The Night Gardener

Detectives Gus Ramone, "Doc" Holiday, and T.C. Cook come together to solve a twenty year old mystery. In 1985 three teenagers were murdered in what was called The Palindrome Murders. Twenty years later another teenager is murdered in the same fashion, which leads the three detectives to believe the killer is on the move again. The story takes place around the Washington, D.C. area, where the author describes the places and events in a way that makes the reader feel they, themselves, are invisible spectators within the novel. The book is filled with the raw dialogue of opposing cultures--the tough talking homicide detectives and the street-smart criminal gang types. Although, this is primarily a man's book with lots of macho bantering, it is an exciting modern mystery that can be thoroughly enjoyed by all. It's a page-turner from beginning to end! I would definitely give this one 5 stars.

I can't call this book a thriller. It is so much more. It is, simply, the best crime novel I've read in several years. This book was my first introduction to George Pelecanos, and already I've added several more of his books to my TBR pile. The Night Gardener begins in 1985, at the scene of a homicide committed by a serial killer known as "the night gardener"who has been targeting teenage victims. It is here that we are first introduced to three police officers: patrolmen Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday, and detective T.C. Cook. We are offered only a brief glimpse before the novel jumps to 2005. Gus Ramone, now a detective, divides his time between work and family. Dan Holiday is a cop no longer, but provides chauffeur services with security to the wealthy. T.C. Cook, now retired, is haunted by the faces of the serial killers victims, and longs to bring the killer to justice. The discovery of another homicide that bears remarkable similarities to the unsolved cases of twenty years ago brings these three men together. Let me start my review with a warning. The dialogue in this book is extremely raw, including almost constant profanity and vulgar references. That being said, Pelecanos writes some of the best dialogue I've ever read. Personally, I wish the language could have been cleaner, but it might not have felt so authentic if that had been the case. The Night Gardener really surprised me, in a good way. I was expecting a page-turning murder mystery which would resolve itself in a tidy black and white ending by the last page. Instead, I found a book which was almost a constant shade of gray, and which compelled me to keep reading because of the powerful questions it made me ask myself. I was especially impressed with the ending of the novel. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll simply say that for me I don't feel that it could have ended any other way. I also appreciated that Pelecanos avoided so many of the typical plot devices that are present in so many crime novels. For once, I appreciated reading about a police officer who was a devoted husband and father, as opposed to a self-destructive hero. I was also fascinated by Pelecanos presentation of the racial tensions that are present in Washington D.C., and I appreciated that he was able to present more than one viewpoint. Pelecanos has made a fan of me with this one. If you are looking for a crime novel with true substance, you can't do better than this. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the potty talk.

Although I knew of George P. Pelecanos before I became obsessed with The Wire (where he was a writer/producer), I hadn't really read him. He's typically categorized with Richard Price, who try as I might I just can't read ( & no, I'm not really sure why). I think it was this pairing in my mind that made me wait so long to try one of Pelecanos' books, but I'm glad I got around to it. The Night Gardener is a police procedural set in Washington, DC. There are murders (both old & new) & cops (both old & new) & perps & victim's families & the world that swirls around all of these. The story is a good one with plenty of twists & turns & some genuine surprises as well as some sadness & futility. Pelecanos excels, however, in the nuances of relationship & the ways that this is expressed through language. What is said & what isn't said & the choices that people make or don't - this is the bright thread that runs throughout the book. I liked the characters & the way the book muses about partners & fathers without being overtly about partnering & fathering in the same way that it is a book about solving crime with that being both central & at the same time somewhat ancillary. & maybe all of the above is what makes this book interesting. We often write about writers who transcend genre, as if all genre writing is limited & a book must become something else to transcend it. I'm not sure this is a fair assessment in most cases. Dashiel Hammett wrote books that are squarely in their genre, but that doesn't diminish them. The Night Gardener is a book about crime, but it's mostly a book about people - those who commit crime, those impacted by it, those who look for its perpetrators. Pelecanos acknowledges in some unique ways that these people all have lives & relationships that stand outside of the crime & that those elements in their lives are ultimately more important than the single event. I like that thought & I like that he writes that way & I liked this book.

Let me commence this review in saying that I interpret the content of a novel somewhat like a chess game. There is a beginning strategy, a middle game, and then the the finish or ending game. In most instances I have found good novels typically have great beginnings and middle games and then falter, in some cases drastically, in the final chapters. "The Night Gardener" is one of the few novels I have read in the last few years that I find nearly flawless. I could not put this book down. The book begins discussing a 1985 Washington D.C. police department's unsuccessful attempt at solving a serial killing spree involving young children. T.C. Cook, a veteran homicide detective with a 90% success rate at solving murders retires a troubled man knowing the killer got away. Two rookies are also present at one of the crime scenes. Gus Ramone works his way through the ranks to become a seasoned homicide invesigator himself. Doc Holiday offers his resignation when it becomes apparant that he will be investigated by iternal affairs in what is really a bogus wrap. He resigns himself to a life of loneliness, wild women, and alcoholism. Jumping ahead to 2005 we learn how the characters have aged/matured as a new murder with the same characteristics as the unsolved 1985 Night Gardener murders occurs in a city garden. Same M.O. but the characters have changed and evolved over the last 20 years. Get this novel and put aside several hours to get into it. You may find you can not put it down and end up reading into the wee hours of the morning

This book kept me awake for two nights running. The first time, it was because the story was so good that I couldn't put it down. The next night, it was because even though I'd finished reading it, the book wouldn't let me go: I kept going back and rereading portions of it, haunted. Everything works, here, and every piece seems perfect: the narrative (gripping, yet beautifully formed), the setting (no American city lives on the page more exactly than Pelecanos's D.C.), the dialogue (it's so right, he might have tape-recorded it), and--above all--the characters and the complex, tragic, unillusioned, and deeply humane understanding that commits them to your memory like living persons long after you have turned the final page. Pelecanos has been a hell of a good writer for awhile now. With The Night Gardener, he becomes something more: someone whose writing can twist your heart wide open and change how you see the ordinary world.