The Night Gardener

by George P. Pelecanos

When the body of a local teenager is found in a community garden, detective Gus Ramone relives intense memories of a twenty-year-old case. Back when he was a rookie, Ramone and his partner "Doc" Holiday assisted legendary detective T.C. Cooke in the investigation of a series of murders involving young victims. The killer, dubbed "the Night Gardener," was never caught.

The fierce sense of anger, regret, and purpose that once burned among these three men comes rushing back as they race to vanquish the monster who has stalked their dreams. For Cook, now retired, it means solving one of the few cases that eluded him. For Holiday, whose career as a cop was derailed, it's one last chance to redeem himself. For Ramone, catching the killer means not only doing his job but knowing that his own teenage son, who was a friend of the dead boy, won't be the next victim.
(back cover)

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Noir, Detective

372 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2006

About the author

George Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C., in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992.

Pelecanos is the author of eighteen novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, The Night Gardener, The Turnaround, The Way Home, The Cut, and What It Was. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men from Boys, and Murder at the Foul Line. He served as editor on the collections D.C. Noir and D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, as well as The Best Mystery Stories of 2008. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire called him "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wrote that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime writer." Pelecanos would like to note that Mr. King used the qualifier "perhaps."

Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever, (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. He was a writer and co-producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, and is currently at work as an executive producer and writer on David Simon's HBO dramatic series Treme, shot in New Orleans.

Pelecanos lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMICIDI PALINDROMI


”L’imbalsamatore” di Matteo Garrone, 2002.

Aveva spalle ampie e squadrate, il viso gradevole, con gli zigomi in parte coperti da lunghe treccine. Gli occhi erano di un marrone intenso ma poco espressivi, l’ideale per un tassidermista.

Mi piace come scrive George Pelacanos.
Le sue crime novel sono diverse: hanno un ritmo andante, che sa prendersi il giusto tempo per costruire atmosfera situazione caratteri, senza fretta senza strappi senza salti.
Mi piace che non usi effetti, men che meno effettacci, che non sprechi il sangue, che risparmi sui pezzetti di cervello fatti saltare in aria da una pallottola.



Mi piace che le sue storie, anche se parlano di droga, crimine, violenza, che non sono tanto la mia quotidianità, sembrino così verosimili, e così credibili.

Mi piace che i suoi personaggi abbiano un’età e la dimostrino, che siano a volte coi fianchi larghi, a volte calvi, a volte bassi, a volte magri allampanati, e non sempre semidei come nei libri di Don Winslow o Jefferson Parker.

Mi piace che tratti le donne come gli uomini, e non con il machismo solito di questo genere di letteratura.

Mi piace che i suoi libri siano tutti ambientati a Washington.



E mi piace la sua insistenza nel descrivere percorsi stradali, toponomastica, architettura urbana, arredamento, modelli di automobili e altri aspetti che potrebbero sembrare marginali.

Mi piace perché il Male nei suoi libri non è sovrumano, diabolico, infernale, ma sembra che abiti nella porta accanto.

Mi piace perché mi sembra diverso, fuori dal coro.

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the face of it the story of a serial killer doing what a serial killer does (you know, kill people), but in this case amidst the disenfranchised African American in Washington DC. The serial killer returns after a 17 year hiatus to pick up where they left off..

… but really this Pelecanos masterwork is a delicately crafted piece of crime fiction writing looking at police, racism, homophobia, inter-race relationships, ambition, love, youth, education... I could go on. Great book by Stephen King's favourite living crime writer and one of the writers behind The Wire: A Dramatic Series for HBO, If you liked 'The Wire' you will ovet this 8 out of 12, Four Star rated read.

2012 read

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the bygone age of 1985, detective TC Cooke, with young cops Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday in tow, tried to save a string of murders dubbed the Palindrome Killer, aka the Night Gardener, and failed. Twenty years later, a murder with the same telltale characteristics occurs. Has the killer resurfaced? And can the three men, now in vastly different lives, crack the case?

The Night Gardener is a police procedural mystery set in Washington DC. At least, at first glance. It's really the tale of fathers and sons, secrets, and redemption. Gus Ramone, a veteran homicide cop, has his life shaken when a friend of his young son's turns up dead of a gunshot wound in a community garden. Since the young man's name is Asa and the situation is similar to the decades old Palindrome Killer crime, the police speculate there is a link. Retired cop TC Cooke and disgraced former cop Dan Holiday both get wind of it and launch an investigation of their own. Couple that with the story of some rival gangsters and a briefcase of stolen money and it's off to the races.

Much like the rest of George Pelecanos' novels, music, basketball, and car talk are often featured in the dialogue. Derek Strange's wife and dog make cameo appearances, as does Pelecanos himself as an unnamed passenger in a limo driven by Holiday. I kept waiting for one of the characters to get a drink at The Spot so would could check in with Nick Stefanos but it was not to be. Pelecanos revisits familiar themes like racism and what it's like to grow up black and poor in Washington DC.

As usual, his characters come right off the page. Ramone wants more than anything to keep his family safe. Holiday wants a chance at redemption. Cooke wants to solve the case that haunted the final days of his career. Even the bad guys were far from one dimensional. Several knew they were in over their heads and acted accordingly.

The revelation about Asa's death and what led him down that road were pretty hard hitting. The big gunfight was even more brutal than I thought it was going to be. The ending for the rest of the characters wasn't what I was expecting but was fitting.

Every time I return to the Washington DC of George Pelecanos, it's like I never left. As usual, Pelecanos kept me entertained for the duration. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The side of me that can get sucked into watching a Law and Order: (X)* and then watch the next eight episodes also airing that day enjoyed this book. The part of me that feels disgusted with myself after an orgy of Dick Wolf created police procedurals didn't care for this book so much.

Reading the police procedural stuff I could feel the critical part of my mind snapping off. I'm surprised that I didn't leave the subway coming home last night with paper cuts from turning the pages so fast. I can usually read fifteen to thirty pages on my commute, and I read twenty pages of this book on the first morning I brought it to work on the train. But last night I clocked in fifty-five pages, without any delays. The book had the satisfaction of a sugar rush though.

There was promise of more than cheap entertainment here, but it never really developed. Pelecanos can do better than this, and the other novels of his that I read do do (hahaha, I said do do, like poo) better than this one. Not that this book is bad, it's very entertaining, but it's not good. The police stuff is ok, but in a post Homicide/The Wire (ok not post The Wire but The Wire was already in full swing when this book came out) there needs to be more. More what? I don't really know, I don't normally read this stuff, but portraying cops are regular folks with there own good and bad sides and all of that can only be taken so far, there needs to be something else behind the story, and in this book the story seemed to never really catch. Although, even without a satisfying story this was still a very entertaining book to read.




* where X stands for either the original LAO or any of the spin-offs.

[Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This almost turned out to be The Little Friend of Pelecanos books, but much like that one, the pleasure was all in the journey & not in trying to figure out who the night gardener really was or just who was killing those kids with the palindromic names. I left the obsession to the police & sat back & enjoyed the ride. I went about it backwards a bit with this guy, reading his newer stuff first & saving the older for last. I'm retroactively pleased that I did it this way because if you ask me, his older work is where it's at - but here's the depressing part: I think I have two books left to read & then George & I will be parting ways for a bit. I think I'll need Wire marathon to cheer me up when that happens.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That was Freda Payne, and I don’t care what she did,” said Bonano. He blew into a deck of Marlboro Lights and watched as the filtered end of one popped out. “She didn’t do this.”

Standard George Pelecanos cigarette extraction. Even in The Night Gardener with none of the usual Greek suspects. But we find the metro DC police, serial murders and teenagers in troubled waters. As usual.

But wait, here is Derek Strange on page 152. Now I am beginning to feel comfortable. This is the Pelecanos that I love. And there is the dog Greco, a boxer, following close behind. Just like I remembered. Now we’re getting somewhere!

Pelecanos doesn’t mind staking out a political or social position occasionally. And it doesn’t hurt that I usually agree with him. I like an author who is on the correct side of the issues!

But you know, locking people up willy-nilly for drugs doesn’t do shit but destroy families and turn citizens against the police. And I’m not talking about criminals. I’m talking about law-abiding citizens, ‘cause it seems like damn near everyone in low-income D.C. got a relative or friend who’s been locked up on drug charges. Used to be, folks could be friendly with police. Now we’re the enemy. The drug war ruined policing, you ask me. And it made the streets more dangerous for cops. Any way you look at it, it’s wrong.

And some sociology of homosexuality in the black community that even Pelecanos, who often alludes to topical issues, had avoided thus far. This is a bold move, if somewhat delayed, in this book published in 2006.

“Black teenagers do commit suicide. Matter of fact, the suicide rate of black teenagers is on the upswing. One of the benefits of being admitted to the middle and upper class. You know, the cost of money. Not to mention easy access to guns. And a lot of black gay kids just know they’re never gonna be accepted. Part of it’s that unspoken thing in our culture. Some of my people gonna forgive you for just about anything, except that one thing, you know what I’m saying?“

Another Pelecanos specialty found in every book: the moment of death from the inside. No afterlife.

Dunne listened to the crickets and stared up at the branches and the stars. I cannot die, he thought. But soon the sensations of sound and sight faded to nothing, and Grady Dunne joined Raymond Benjamin and Romeo Brock in death.

And another Pelecanos specialty: ambiguous guys. Not really bad guys but not totally good guys either. George Pelecanos writes about people with dreams as well as nightmares.

And what about Derek Strange and Greco and Janine on page 152? It turns out they were just there in a sentimental cameo appearance. But there was some real sentimentality at the end of the book.

Soon it began to drizzle for the second time that night. The drops grew heavier and became visible in the headlights of the cars. It was said by some of the police on the scene that God was crying for the girl in the garden. To others, it was only rain.

[Aditya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pelecanos dabbles with police procedural in The Night Gardener but doesn't follow through with it. He adds an unrelated, unnecessary plot of a drug deal gone wrong that ends in a violent shootout. More drug deals have gone wrong in Pelecanos' works than in careers of about ten-twenty drug dealers put together. So it is Pelecanos' bread and butter. The stuff he has been writing for about two decades but adding it shows he probably didn't have as much confidence in the main narrative; which is a pity. As the main story about an unsolved serial killer in 1980s and a present day murder of a fifteen year old that looks like the serial killer is back is pretty decent.

I don't think Pelecanos has ever written a whodunnit before and for a first time author the central mystery is well written. It is not shocking or complex but realistic and satisfactory. The best part of his writing is the atmosphere that oozes out of every page and the authentic working class characters. Pelecanos has been good at both those aspects for a long time now but as always the characters are not very interesting and the plot is scattered taking too long to get going. The first half of the book drags, the second half is much better.

My beef with Pelecanos has never been his writing but always his approach. He tries too many things in a single book and never does anything perfectly. In The Night Gardener had the focus been kept on the squad of detectives as is the case with most police procedurals, it would have been much better. I didn't mind the extracurricular investigation being done by a bunch of ex-cops connected to old serial killer case. But when you add the subplots of drug deal gone wrong and the casual racism that the protagonist's son faces in his new school, it becomes a case of diluting every individual plot thread. None of them are boring but they simply don't have enough pages devoted to them to be really developed.

There is his usual preaching of how tough it is to be black or poor, both true no doubt but done with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. And he also bestows on his readers his obsessions with music, sports and car trivia that will go over the heads of ninety percent of his readers. But for all of his quirks Pelecanos is not bad when he actually concentrates on writing a crime story, it is sad that he is never content with doing only that. This makes The Night Gardener a typical Pelecanos book - consistently solid without ever being remarkable. Rating - 3/5.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first time reading George Pelecanos. This is a cross between Elmore Leonard and Richard Price. It has Leonard’s knack for bold characterization and sharp dialogue combined with Price’s gift for storytelling in an urban setting.

A serial killer, who killed three victims twenty years before has apparently struck again. This brings together a disparate group of characters and storylines. The murder is just a framing device for one of the best novels I’ve read this year. It’s a story that takes unexpected twists and turns. A story that is at times moving, at times violent.

On the cover of this edition of the book, Stephen King says of Pelecanos: “Perhaps the greatest living American Crime Writer”. Mr. King, in this book, Mr. Pelecanos rises above any genre.

[rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have found my personal literary grail: a worthy fictional successor to David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. When it comes to (East Coast) urban noir, this is the best of the best.

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is an extremely good police procedural. it is so good that it makes me less sad to have already read Lush Life, to have exhausted all episodes of The Wire, and to know that richard price won't write another epic for another few years (he ain't fast, that man). in fact, a quick perusal of his work has led me to understand that george pelecanos does not always write police procedurals, and i have made a little deal with myself that, not to spoil the pleasure of this novel, to keep it lingering on my tongue for as long as possible, i will read all of his police procedurals before i read any other of his book, if at all. because, i've realized, i like police procedurals more than any other crime&mystery writing, hands down. this is personal so i won't bore you with it. but let me tell you why this is so good.

first of all, it's paradigmatic of a certain way of looking at police work in cities (it's set in D.C.) made edgy to the verge of hysteria by race, class, and the tensions of gentrification. richard price does this in Freedomland, Clockers, and Lush Life, especially the last (gentrification was not as present to the collective mind when Freedomland and Clockers were written). this paradigm looks at cops as real people with life-issues, problems, and, occasionally, serious instances of fucked-upedness. it also endeavors not to demonize cops, but to make them genuinely interested in people, including the losers they occasionally have to send to jail but would rather not. in The Wire, richard price's work, and here, cops are often lonely, often working extra jobs so they don't have to go home, often corrupt but not too much, often indulging in exploitative sexual relationships with informants, often keen on the bottle, often sexist, racists, and generally unpleasant. you don't like them but you understand them, especially when they are "good police" who care about their job more than about the politics of policing.

pelecanos squeezes all these features into this book so artfully that i say this one volume exemplifies how they work (or are meant to work) together better than any of the instances i mentioned above.

then there are the cops you love, lorenzo in Freedomland, matti and his female partner (what's her name?) in Lush Life, and, here, rhonda and ramone, who are, both of them, very well designed and very cool. i have to regret that these boy writers make men a lot more complex than women. in The Wire kima is a fairly complex, if not fleshed out, character, but both the female detectives in Lush Life and rhonda in The Night Gardener are wise and wise-cracking, no-nonsense female cops, tough as nails, soft as leavened dough, and way too busy to shoot the fat with the guys. they are great and you love them, but it'd be nice to move away from the stereotype.

but the complexity of this story is the real treat. the layering. the interweaving of police work, personal psychology, social issues, multiple and only apparently intricate plot-lines -- all doused with hard-boiled ethical reflections on the value of childhood, parenting, and community life. nice.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crime in a George Pelecanos novel is so confronting and unnerving that it is almost as unsettling as reading true-crime. His depictions of squalor, violence, bangers, urban poverty, and police procedures are as real and engrossing as his characters. In THE NIGHT GARDNER, Pelecanos delivers everything I’ve come to expect – deep characterisation, a free flowing yet multidimensional plot and most of all, pure noir amongst a backdrop of a heinous crime. Adding yet another string to this impressive bow, is the sense of continuity with Gus and Doc living in the same fictional world as Derek Strange (Quinn and Strange PI novels) and the criminal known as Red Fury (WHAT IT WAS) of which the wannabe gangers of THE NIGHT GARDNER idolise with a deluded sense of hero-worship.

Detective Gus Ramone, haunted and a little segregated from the inner circle of policing due to his sting in IA is tasked with solving a homicide of a young man which has similar hallmarks to a string of murders 20yrs ago. Back then, Gus as a green beat cop along with Doc were in awe of the T.C. Cook, a solid detective with an exception case closure rate. Fast forward to present day, Gus is now a leading homicide police, Doc is driving cars after a less than honourable discharge from the force and Cook is retired and on his last legs – yet all three become reunited by a crime never solved which seems to have surfaced once again.

THE NIGHT GARNDER, while predominantly a police procedural with noir trappings is really about character and the challenges that face inner city living minorities and heartache. Gus, a father first, sees this latest crime hit too close to home with the latest vic, Asa, a boyhood friend of his teenage son. Coupled with that loss is the undercurrent of racial vilification at the school Gus’ son attends and other such incidences which threaten to send Gus’ family into a downward spiral.

While Doc, a cop turned driver turned bordering alcoholic, the chance to be involved in a real case literally falls in his lap. Adding to the discovery of the body is a shady recollection through a drink infused haze which also threatens to test the mantle of another cop who may or may not have been in the vicinity of the crime when it was committed. Doc, seeks out Cook in a bid to right his wrong and shine his somewhat tarnished rep that forced him out of policing and finally put a stop to the killings.

THE NIGHT GARDNER is one of the best novels I’ve read by Pelecanos. He manages to create a real sense of time and place, putting the reader inside the shoes of Gus, Doc, and others. While THE NIGHT GARNDER is a standalone, I found it beneficial and more enjoyable having read WHAT IT WAS prior, as the character Red Fury, eluted to in THE NIGHT GARNDER is seen in a whole new light having read about his escapades and criminal legend in the Derek Strange novel.

In summary – a must read for fans of Derek Strange, Washington D.C. crime fiction, THE WIRE, and noir. 5 stars.

View more on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 4 out of 5]

My baptism to George Pelecanos and it was great. Wonderful way to join the Pelecanos GR Fan Club. He reminds me of a few writers who I already love and read much of, so no surprise how much I enjoyed Pelecanos' writing. And he's easy on the eyes too, which of course has nothing to do with his writing talent. I'm getting terrible about judging men from how they look. Nevermind, don't care, he's good looking, gals, with those big blues.

A couple things are a must for me; a great dialogue, a better than average storyline and clearly drawn characters whether they are heros or the bad guy(s) and Pelecanos deserves high marks on all accounts.

Will read another Pelecanos in the near future especially since I'm finishing one of my more than 15 character series that I'm reading. I think it's Matthew Hope, Ed McBain's lawyer friend. Damn, McBain has a lot of 'friends' out there.

And double dog damn, someone just emailed this am saying how much they liked Pelecanos, in part because they are from DC. Ok, just who was that fine friend from this am? Come up, come up wherever you are. Got it...it was Ij; Ij's hometown is Washington, D. C. where everything happens, don't we know.

I always enjoy reading a new author and if you're into Connelly, Crais, Deaver crowd, you'll like George. We're now on a first name basis and I want to get to know him better.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, The Wire. Yes, I am one of "those" individuals who continue to bemoan the passing of the best television series ever. Finally got around to picking up one of George Pelecanos' novels to see if I could get a taste of the same magic.

Tough, gritty dialogue. You may want to avoid if you are at all queasy about gutter-speak as there is rather a lot of it here. I personally feel that it is fitting for the storyline and not at all out of the realm of true. Really good characters, amazingly fleshed out for such a quick read. I cared about these people and that's a big tip of the hat to the author.

If you want a synopis of the story, there are some excellent reviews out there. I will not try to dredge it up another way just for the sake of doing it. The story is solid and there are a couple of surprises along the way. The end is sad, but real.

[Jason Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pelecanos writes the kind of dialogue I aspire to. Prime noir, DC to the hilt, always moving. He’s a master.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a many layered book. The mystery itself is a fine one, one whose ending I didn't see coming. (But then, I'm not one who usually guesses "who done it," anyhow, probably because that's not why I read mysteries.) Other twists were more obvious, but no less enjoyable for that; they're well done.

It's the other layers--character, fatherhood, love (and lack thereof), relationships among co-worker cops, the city itself--with which Pelecanos works his greatest magic. The young men in this novel, the problems that beset them, and their responses to life ring exceptionally true. Youth are neither patronized nor romanticized, but respected as full-fledged characters. Finally, there is the matter of race relations in a complex setting & situation. Pelecanos does seem to give the cops a break here, with very little explicit racism on the part of the police. Those who beat & back-shoot African American men don't make an appearance, although to be fair the novel is set in DC, not Miami, LA, or Cleveland, and a number of the police in question are themselves African Amerian. The racial honesty shows in Ramone's ruminations on race here and there throughout the novel. As with the youth, this white character is not romanticized, but portrayed straight-on.

I don't know that this is the model for socially conscious detective novels, as Laura Lippman suggests in her comments, but it is close enough to have reminded me of why I took up with those in the first place. It's less explicitly political than Paretsky's work or Burke's "Tin Roof," yet as surprising in its way as Connelly's "Angels Flight" was . . . a sort of gritty member of this family.

[Brandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book initially thinking it was a classic/thriller mystery but was sorely disappointed. The crux of the story didn't actually develop until over 150 pages. There was a lot of time spent on crude, back and forth dialogue between the police characters that felt more like screenwriting than a novel. Rather than providing a resolution to the crime mystery that was presented, the book becomes more of a fable on what it really means to celebrate diversity and waxes philosophical about the meaning of success. While I think these are great points to make, they seemed better suited for a blog.

[John Culuris · Rating 3 out of 5]

★ ★ ★ 1/2

My first non-series Pelecanos. The return of a serial killer after twenty years of dormancy brings together three men: a detective and two former cops, one retired, one forced out. Perhaps because of my preference for series characters, I closed this book thinking, Interesting but not great. Yet there is no denying Pelecanos’s brilliance as a writer, particularly with street-level life. His average is still better than most. I’ll end up reading all of his work eventually, series or not.

[Θανάσης · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a Pelecanos fan for a long while so I might be biased but I think this might be one of his very best. What started as a slow (and fairly standard) police procedural evolved into something utterly brilliant that delivered a gut punch of an ending that left me reeling and reflective. Highly recommended.

[TinaNoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a die hard fan of the HBO series The Wire. i have always maintained that that tv show "read" more like a novel than it did a typical tv show. It had characters with depth, there were no good guys and bad guys only people who were varying shades of grey. It had layers and a definite, recognizable signature of style and storytelling.

So it is no surprise that a book by George Pelecanos, a contributing writer for that show, would also showcase many of the things that make the show so compelling.

This story is at once a murder mystery, a police procedural, a set of character studies and a little dash of domestic drama.

The central story of the murder of a teenage boy seems, at first, to be straightforward enough. Years ago, a killer known as the Palindrome Murderer (his victim's names spelled the same forward and back) eluded the police. Now 20 years later, the police wonder if he has returned because the newest murder victim, also discovered in the same way as those other victims, has a name that is spelled the same forward and back.

In the 20 year time, the three cops who were at the scene of the last known palindrome murder have all had very different life trajectories. Seargent Cooke, who headed the investigations at the time, has since retired and spends his days in boring loneliness but still thinks, almost obsessively, about the case he could never solve. Dan "Doc" Holiday was drummed out the of the force and now owns a chauffeur & bodyguard business and sees this at his chance at redemption. And then there is Gus Ramone, a straight arrow who has worked his way up the ranks and who has a very specific interest in the newest murder because the victim is a good friend of his own teen aged son.

What follows is the story of how these three, in their own way, pursue the case and then reconnect. Interspersed in the main story are other moments of police work as well as glimpses into the home life of Gus Ramone, all worked organically into the flow of the narrative. As a whole, there is a lot more going on than just a murder case. There is a lot of story with some excellent secondary and even minor walk-on characters.

Another thing that I really liked about this book is that it is set in DC which has a very large minority population and the writer does not ignore that. I have read books by writers who set their books in large urban areas that have a very sizeable minority population and not a single person in the book is a person of color. What is better is that Pelecanos is very matter of fact about race. It is isn't there to be preached about or obsessed over, it just is. These people all live there. Some comment on it, some describe others by race, some have unconscious prejudices, some don't consciously think about it, but it is there. That is true even of his treatment of Gus and his family life.

One side subplot deals with Gus' determination to make sure his children attend a better school than the on they are supposed to go to. But the school they send the kids to unfortunately racially profiles in a very passive-aggressive way. Gus is married to a black woman so his kids are biracial. He and his wife struggle with the decision whether to keep their son in a school where the classes, teachers and material are better but he and other black students are singled out for minor infractions that are ignored in their white classmates or to send him back to his old school that is in decay but accepts him and where he flourishes. It isn't a heavy handed, bleeding heart subplot, but it does remind me of the excellent season 4 of The Wire where the public education system was a central theme.

I was gratified with how really wonderful a read this was. The story was not predictable, the ending was somewhat surprising to me but was exactly the way it should have ended.

I highly recommend!

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

The body of a black teen is found with one shot to the head in a community garden. MPD homicide detective Gus Ramone’s own teen son knew the boy, and Ramone is driven to solve the case. Two ex-cops – one who quit under morals charges and one a retired legend – think this murder might be related to a series of killings twenty years earlier in which the victims were all left in gardens, and take it upon themselves to investigate, though they have no authority. In a subplot, a young banger, inspired by the legend of ‘70s bad guy Red Fury (from the Pelecanos novel What it Was), wants to go on a spree that will have people saying his name for years to come – but he may have stolen from the wrong bad guys.

This is another hard-boiled, gritty, seamy-side-of-the-city crime novel from an established master. Engaging, suspenseful, and intricate, this is a page-turner from beginning to end. Phrases I’ve used to sing the praises of Pelecanos’ unflinching prose in earlier novels also apply here: he “creates a grim tableau of the modern city and its culture of poverty, crime, and drugs;” he “delivers the seedy underbelly of DC without rose-colored glasses or glorification;” he “knows DC streets, restaurant culture, the way criminals move and talk, types of weapons, and all the other little details that bring characters and plots to life.” I repeat myself because with every book, he proves again that he can deliver the human side of crime: the problems in the school system that foster cycles of ignorance and violence, the culture of expensive clothes and hyper-masculinity where appearance and reputation are king; the economic disparity; the undercurrent of race resentment, always bubbling near the surface. His minor characters are richly drawn and have an air of tragedy because Pelecanos knows that even drug addicts and gangsters have dreams and goals. In this book, Pelecanos tones down his irritating foible of defining masculinity in his work, though the stupid line “he checked out her backside, because he was a man” (which I found needless in Soul Circus) is here as well, and his nearly defensive preference for voluptuous women results in cartoonishly predictable body shapes for characters, as if this were a Disney cartoon: curvy women, whether wife or whore, have a lust for life and good heart, and slim hips are a near-sure sign that that woman is a humorless prude. I know this is nitpicking; I just continue to find it odd that an author who can bring empathy to killers and corrupt police can’t seem to shake his neurosis about manliness and body shape.

[Peter Clothier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m cheap. I buy my entertainment books at the local library used book stand, and donate the ones I’ve read. It’s a good system for all, and it does a bit supports the library, I suppose, in hard times. It does mean, though, that I come by my thrillers way past their publication date—truthfully, well past their publication year. I don’t much mind, though. Unless they’re really old, they read pretty much the same. No burning issues. I've loved the genre since browing up with the greats--Leslie Charteris, G.K. Chesteron, Daphne DuMaurier, Ngaio Marsh--and, of course, Agatha and Sir Arthur. You know who I mean...

Anyway, there are certainly no burning social or philosophical issues in The Night Gardener, by George Pelecanos, which I just finished last night. It's a change of pace from Than Geoff! Pelecanos writes TV escapist fare--cop shows--and that much is evident here. The action is fast-paced, the street dialogue cryptic and convincing. Not too much gore, but murders aplenty and a hint of the currently topical theme of sex abuse. Characters are engaging, vulnerable, each broken in some way, some sufficiently well explored to be sympathetic.

The book is a page-turner. For a reader who, like myself, gets hooked on story and is impatient to know how it unfolds , The Night Gardener is guaranteed to keep you up a bit longer than you’d planned. My quibble: I do get tired of the macho exchange of tough cop talk between, mostly, guys who have a lot invested in their guy-ness—football, booze and sex. Otherwise, if you enjoy this kind of nonsense as I do, I say go for it.

[brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

there were parts that were clunky and some of the usual contemporary crime cliches popped up; but the book surprised me more often than not. pelecanos is not content to slip into genre and do what he's supposed to do, but neither does he draw so far outside the lines so as to lose the reader looking for a great and dark crime book... his characterization, dialogue, and tone were top notch -- i fully understand why simon snatched this guy up to write for The Wire.

[Leftbanker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t mean to pick on George Pelecanos, but I’m using The Night Gardener to illustrate what I don’t like about a lot of the crime fiction that I’ve read lately.

This is going to sound preposterous, but I don’t like cases. I defy anyone to explain any of the cases in any of the Harry Bosch novels. Or how about The Girl on the Train? Usually, when something is that bad you want to forget it, but I couldn’t have explained that preposterous story to anyone a minute after I read the last page.

Most of the time, the stories are completely absurd and logic-defying disasters. The plots may sound uncomplicated on the book jackets, but by the time you get to the end, they are so convoluted that you’re lucky if you don’t faint from dizziness.

I definitely don’t like whodunits or mysteries as authors usually just yank you around for 350 pages before laying out a dead culprit that makes zero sense. They call this a surprise ending. Of course, it’s a surprise, it makes no sense. When you begin with literally everyone being a possible suspect, you can’t really come back from that disregard for logic. Whodunits? Whogivesashit? I never liked Sherlock Holmes and certainly none of the new retreads of that tired old product.

I’m not a big fan of physical description in crime novels or thrillers, unless it is absolutely necessary for the story. There are dozens of these “why do I give a fuck?” descriptions in this book:

The bartender, Leo Vazoulis, wide and balding, with thin gray hair and a black mustache, served them their drinks.

He was a thin, strong young man who looked five years older than his twenty.

Dalton was lean, with gray hair, a white dude with Chinese eyes.

…a bald, average-sized black man with a gray mustache stood in the frame.

I’m not wowed by tough-guy cop speak. Avoid it, because once it’s out there, it’s everywhere and that makes it a cliché. Avoid clichés. Make up something new. In one scene, a cop referred to a prostitute as a “prosti.” If cops really say that, they need to stop. You have to wonder if cops talk the way they do because they hear it in movies, or it’s the other way around. Either way, it’s a dog chasing his own tail.

In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess was afraid that the protagonist’s slang would sound dated soon after publication which prompted him to invent his own slang which we ironically still use sixty years later.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book, twice in fact. Huge mistake, really huge. I rewound the audio so many times the first go around that I didn't even know what I had read at the end. George Pelecanos decided to read his own work and that is what did me in. He read it in a monotone dead-pan voice that not only put me to sleep but was annoying also. On my second listen to this book, I did it in 30 minute segments using the app's sleep timer. I was then able to truly grasp the story and connect with the characters. It proved to be a most entertaining book the second time around. I had read another work of Pelecanas some years back and enjoyed it immensely. This one was just as enjoyable on my second listen. The story line was intriguing and the characters were amazingly fascinating and realistic. What made this book more interesting was the fact that it took place in the Metro area where I reside, that area that encompasses Virginia, Maryland and DC. The places, street names, attitudes and neighborhoods were all familiar to me. I commuted to and worked in the District of Columbia for over thirty six years. The story was hard hitting and an all to familiar one. Death and violence on the streets of DC. The main protagonist worked together many years back on a serial killer case that was never solved. In present day, Gus Ramone is still on the force, a homicide detective now and the other, "Doc" Holiday is retired having left the force under a cloud of suspicion on morals charges and is now self-employed as a chauffeur. Gus lands on a new case that hints of the former unsolved murders of three teens. Doc awakened from a nap n his vehicle and needing to relieve himself, happens upon the latest victims body but hesitates to call it in. He checks the victim's ID and then leaves the area to call it in from a payphone in another area. The victim reminds him all to well of the serial murders years back. Grudgingly working together with the legendary retired detective T. C. Cook who handled the serial murders, the trio must piece together what happened to the latest victim but the question still remains, Who killed the three teens twenty years ago? Is it the same person? I highly recommend this book BUT please read it and DO NOT listen to the audio version.

[Jack Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. A police procedural with interesting undertones - race relations in the early 21st century, the circuitous route of major criminal investigations, the close proximity of success and failure, fathers and sons, I could go on. Washington DC detective Gus Ramone picks up the case of a teenager found shot in a community garden; could it have been suicide? Nope, the gun was missing. His name was Asa who turns out to be a friend of Ramone's son Diego. The family lives nearby and it falls to Gus to break the news to Asa's parents. Ramone realizes that this new case has a strong resemblance to the unsolved "Palindrome" murders of 1985 - the murders of three young Black kids with names that read the same forward and backward. He had been a young police officer and, along with Dan Holliday who later left the force under a cloud, was directing traffic at the scene. But they had watched the experienced Sergeant T. C. Cooke as he conducted the investigation. Although not without difficulty, they get together again. Can they conquer mistrust and different styles to find a killer? It's tough. (October 2019)

[Herbivorous · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair bit of how Pelecanos writes annoys me. I guess it's meant to be hard-boiled, but I wonder if for once maybe someone could just light a cigarette, rather than having to "put a match to a Camel."

What I do like keeps me coming around to read one of his book every so often. For one, his sense of place in DC is very specific and very real -- I see the community garden where they find the corpse at the start of this book from my train window every weekday morning. I can see just where things happened. Secondly, I like the intense relationship with music that many of his characters have. I have a pretty intense relationship to music, so I can relate. And Pelecanos novels definitely read, and are a good choice when I want something that will give me a good ride without having to work too hard for it. I read this right after Infinite Jest, and it was a great change of pace. But if I lived anywhere other than DC, I doubt I'd bother with him much.

[Spektrall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one went to some places I didn't expect. Definitely another exhibit in a growing casefile of mine called Non-Fantasy Books That Would Still Benefit Greatly From a Having Map on the First Page But They Don't. The descriptions of roads and counties and neighbourhoods in Washington DC and the regions around it have the specificity up to 11 and it's as overwhelming as it is fascinating. and while it seems to promise a true detective style serial killer thriller, it pivots quickly to the day to day grind of homicide police work, semi-organised crime and the many many people living their lives in the city around them. While it treats race as the dominant topic that it is in the time and place it depicts, with a very diverse and nuanced cast of characters, it's still a very man-focused narrative with the female characters always on the fringes and only given the briefest touches of the flaws and emotional turmoil of the men at the centre of the narrative. The third-person perspective is not constrained in any way and is frequently popping into new people's heads like we're playing Dishonored. But the most prominent female characters, while shown often and frequently on the minds of the men, only take up the POV conch shell for a handful of pages over the entire book.

It's so well-structured and specific and page-turny that I did enjoy it, blind spots and all. The shared DNA with The Wire is unmistakeable and a good enough reason to recommend it on its own. I think there was one legit plot hole right near the end but I'm keeping this one spoiler free.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be the best Pelecanos I’ve read, yet, and I’m looking forward to more!
Still, a crime book set in DC…it’s a great book—but it’s still a crime book, and they can be pretty formulaic.
If you want examples of how good Pelecanos, the author, is—he’s part of the team responsible for “The Wire” and “Treme” on television, two of my favorite shows, ever!
Like Omar on The Wire, Pelecanos puts nuance into his writing, and he puts in the work to discuss complex issues like race, and acceptance of homosexuality, and biracial families; it is good, commendable, & necessary in 21st Century America!
🇺🇸

[David Kateeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much has a Mystic River vibe! The Night Gardener feels so raw and grounded. George Pelecanos was given full ride-along access with the D.C. police while researching the book, and it completely shaped how he wrote it. He wasn’t just looking at the mechanics of police work—he was looking at the emotional cost.