What It Was
George Pelecanos
George Pelecanos has crafted another superb crime noir novel
set in Washignton, D.C. The main
character is again Derek Strange, an African-American former metropolitan
police officer who left the force after the infamous 1968 riots following the
King assassination. Strange is now a
private investigator and is hired by a young woman to find a stolen ring. The ring was stolen during the contract
murder of her boyfriend, a small time drug dealer. The murderer was Robert Lee Jones, nicknamed
“Red” because of his hair color. Jones’
street name is “Red Fury” since he is frequently driving his girlfriend’s
automobile, a red-over-white Plymouth Fury GT Sport.
Strange’s ex-partner Frank “Hound Dog” Vaughan is the
investigating officer in the boyfriend’s murder. Frank, an ex-Marine who fought at Okinawa,
earned his nickname because of his facial features as well as his reputation
for dogged pursuit of criminals. Strange
and Vaughan’s investigations overlap and they co-operate with each other in an
attempt to capture Red Jones whose life of crime goes into hyperdrive. Vaughan is under increasing pressure from the
city government to put Jones behind bars and turns to a varied group of
informants including cross-dressing prostitutes. Complicating matters, there are two mafia
connected fellows from New Jersey in town who are also looking for Red to
collect on a bad debt. The story comes to a shattering conclusion as all parties
converge on a house in suburban Maryland being used by Red and his partner as a
hide-out.
Pelecanos infuses this novel with gritty realism, sometimes
illuminating some unimaginable habits of the druggies and prostitutes who
comprise most of the secondary characters. All of his characters are memorable. He also vividly brings the story to life by including many details of
the automobiles of the era (1972) as well as the popular music of the
time. You can listen to all of the music
he mentions in a George Pelecanos playlist on Spotify. What It Was is a very entertaining read and
anyone who enjoys police procedurals and realistic crime fiction would enjoy
this book.
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