Drama City [Mass Market Paperback]

George P. Pelecanos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

In this blistering and soulful novel of the D.C. underworld, an ex-con finds himself caught between the light and the dark sides of the street after a malevolent young killer spoils his chances to stay straight.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The real test of an author's skill is sometimes to be found not in an unusually conceived work, but in his or her ability to create a consuming tale out of what, in outline form, might sound like an all-too-familiar or mundane plot line. In another novelist's hands, for instance, Drama City might have been a perfectly serviceable but regrettably unmemorable story of redemption and revenge set in the grittier districts of Washington, D.C. But with George Pelecanos at the reins, it becomes a poignant, profound yarn about men--the good, the bad, and the still undecided--trying to find their footing amid the centrifugal forces at play in a modern inner city.

Pelecanos's first standalone after four consecutive novels starring private eye Derek Strange (including Soul Circus and Hard Revolution), Drama City introduces Lorenzo Brown, a young, black onetime criminal enforcer who's recently returned to the streets after doing eight years in prison on a felony drug charge. Crime and criminals had always been fundamental to Lorenzo's existence. ("Y'all know how that is. I ran with some boys, one in particular, and when those boys and my main boy went down to the corner I went with 'em. They were my people, the closest thing I ever had to male kin.") Since his release, though, he's been serving as a Humane Law Enforcement Officer with the Humane Society, protecting animals from the panoply of domestic cruelty, trying to leave both the drugs and the thugs behind. This attitude has won him a few champions, notably Rachel Lopez, his striking half-Jewish, half-Latina probation officer and friend, who spends her days "telling other people that they need to stay on track," but then goes off the rails at night, haunting hotel bars, picking up inappropriate guys, always frightened by the idea of a relationship "where she was not in complete control." Of course, these delicate balances of individual behavior are only possible in the absence of the unexpected. When a seemingly inconsequential mistake incites a lethal turf battle between rival gang bosses Nigel Johnson and Deacon Taylor, and Rachel is stabbed in the chest by a volatile, hopped-up gunman, Lorenzo finds his killer instincts returning to the fore. He must decide how far he's willing to go--and how much he's willing to lose--in order to exact retribution.

A simple plot on its face, yet given high stakes and a heroic edge by Pelecanos's portrayal of Brown as a man-in-progress struggling to secure his liberty from the past, helped along by his unexpectedly sympathetic former boss, childhood friend Nigel Johnson. Less satisfyingly rendered is Lopez, whose acrobatic swings to the wild side provide merely arousing diversions, without adequate character development. Bearing soul as well as teeth, Drama City gives off the air of a Greek tragedy. You know things are going to get bad before they turn worse, but Pelecanos keeps you riveted throughout. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Pelecanos's later fiction, set on the drug-saturated streets of ghetto Washington, D.C., is charged with the dark, unrelenting inevitability of Greek myth. In the author's 13th novel, "dog man" Lorenzo Brown, a street investigator for the Humane Society, has recently completed an eight-year stretch in prison for narcotics and is determined to stay clean and free. Rachel Lopez, Lorenzo's parole officer, spends her days chasing down clients and her nights getting drunk in bars and having rough sex with strangers. The ignition point for the violence that eventually engulfs these two fully realized, attractive characters—characteristics that in Pelecanos's world mark them as quite probably doomed—is a minor argument between local drug kingpins that inflates into a series of revenge killings. Pelecanos is known for his bleak, uncompromising outlook (Hard Resolution; Hell to Pay; The Sweet Forever) and while the death and destruction are still here in full force, some fans may question the turnaround in his ending. Might it be an attempt to hit the megabestseller stardom that fans think he deserves? Hope and redemption are fine subjects for many novelists, but it's the stark world of violence and despair that this author really owns.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446611441
• ISBN-13: 978-0446611442
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Hard-Boiled

More About the Author

George P. Pelecanos was born in Washington, DC in 1957. His first novel was published in 1992 and alongside his consequential success as an author, he has also worked as producer, writer and story editor for the acclaimed and award-winning US crime series, The Wire. His writing for the show earned him an Emmy nomination.

He is the author of fifteen crime novels set in and around Washington, DC. The Big Blowdown was the recipient of the International Crime Novel of the Year award in both Germany and Japan; King Suckerman was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger Award in the UK. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire and the collections Unusual Suspects and Best American Mystery Stories of 1997. He is an award-winning journalist and pop-culture essayist who has written for the Washington Post.

Pelecanos can also claim credit for involvement in the production of several feature films. Most recently, as a screenwriter for film, he has written an adaptation of King Suckerman for Dimension Films, and was co-writer on the Paid in Full.

His novel Right as Rain is currently in development with director Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, Wonder Boys) and Warner Brothers. He is a writer on the upcoming World War II miniseries The Pacific, to be produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and HBO. Pelecanos lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and three children. He is at work on his next novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of Pelecanos' Best - Fantastic Protagonists, Great Plot!, March 17, 2005

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drama City (Hardcover)

It's hard not to like a character who loves animals, even mean animals - the mad ones, the dirty, the underfed, the sick, vermin infested animals too, some trained to kill. Dogs, cats, parakeets, etc., they're Lorenzo Brown's thing. He's an officer for the Humane Society Law Enforcement team in Washington, D.C., and likes his job, a lot. Lorenzo figures if something is off with an animal, it's a human's fault, and is ready to paper offenders and serve search and/or arrest warrants if necessary. He saved his own dog, Jasmine, the night before her scheduled euthanization. She is the first pet he has every owned.

Brown is an ex-con, out on parole after 8 years in prison for a drug charge. He is determined to stay straight. Each morning, when he walks Jasmine, he passes the home of Nigel Johnson's mother. Occasionally, he will see Nigel there, along with a couple of young men wearing thick platinum chains. The troops lean against their rides - BMW coupes and sedans, a black Escalade, "tricked with spinners in the mix." The black GS430 with "dual pipes and aftermarket rims" belongs to Nigel, now a powerful drug kingpin, who is usually busy directing business, talking on his Nextel. Lorenzo and Nigel, both smart and ambitious as kids, had run the streets together, going back almost twenty-five years. Brown had done the righteous thing by his friend. He stayed silent when he was pressured to give Nigel up. Brown chose to serve his time instead. Now he has had enough of the life. His old friends don't quite get it, however.

Rachel Lopez also loves her work. She is Lorenzo's parole officer and one of the finest. She comes on tough initially and lays down the rules, but she wants all her people to make it. She has invested much of herself in their ultimate success. Rachel knows Lorenzo has committed crimes not included in his jacket. To have advanced in the game as far as he had, he probably did some violence, maybe even killed. She also knows that now, in the present, Lorenzo is not a bad man. But Ms. Lopez has problems of her own. Her own life is spinning out of control, and her late nights are taking their toll.

Officer Brown needs Officer Lopez' support right now. He needs all the help he can get. A stupid mistake concerning turf boundaries has triggered enmity between local gangs. A psychopathic youth is on the streets, looking for a way to escalate the problem; waiting for the slightest opportunity to kill. A war is about to go down and our man could very well be sucked into it.

I have long been a George Pelecanos fan. Over the years, I have read all his books, and to tell the truth, he has only written novels that I love, and others that I like a lot. This one is special though. I was deeply moved by the character of Lorenzo Brown, a really decent man trying to straighten out his life. The author lets us in on his thought processes. Mr. Brown is far from perfect. He carries within himself a strong streak of humanity though, which is his saving grace. Then there is Rachel Lopez, whom I also grew to care about. She is battling, against the odds, to keep her head above water. They both are having a real hard time in this world, yet always look to give someone else a hand up.

No one captures the mean streets of the neighborhood like Pelecanos. His gritty prose, street-smart dialogue, fast-paced narrative and wonderful character development are what make his books bestsellers - literate ones! Highly recommended!
JANA

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pelecanos at His Best, February 24, 2006

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drama City (Hardcover)

After loads of success with his earlier series, Pelecanos introduces two new protagonists in this excellent trip down Washington, D.C.'s mean streets. His work on the HBO series "The Wire", shows in the main character of Lorenzo, a drug crew thug recently off an eight-year stretch of jail after a third strike. Now he's trying to put the game behind him and live a square life as an enforcement officer for the city's Humane Society. Part of Lorenzo's routine involves reporting to his parole officer, the young, attractive Rachel Lopez. Given the D.C. area's substantial Latino population, it's taken Pelecanos a while to introduce one as a major character, but with Rachel he not only takes care of that, but has finally written a fully developed female character. She's not without her own issues, as alcoholism and anonymous sex threaten to lead her somewhere dark.

The story basically follows Lorenzo and Rachel around their daily rounds, providing a glimpse at the daily struggles they face simply to get along in the world. Like many of Pelecanos' characters, Lorenzo discovers satisfaction and pride in hard work, as he has to deal with both the nasty people who mistreat animals, and the mockery of the corner boys, who call him soft. He knows he's still as tough as they come, but he's also built the self-respect to realize that he doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. Meanwhile, Rachel has her own hard work, trying to keep her offenders on the straight path and a lid on her self-destructive behavior. Of course, since this is Pelecanos, they also get tangled up in an escalating beef between drug gangs, one of which is led by Lorenzo's old friend Nigel. There are plenty of subplots along the way, including an ugly look at the dog-fighting underworld, the fascinating details of Lorenzo's job, Rachel's Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and Lorenzo's wooing of a single mother.

One of the running themes is how environment shapes behavior, and the mistreatment of animals is used as a metaphor for the those who grow up with no opportunities in life and no options. There's a great part where a young gangster daydreams wistfully about seeing Paris, but his upbringing and environment have hamstrung him so that he has no idea how one goes about buying a plane ticket or getting a passport. Ultimately, like many crime books, the overriding theme is one of redemption, especially Lorenzo's. He's done things in the past he's not proud of, and when confronted with the choice between street ethics and civilian ethics, which path will he take? There are the usual Pelecanos tidbits, music references, car references, a cameo by Derek Strange and one or two other characters recognizable to long time Pelecanos readers. Nothing in this book is a surprise, but all the elements are so assuredly put together that one can't help but be sucked under. Definitely Pelecanos at his best.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is redemption possible?, September 4, 2006

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drama City (Hardcover)

DRAMA CITY is not your traditional mystery, nor is it exactly noir, although the subject matter is definitely dark. It does have an original lead character, an ex-drug trafficker named Lorenzo Brown who takes a job as an investigator for the Humane Society when he gets out of jail.

The other lead character is Lorenzo's parole agent, Rachel Lopez. She's an alcoholic who spends her nights trolling hotel bars, looking for a man she can dominate.

The minor characters, a half dozen or so gang members, are almost as provocative as Lorenzo and Rachel. The action starts when DeEric Green, one of Nigel Johnson's henchmen, confronts Jujubee, one of Deacon Taylor's pushers, selling drugs on what he thinks is Nigel's corner. It's not Nigel's corner, and this starts a minor drug war. Deacon Taylor sends Melvin Lee and Rico Miller to tail DeEric Green and his partner, Michael Butler. Lorenzo Brown also clashes with Lee and Miller when he is sent to try to salvage some animals at a pit bull fight staged by various gang members.

Rico Miller is a psychopath and he sets out to get revenge when DeEric Green disses his partner Melvin Lee, who is like a father to him. All of this sounds like rather traditional gangland lore, but Pelecanos really shines when he details the back stories of the various characters. Even Miller is sympathetic. His nickname, "Creep," was given to him by his own mother. There's also an anecdote about a Christmas ornament that is especially poignant. Pelecanos uses "bling" as an example of just how dismal these drug dealers' lives are. Rico Miller and the other pushers own/rent fancy cars, but their idea of fun is to play video games and smoke "blunts." Nigel Johnson, a boyhood friend of Lorenzo's, apologizes for getting him involved in the drug trade, when all Lorenzo wanted to do was run track. He admits that his sales pitch about family was a just a sham. We worry about Lorenzo throughout the novel. For one thing, he still has some guns he keeps beneath the floorboards in his apartment. We wonder if redemption is really possible for him or if the poison is all consuming.

Drama City is set in Washington D.C. Having made a wrong turn into the ghetto district once, I can vouch for the distressing conditions Pelecanos describes. It is certainly an appropriate setting for a novel about poverty and how easy it is for young black men and women to fall prey to The Monster.