled and look like something from Burlington Coat Factory. Then there's a newer part-time assistant, a former white cop, Terry Quinn, who left the force after accidentally killing a black undercover cop in what many thought had racial undertones. A somewhat strange pair, but they become good friends pretty quickly.
The book is written with a realism that makes everyone come to life, and the language sounds genuine and entertaining. I worked with a lot of Blacks in Oakland at the main post office way back, and got to know the talk pretty well, and this sounds right to me.