The Turnaround

I'm a big fan of mystery novelists like Michael Connelly, Robert Crais and of course George Pelecanos. But, I'm also in a book group that reads mainly literary fiction. Readers of literary fiction tend to look down at the mystery genre. But, The Turnaround contains such great story telling and character development, that it can easily hold its own with any literary fiction bestseller that I have read for my book group. I highly recommend this novel to everyone. By the way, I really liked Pelecanos' The Night Gardener, but The Turnaround is beyond comparison. I read The Turnaround in one sitting because I simply could not put it down. And I rarely if ever do that with any book. I wish I could give it six stars!

Pelecanos just keeps getting better, and this new one must be his best yet. One of his best qualities is that he continues to bring characters from earlier novels for cameos--his Washington is, after all, a pretty small town and not the one made up of newly graduated immigrants on the make every time a political party gains a majority. Another recurrent theme--almost a character--is the soul and rock music of the '70's, and you can say the same thing about the cars his people drive. But at the heart of his best novels is a careful respect for the people he depicts--even the villains. If this book has a flaw it is that it veers a little close to sentimentality in its ending, but it does so in such a satisfying way that you feel churlish for objecting. People do, after all, redeem themselves once in a while.

The Turnaround chronicles the lives of two sets of men, all residents or former residents of the same Washington D.C. suburbs, chronicling the tragic effects of a confrontation the men had in 1972 when they were teenagers, when one group, consisting of three white boys, strayed onto the turf of another, consisting of three black youths. The story fades to black before those events completely unfold, but readers slowly learn about what happened that day as Pelecanos shifts the action to the modern day, as he describes the activities of the men, now adults, as they try to make their way in a world that has drastically changed. The thrust of the remainder of the novel centers on what happens when these men once again cross paths; what happens is in some ways predictable, but, in other important ways, remarkable. The Turnaround is a crime novel, at least in the sense that it centers on the commission of an act of violence, but it is much, much more than that. Pelecanos brings his characters to vivid life through his prose, effectively conveying their worldviews and emotions to his audience. That he does this so effortlessly, considering the disparate natures and environs of the members of his cast, pays testament to his considerable talents--Pelecanos has skills, and they're all on ample display in this affecting, surprising, and poignant book.

The Turnaround is the 15th Washington DC based novel authored by George Pelecanos. Critical acclaim for his novels as well as for his writing on HBO's The Wire has been fairly easy to come by for Mr. Pelecanos. Commercial success, on the other hand has somewhat escaped him. His peers and coworkers on The Wire, Richard Price and Dennis Lehane have both experienced sales that have, to date, eluded Pelecanos. Someone that has read all three authors for any amount of time would tell you that this fact is a damn shame, for Pelecanos writes with just as much power and emotion as Price or Lehane. With The Turnaround, George Pelecanos may finally be poised to break big. In his early novels, Pelecanos wrote mostly hard-boiled/crime/detective stories and while these books were examples of great genre writing, they were just that, focused on the genre. With each book the writing of Mr. Pelecanos has progressed. As of late, while he has used some type of crime as a jumping off point, his writing has become more focused on people and their place in society. The Turnaround continues in this sociological vein. The Turnaround begins on a hot summer day in 1972 when three white teenagers drive into a black neighborhood and come across three young men who were born and grew up in the neighborhood. Two of the boys in the car, full of youth, testosterone, booze and weed make decisions that have dire results. Their words and actions leave Billy Cachoris shot dead. Peter Whitten makes a running escape while the third boy, Alex Pappas, is left beaten and scarred due to his indecision. The three local teens also make decisions that they will carry with them for their lifetimes. James Monroe ends up a convicted murderer, Charles Baker beats Pappas and Raymond Monroe is left with psychological baggage that he will carry with him for 35 years. Fast forward thirty-five years and we find that Pappas has taken over his father's diner business. He is married with a teenage son of his own. He also has a recently dead son, lost to the war in Iraq. James Monroe has served his time plus some and is trying to get his life on track as a small time auto mechanic. Raymond Monroe is a physical therapist working in DC at Walter Reed. Charles Baker has been in and out of prison. He is currently out of prison and looking to improve his life, mostly by illegal means. A chance encounter on the grounds of Walter Reed brings the men back into contact with one another. Pelecanos develops a strong background for each character. His writing is purposeful and strong yet it lets the reader decide on their view of the character. The writing is never so overbearing that it leads you to a conclusion. That is the true beauty of Pelecanos' writing, he lets the reader develop an opinion, it is never forced upon them. In the Turnaround he sets the stage for the reader to develop their opinions on each of the characters, their life choices, the work being done at Walter Reed,

I recently read the detective novel "Shame the Devil" by George Pelecanos. While I generally liked it, there was something missing, something that wasn't quite right. It was good, but I felt it could have been better. I wasn't sure how it could be improved, only that I thought that there was something about the book that could stand improvement. After reading the latest offering from Pelecanos, "The Turnaround", I now know what the problem was, at least for me. "Shame the Devil" is a detective novel; Pelecanos writes a serviceable one; "The Turnaround", by contrast, is a crime novel. There's no real detective in the plot, and not much of a mystery if you're paying attention. Instead, there's a great story, and that makes all the difference. "Shame the Devil" is a good book; "The Turnaround" is one of the best books I've read in years, steeped in atmosphere and character, and a very good book. "The Turnaround" starts with a racial incident in the early 1970s in Washington D.C., where all of Pelecanos' books are set. Apparently he also has stuck with Greek main characters, for some reason. The Pappas family, the center of the book, runs a diner in downtown, feeding the breakfast and lunch crowd. The center of the book, at the start, is the family patriarch, John. He runs the business cannily, and hopes that one day one of his sons will take over the restaurant. Instead, one of his sons is involved in a racial incident, in which there are epithets yelled, and someone gets killed. Fast forward three and a half decades, a new generation runs the store, and those who were involved in the incident are either back from prison or reminded of it somehow. They have different agendas, and want different things, and how this plays out is the main part of the book. "The Turnaround" is steeped in three things, all of them very intrinsic to the book, and all of them very well-done. The author is clearly obsessed with music, one of these guys that can tell you who wrote a song, who first released it, who covered it, which version was popular, etc. He creates the atmosphere of the early 70s in Washington through the music, and oddly through the stereo equipment that it's played on. One of the more amusing incidents in the book occurs when one of the young men in the story relates that his friend has a stereo with "Bosay" speakers, only to be corrected by his brother, who tells him that it's pronounced "Bose". The music is a part of the longer, more modern part of the book too, with the newer artists contrasting with the older ones. A second aspect of the book which is carefully covered, which adds to the overall story, is the operation of the diner. The author clearly knows someone who has worked in a diner; perhaps his family had one growing up. This was a big part of the sub-plot of "Shame the Devil" too, so I'm wondering if it's going to be a common thread through all of Pelecanos' books. The author spends a lot of time with his characters running the restau