If you're ever looking for anything good to read, real to read, I wholeheartedly recommend the 'Derek Strange' novels from George Pelecanos. (You can probably find them either in the 'Mystery' section of your local bookstore, or they might just be stacked in the general 'Fiction' area.)
Pelecanos has written twelve or so novels, of which I've read three, the ones featuring
Washington, D.C. private detective Derek Strange. (The Strange novels are Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus and Hard Revolution. You can find them in paperback under the 'Warner Vision' label.) Strange is an African-American p.i. with a fondness for old spaghetti westerns and beautiful modern women. (Morgan Freeman or Laurence Fishburne or Samuel L. Jackson would all be perfect as the main character for the likely screen adaptation.) He's got a new wife and stepson, coaches little-league football, has lived in D.C. his whole life, has a somewhat, how shall I put it, 'racially sensitive' white partner who moonlights in a bookstore (and loves Wild West stories).
I'm making these books sound light; they're not. I'm making them sound like 'thrillers' or 'police procedurals', but they're not those, either. They are novels. They deal with the moral issues of our times. They are about people and places in situations that most of us will never see, thank God, and there is drugs, blood, guts, and hard, relevant, biting social commentary about what it means to be black and what it means to be white in the ghettoes of present-day D.C.
The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue is authentic, and the stories move. There's no wasted breath.
So-called 'crime fiction' seems to be where it's at these days, where the novel shows its true, authentic force, what it can do better than any other media. Literary snobs still look down on it, but I guess, being snobs by definition, they look down on everything, right?
These are books that entertain you and make you think and make you feel. On every page.
If you don't usually read genre stuff, or even don't read much of anything, don't be shy.
Pelecanos is the real deal. He'll draw you in. I promise.
(For an interesting interview with George Pelecanos, go to:
www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum100.html)
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