What It Was

Derek Strange and Terry Quinn book five: Strange relates a tale to Nick Stefanos; about the days just before Watergate broke in 1972. The Washington DC locals look back and remember, not the fall of Nixon, but the rampage of 'Red Fury' and 'Coco' as witnessed and investigated by a young Strange and......more

"Red Fury he's the Man Try and stop him if you can!" This novel stemmed from George's novel The Night Gardener where a character Red 'Fury' Jones was planted as a fable, he wanted to give a whole story with him in as the bad boy. And what a story it is, well done this is a throwback to the bygone d......more

In 2001, in Right as Rain, George Pelecanos introduced Derek Strange, an ex-cop turned private detective in Washington D.C., where virtually all of Pelecanos's books are set. Strange would ultimately appear in three other novels, and this book makes the fifth. On a rainy afternoon in 2011, Strange, w......more

This book is a lot like the decade in which it's set: the garish fashions tend to overshadow the substance, the plot feels loose and sprawling, everybody is collapsing into crass, and the specter of Richard Nixon stinks it up like the bad smell from your local paper mill. Even Amazon's strategy of s......more

I've been an avid George Pelecanos fan going back for over a decade now. For starters, he uses a lot of musical references from the time period when I listened to rock-and-roll, so I can hear the songs. WHAT IT WAS is like that, as well. Secondly, he describes in loving detail the cool rides his cha......more