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Title: Hell to Pay by George P. Pelecanos, Richard Allen ISBN: 1-58788-958-7 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 6 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 (28 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Edgy, soulful, masterful suspense
Comment: Washington D.C. private investigator Derek Strange, a 50-something black man who keeps a well-run office in his old neighborhood, but prefers working from the street, and his younger, hot-head, white associate, ex-cop Terry Quinn, team up again (after "Right as Rain") to rescue a 14-year-old suburban white girl from her new life as a prostitute.
It's an old story with a predictable arc, like the tragic act of senseless violence brewing separately from page one. And that inevitability is a central theme in George Pelecanos' warmhearted, gritty, streetwise series. While the music pounds, shouts and wails to fit his (and others') moods, Strange fights the ugly lure of street swagger by coaching a youth-league football team and instilling respect not only for teammates but the opposing team as well. Meanwhile he's wrestling his own demons and endangering his relationship with Janine (also his office manager) by massage parlor sorties.
Though the spotlight stays on Strange, Pelecanos switches viewpoints to include boys trifling with murder; Strange's young office helper, Lamar, a frightened kid trying to stay alive; Quinn, his life saved by the woman he's falling for, and others reflecting the streets that make up Strange's D.C. - pimps, broken drunks, young mothers, prostitutes.
The story, with its throbbing undercurrent of violence and wasted lives, generates plenty of suspense. Quinn ready to meet any insult with his fists, Strange working on a longer, slower, but perhaps more deadly fuse, work both sides of the color divide, mixing it up with dangerous, confident, soulless people, death an inflection away. Strange is an involvingly complex character, wise and impulsive, moral and angry, goodhearted, blunt, smart, sometimes annoyingly opaque. And Pelecanos brings D.C. alive as an edgy place of thriving, striving neighborhoods marred by drugs and easy money, hot cars and dead-eyed kids. A stand-out series.
Rating: 4
Summary: An Enjoyable, Quick Read
Comment: George Pelecanos Hell to Pay is an enjoyable read full of quick wit and fast dialogue. Pelecanos focuses on Derek Strange, a private investigator in DC and his partner Terry Quinn. The novel follows several story lines, some of which become intertwined, some of which don't. Reading it reminded me of watching an episode of C.S.I.--addictive, enjoyable, filled with various, disturbing story lines. The characters are very well-done, rounded, believable. All in all, an enjoyable read which I think will appeal to all--not just fans of crime novels.
Rating: 5
Summary: Hell of a Read!
Comment: I really enjoyed this second novel in the Derek Strange series. HELL TO PAY is an action novel from beginning to end with a great deal of substance in between. I didn't read any of the Derek Strange books in order. I read this novel after reading SOUL CIRCUS. I found out how Terry Quinn got that scar on his face from his run in with a seemingly larger than life pimp named Worldwide. The character Terry seems a lot more developed in this novel than in SOUL CIRCUS. This novel develops both characters personal lives such that they actually seem more like three dimensional characters. I've yet to read HARD REVOLUTION to find out the connection between Granville Oliver's father and Strange. Granville Oliver is the fictional drug kingpin introduced towards the end of this novel who figures more prominently in SOUL CIRCUS. I found this novel a joy to read it's a serial novel but newcomers to the series can pick up any of the Derek Strange novels and start from any point in the series.
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Title: Right as Rain by George P. Pelecanos ISBN: 0446610798 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Soul Circus by George P. Pelecanos ISBN: 0316608432 Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Sweet Forever by George P. Pelecanos ISBN: 044023493X Publisher: Dell Publishing Company Pub. Date: 10 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Shame the Devil: A Novel by George P. Pelecanos ISBN: 0440236355 Publisher: Dell Publishing Company Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Big Blowdown by George P. Pelecanos ISBN: 0312242913 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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