The Blue Flame

I have some good news for crime fiction aficionados like myself: The Blue Flame by George Pelecanos has finally been published. You may remember that I was impatient for its release. Pelecanos is now busy with scriptwriting for television, so we don't often see new books from him. It's as rare an occurence as it is welcomed. Now I will not read it yet, as I am in a spooky mind until November. However, the novel will be perfect to start #Noirvember. Otherwise, it features PI Derek Strange, a long-time regular of Pelecanos' universe, but who hadn't been seen in his most "recent" (who were no long recent) publications. It was about time.

The Blue Flame (crime fiction)

Oh sometimes, you get some good news. I was wondering when Washington DC crime writer George Pelecanos was going to publish another novel, and I learned a few days ago that one is about to be released imminently. Better still, it will feature private eye Derek Strange. This is for another post, but the very first novel of Pelecanos I read was the debut of Derek Strange. So I have a kind of special attachment to this character. He hasn't used him in a while, so I'm curious about what will happen with him. Now, I'm will not be reading crime fiction for a long while, I'm already in a spooky mood as you know. But this book will be ready for #Noirvember.

Another new Pelecanos

Well, I a spoiled as a crime fiction reader. You may remember that, a year ago, I was complaining that George Pelecanos. had not published anything new in a while. Luckily, this year he published Owning Up, a collection of four novellas. That made me happy enough. I bought the book right away to have it on release, then I read it eagerly. I will blog about it again. But my luck did not stop there: I learned yesterday that he will release another novella, titled Buster: A Dog. About a dog named buster, of course, but it's also crime fiction. Knowing of Pelecanos' love of dogs and how they have been featured in his previous works, this story promises to be both original and touching. I am not much of a dog person, although there are a few dogs that I loved, however I pre-ordered the book.

Owning Up, Owning It

I mentioned last week that, to my great surprise (and happiness), crime writer George Pelecanos had finally written more. It was about time. I had been desperate it for something, anything from him. The book was going to be released yesterday, so I pre-ordered it right away and I got it on its release date. It was a long wait: it arrived to my door in the evening. So yes, I am the new happy owner of Owning Up. I'm owning it, sorry for the pun... I will tell you more about it in the near future, because this is not on my TBR list, it is on my currently reading list.

The New Pelecanos

 You may remember last year that I was wondering what had happened with US crime writer George Pelecanos. I was desperate to read more stuff from him, as last book I had read dated back from 2018, an eternity forme. Well, he will publish a new book, Owning Up, which is made of four novellas.A bit like the four gospels, perhaps? He must have kept it really close to his chest, because I really didn't see this one coming. It popped up in one of my Amazon notifications a few days ago. Be that as it may, it will be released next month and I already preordered it. I quickly read the summary(ies), it sounds like classic Pelecanos.

Crime books to read

As a new year starts, I am starting to plan what I will read in the upcoming weeks and months. More specifically, what crime books I will read. I mostly read crime fiction all year round, except from August to October inclusively. A quick search on my shelves made me discover that I don't have so many unread crime novels. And I promised my wife I would not hoard books this year. So I will behave. Or will try to. Worst case scenario, I borrow from the library or reread some titles, like D.C. Noir, an anthology of short stories edited by DC local (and one of my favourite crime writers) George Pelecanos. Apparently they adapted it into a movie. I must find it and watch it too. Anyway, any suggestions are welcome, please comment.

Whatever happened to George Pelecanos?

Long time readers of this blog know that I am a fan of US crime writer George Pelecanos. I have been since my wife (then girlfriend) bought me one of his novels back in 2006. Well, it struck me recently that he hasn't published anything since The Man Who Came Uptown in 2018. I read it in early 2020, enjoyed it tremendously and waited for his next book. And waited. And waited. Because Pelecanos hasn't published anything since then. His webpage does not say anything about any new publication and doesn't seem to have been updated in a while. He might be busy on Tv projects, but I do hope he will write more crime novels, because I miss his work.

Plastic Paddy

As Saint Patrick's Day is coming, I thought I would give you a quick reading suggestion that would be fitting for the day. It is not a novel, but a short story from The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos.The story is called, as you guessed it, Plastic Paddy. Grosso modo, it is about a small time criminal and overall loser who claims to have Irish blood and decides to totally embrace it: he changes his name from Tool to O'Toole, starts listening to Irish music, to go to Irish bars, he adopts the most superficial aspects of Irish culture, or what people think of Irish culture. In other words, he becomes a Plastic Paddy. I don't want to give anything away, but this is (among other things) a brilliant exploration about identity and how much of it is a construction. I recommend to read Plastic Paddy for this occasion because all lovers of Ireland, and I include myself in the lot, are to a degree Plastic Paddies. What makes O'Toole a pathetic, maybe even a tragic character, is that he is completely unconscious of it. So we can reflect on this (and in the meantime get a kick out of Pelecanos' writing). The other stories in the book are great too, but save this one for Saint Patrick's Day.

New Pelecanos coming

I learned this recently: George Pelecanos will finally publish another book, coming this September! It is about time. I had read all his books and I have been wanting more for the last two years or so. The upcoming novel is titled The Man Who Came Uptown and I can barely wait. Reading the description on its Amazon page, I am already very excited: a former convict turned avid reader free in a world he no longer recognize. Only Pelecanos could come with something like this, gritty and dark yet very human and full of heart. It is going to be a long wait.

Pelecanos for Christmas

'Tis the season to be reading and this is tonight's reading suggestion for Yuletide: Nick's Trip by George Pelecanos. Okay, so I already plugged the book back in 2014, but I have extra reasons to plug it tonight. Let's say this is a revisited post from yesterday's Christmas. You should read it for many reasons. It is a great crime novel, for one and that is more than enough. Read my previous post for a bit more details. But you should read it during Christmastime because it is set during Christmastime, because the protagonist is called Nick, like Santa Claus, and like the original Saint Nick Nick Stefanos is Greek. Like all proper seasonal story, it has plenty of snowy atmosphere, drinking excesses, naughty and not so nice people and plenty of violence. And tonight, as I was plugging it on my Facebook wall, George Pelecanos himself liked my status. How cool is that? It made my day. Which, fittingly enough, is Saint Nick's Day.

The return of Spero Lucas?

I recently found on YouTube this fascinating interview (in the form of a conversation) with George Pelecanos, my favourite crime writer, made during one of his visits in France, where I hope he is getting better known. Among the many interesting things he talked about, he discussed in details about his latest hero, private investigator and Iraq war veteran Spero Lucas, whom we have seen in The Cut, The Double and in one short story of The Martini Shot. In the latter, he was briefly mentioned in a story that was about his family. After finishing The Martini Shot, I am now up to date with all the published work of Pelecanos and need to wait until he publishes new novels or reread his old ones. And I am impatient to read more about Spero Lucas, who is a very modern take on the private eye archetype. And I learned in the interview that Pelecanos is actually working on the pilot of a TV series based on Spero Lucas. What can I say? That is uber-cool. I guess I might have to wait until the project gets made, if it ever gets made, but I keep my fingers crossed. Either on the screen or on a page, I think I can safely expect the return of Spero Lucas. And that is good news.

Criminal slang

A few days ago, I finished The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos. Which means I have now read all his books. I am literally up to date with my Pelecanos. This shows how much I love him as a crime writer. But anyway, it was about something I wanted to blog about: I learned a new crime slang term reading The Martini Shot. In the novella that gives its title to the book, there is the mention of the expression "Jamaican roll." And no, it is not, as one would naturally think, a joint. Well, yes it is, I mean I have heard/read about it used as a synonymous for spiff and if you google it that is what you will find. Nevertheless, a Jamaican roll is also, apparently, a roll of dollar bills where phony money has been mixed with real one. I don't know where Pelecanos fount it and maybe he made it up, but I loved the term, so thought I would mention it here.

The coral snake analogy

At the moment, I am reading The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos, my favourite crime writer. It is a collection of short stories, mostly crime related, and so far he proved that he controls this form just as much as he controls crime novels. Among the many things I love about his writing, is that he has a way with using old archetypes and bringing them into a contemporary, realistic setting and making them fresh and relevant. In one of his short stories, When You're Hungry, the protagonist, a private investigator looking for a wealth man who faked his death to enjoy life in the tropics, makes this analogy about the mistress of his target: "When I was a child I spotted a coral snake and thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I started to follow it into the brush, when my mother slapped me very hard across the face." This is, in essence, what a femme fatale is. Someone beautiful, elegant, yet deadly and merciless, who exerts a fascination so intense than one overcomes the fear he or she may have towards the femme fatale. It is explained without even mentioning the term, by a simple analogy that works. I loved this analogy so much that I wanted to share it here. For more on femmes fatales, please read this entry on TV tropes. For more on coral snakes, please read Wikipedia. But truly, I think you have all you need to know with the analogy Pelecanos made.

Happy birthday George Pelecanos!

Today is the birthday of the great George Pelecanos, maybe the greatest crime fiction writer alive, certainly my favorite. I discovered him back in 2006, around this time of year, when my future wife had bought me Right as Rain among a few other crime novels by various authors in a bargain sale. To this day she refuses to tell me how much of a bargain it was (apparently it was ridiculously cheap). For me, it was the bargain that made me discover George Pelecanos, so I am still grateful towards her for this. Since then, I read all his books, except The Martini Shot, his collection of short stories. When I'll have read it, I will then know his full literary work. Then I guess I will have to wait for the next one, or re-read those I already read. Until then, I want to wish a happy birthday to the crime master. And if you have not read his books yet, you better get started. You won't regret it.

The wisdom of Nick Stefanos

"Mai had an Abba CD playing on the house system. It bothered Stefanos that groups like Abba and the Carpenters were considered hip now. Stefanos figured that anything that blew the first time around still blew, period. Retro appreciation was nothing more than blind nostalgia."

I guess I should have apologized to all my readers who loved ABBA (and the Carpenters, but I don't know them). That said, there is so much to love about this quote from Shame the Devil by George Pelecanos. Because what private eye Nick Stefanos says is so darn true. I often compare his stories to classic Greek tragedies or Greek mythology set in Washington D.C. You know, since Pelecanos is of Greek origins and all. Now I add Greek philosophy to this. Because this is pure wisdom. Object of nostalgic appreciation, and this comes from a nostalgic, has to be earned. And yes, I think ABBA blew the first time around.

Summer crimes

"The car rolled north on Wisconsin beneath a blazing white sun. The men inside wore long-sleeved shirts, tails out. Their shirtfronts were spotted with sweat and their backs were slick with it. The black vinyl on which they sat was hot to the touch. From the passenger seat, Frank Farrow studied the street. The sidewalks were empty. Foreign-made automobiles moved along quietly, their occupants cool and cocooned. Heat mirages shimmered up off asphalt. The city was narcotized - it was that kind of summer day."

Shame the Devil, George Pelecanos

As people following this blog know, I am a seasonal reader: I read certain books according to seasons as much as possible. I read crime fiction all the time, every time of the year. But there is something about reading a crime book during summertime, especially when the story is set during summertime, even more so when the weather matches the one in the book. It is the case right now. Well, I should say it was. I read the first chapter of Shame the Devil, which is set in July 1995, on a hot summer day. Then the action moves to January 1998. But hey, no matter, it is a great crime novel (can Pelecanos write anything lesser than great?) and the beginning shows summer in such a sinister, ominous glory, I had to share it on this blog.

A new archetype in crime fiction?

I am reading at the moment Devils in Exile by Chuck Hogan, in translation (because my mother bought it from me and thus it is translated). So am I trying to get used to a translated text, which I now find an odd reading experience, but I this is not the topic of this post. I was pondering a year and a half ago about the return of the private eye as archetype character in crime fiction. Now I am wondering if I had not been wrong. When I thought this, I was referring to Spero Lucas, George Pelecanos' latest (anti)hero. Well, Lucas is also and especially a veteran of the Iraq war, former Marine a who basically brought his war experience and psyche back home. His private activity is only pheripherical to his character. What he truly is is a former Marine. So is Neal Maven, the main character of Hogan's novel. Who is not at all a private eye. So I am wondering if the youngish yet already disgruntle war veteran is not the true archetype that is making a comeback here. The war veteran may not be an entirely new archetype, but he is certainly finding a new life in our time.

The criminal mind in a nutshell

I am reading The Double by George Pelecanos at the moment. It is the second novel featuring as protagonist private eye Spero Lucas. I already praised the return of the private eye character his the first novel featuring Lucas, a true return to form and also to the relevance of the private eye in the contemporary world. But there is something else always praiseworthy in Pelecanos's novels: his villains. The criminals are also so darn authentic, so genuinely chilling, even more since even though they are completely villainous, they are also completely plausible. The Double has a nasty little trio of villains. I will not spoil it for those who have not read the book yet, but I thought I would give you here a description of their motivations that struck me and stayed on my mind:

"They were thrill seekers. Serge knew no other way of life. Louis used the job to fight off his demons. Billy King had come to the D.C. area to have fun, steal what he could, and fuck and use as many women as he could. No bosses, no rush hour, no line at Starbucks in the morning, no crowded Metro cars. No responsibility.

It wasn't about the money. It was about having enough to stay in the game."

Is it only me, or isn't it the criminal mind in a nutshell? Written like each sentence is a powerful punch, or a precise stab, with efficiency, yet there is a kind of poetic evocation in this quote. It is just perfect.

The Farrelly Brothers and Pelecanos

I was watching Shallow Hal a few weeks ago, because I was tired and I had no idea what else to watch. I have never been much into the Farrelly brothers, but I thought there are worse ways to spend a Saturday night when you are tired than watch a comedy. Then something struck me, that made me enjoy the movie a thousand times more: Hal in one scene was reading Down By the River Where the Dead Men Go by George Pelecanos. I understand they are admirers of his work. Good to know: I am too, and it makes me appreciate them more, not as movie makers, but as men of taste. I don't think there is a deeper meaning to the presence of the novel in the comedy than their admiration for Pelecanos. That said, the novel deals partially with Nick Stefanos, the main character, discovering something about his girlfriend he would rather not see, her alcoholism, which ties it nicely to the plot of Shallow Hal. I have no idea if the Farrelly brothers thought about it. But you never know: they are obviously men of literary taste.

Nick's Trip (Christmas read)

Because this the season to be reading, I am giving you again a reading suggestion for Christmas. This one is from one of my favorite crime writers, George Pelecanos. It is Nick's Trip, which is related to Christmas not merely because its main character Nick Stefanos shares his first name with Santa Claus (as well as Greek origins). It is also set during Christmastime. Crime fiction set during Christmas time always has a soft spot in my heart. It means blood on snow, the ever ominous presence of death when life is celebrated, danger, you name it. It also means crime drama set in time of excesses, alcoholic or others. It is simply a brilliantly atmospheric time and setting for crime fiction.

The plot is in fact two stories wrapped in one: Nick Stefanos is asked by his old friend Bill Goodrich to find his wife April, while in the meantime trying to solve the murder of a friend. It is a modern take (it was published and is set in the early 90s) on the classic private eye genre, but Stefanos is stripped from the heroic stature of the archetype: he is a drunkard and a loser, although he does know how to write: the novel is written at the first person perspective. And yes, it is set during Christmastime.