The Double - George Pelecanos

My review of George Pelecanos' The Double first appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers. It is appearing here on my blog today with their permission. Hope you enjoy...

First line: "Tom Peterson sat tall behind his desk."

Private investigator Spero Lucas returns in George Pelecanos’ powerful follow-up to The Cut. The Afghanistan veteran who finds things for people who’d like few questions and their jobs kept quiet is in search of a stolen painting. Lured in by a swindling Casanova who purloined her dignity and her valuable art, Grace Kincaid hires Lucas to reclaim what is rightfully hers. This art thief, however, has no plans to give up the piece and is prepared to take Lucas down to keep it.

As Lucas works the case, he also finds himself in a new predicament. He’s falling in love with a married woman. They’ve initiated a passionate affair, sneaking off to hotel rooms whenever she summons him. The affair is completely on her terms; she calls Lucas to satisfy her needs and despite his frustration with the arrangement, he can’t tell her no.

Through his interactions with the art thief and his mistress, as well as his continuing struggles to re-integrate into civilian life, Lucas questions who he is. The answer isn’t an easy one; Pelecanos has smudged the lines between right and wrong, and good intentions count for little, if anything.

Pelecanos’ characters dwell in the dark, underside of Washington D.C. and his tone mimics their environment. Meanwhile the beauty and strength of his writing exudes a melodic air; readers can practically hear the soulful rhythms that form the soundtracks to his characters’ complicated lives.

The Double is complex, gritty crime fiction at its best. Pelecanos shines again.

The Double is available in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0316078399) from Little, Brown. An unabridged audio version (ISBN: 9781478924760), narrated by Dion Graham, is available from Hachette Audio.

My Favorite Reads of 2012!

Here it is, the last day of 2012 and I have for you my list of favorite reads for this year. This was an odd year for me reading-wise. I read some spectacular books, discovered some great new-to-me authors and on the flip side, I think I put down more books than in past years because I just didn't connect with them at all. And while this isn't unusual, I did have distinctly different reactions to a number of books that were quite popular with other readers. I can be weird like that!

To give you an idea of what I started with, out of my 90 reads this year, I first removed the books that are January 2013 publications (I had 6 -- I've never had that many read ahead before), and I then highlighted the books that I felt were contenders this year: 18 books, plus 3 debuts I'll mention at the end. From that I winnowed it down to the list you see below. It was hard as all 18 were fabulous reads, books I've recommended to others and more than worth the time and money invested in them. I'd say I was a pretty lucky reader this year! So I ended up cheating a tad bit. I removed 3 more titles...I'll mention at the end...that weren't classified crime fiction novels. And I combined two titles that were by the same author. Hopefully, you'll forgive me my little cheats. :-)

But enough blather, let's get to the fun part. And don't forget to leave your favorites in the comments.

10.  Astride a Pink Horse - This was the first time I had read Robert Greer, and Astride a Pink Horse is, hopefully, the start to a new series for him. The plot was complex, the characters were dimensional, the themes were strong and thought-provoking. If this is the start to a new series, it's one I'll want to follow.

9. Jack 1939 - Again, this was the first time I had read Francine Mathews, but reading Jack has made me want to pick up all of her back list. This book was so smart and fascinating; it was one of those historical fiction novels that had me running to Google regularly to see what was fact and what was fiction.

8. The Prophet - Michael Koryta returned to a straight crime novel this year and it was a beaut! The rich symbolism throughout the novel elevated it beyond a simple crime story. Throughout his writing career he's continued to improve his character development, which is astounding given that he was exceptional at character development since book one. The Prophet is full of contrasting characters, defying stereotypes and endearing readers.

7.  Gone Girl - This was one time I didn't differ with the masses of readers who loved this book. Gillian Flynn wrote an incredible novel. She defied the likable, empathetic character notion and kept her readers hanging on with a smart, unpredictable plot. Flynn's pushing the boundaries of crime fiction and coming up with an amazing result.

6. Taken - Robert Crais continues to keep the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series fresh with powerful themes and engrossing plots. And unlike a lot of series characters, we continue to learn about Cole and Pike with every book. Taken hits you deep down in the soul.

5. Whiplash River/Gutshot Straight -  Once again I'll apologize for my endless talk about Lou Berney's Shake Bouchon crime capers, but good golly am I glad I found them. They are just fun books. And while Shake is not your pristine hero-type character, you can't help but adore him. I love the constant action of these books; the settings are spectacular; and the dialogue is first class. In my humble opinion, if you want to know how to do a crime caper right, you study these books cover to cover!

4. The Trinity Game - Holy Cow. Sorry, no pun intended on this one. We waited patiently for the return of Sean Chercover and boy did he deliver. This is just a powerfully written, complex story with unique characters. It was also a pretty gutsy book to write. The themes are very touchy for many American readers, but I think Chercover handled it all with grace and elegance. I cannot wait for the next book!

3. The Cut - While I didn't end up reviewing this one, I listened to it back in January on audio (it was an August 2011 release); time factors prevented me from reviewing it at a time that would allow me to do the book justice. And it deserved justice. It is a flat out amazing start to a new series character for George Pelecanos. All the elements that make Pelecanos great are present: the gray characters, the dark atmosphere, the suspenseful pace, the beautiful prose. How the man juggles as much as he does--and still does it all at a level of superiority most of us can never begin to fathom--is beyond me. I'm constantly in awe of his work.

2.  Live by Night - Gosh I always look forward to Dennis Lehane's work. It's simply amazing. His writing is poetic, his characters are relateable and larger-than-life at the same time, the plots keep you glued to the book then devastated when you've turned the last page. The atmosphere of Live by Night was the strongest I think Lehane's created. Taking him out of Boston did nothing to shake this man's talent. This is definitely a book I see standing the test of time.

1. The Survivor - When a story haunts me as much as The Survivor did, I know it's an exceptional book. Some characters just seem to take up residence in my soul after I've finished reading. They hang around with me and we have discussions in my mind about the story. Please don't call in the psych doctors, I'd be devastated if anyone ever took this silent pleasure away. Most of us will never have to deal with psychotic bank robbers threatening our families, but symbolically, this is the story of life's true super heroes; it's the story of how people react and adapt to life's sick sense of humor. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me tell everyone they need to read it. How Gregg Hurwitz continues to top himself book after book is inspiring. He'll have a hard time topping two stellar books in a row, but I wouldn't put it past him.

So, there is my list that I hemmed an hawed over. But indeed I think it's the most accurate reflection of my favorite reads this year. That being said, I have to give recognition to three books that you won't find in the crime fiction aisle of the bookstore. These three are books that I removed because they were strong contenders with the ten above and I wasn't sure how to integrate them:

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend (Matthew Dicks)
The Round House (Louise Erdrich)
On the Outside Looking Indian (Rupinder Gill) - this one actually a non-fiction

The two fiction books revolve around a crime element, but the powers that be in marketing have labeled them as literary fiction or general fiction, I guess. And On the Outside Looking Indian is probably the most unique for me because it's a memoir. I'm not much of a memoir reader, so I think that says a lot about the book!

And then I wanted to give kudos to three debut novels I read this year that were just outstanding and I see these authors doing amazing things (one already is since I read her debut late):

Bloodman (Robert Pobi)
Playing Dead (Julia Heaberlin)
The Things That Keep Us Here (Carla Buckley)

If you did not read my review of Carla Buckley's sophomore novel, Invisible, in Shelf Awareness this month, you'll have a chance to do so this week on the blog. Her debut was a great indicator of amazing things to come!

So, that's it for me for 2012. Next month I'll celebrate five years blogging here at Jen's Book Thoughts. It doesn't seem possible, but it's been so much fun talking books with all of you over the years.  Thanks for joining in the fun. Here's hoping 2013 is full of more book wonderfulness for us all.

Happy Reading and Happy New Year, all!

Top 10 Things I Learned at Murder & Mayhem in Muskego 2012

As you already know, last weekend was Murder and Mayhem in Muskego. I have to admit that this was the best one yet since I've been attending. You know about my interview with Robert Crais. If you had problems viewing it here on the blog (some did), I broke it in two shorter segments and posted those on the Facebook page. So hopefully that will work better for folks who had problems.

And by the way, the Facebook page is an open page, so even if you haven't liked the page...or if you don't have a Facebook account...you should still be able to access the page and see the video if you want.

But believe it or not, other stuff happened at M&M this weekend! So here is my minor recap of a weekend full of wonderfulness.

The Top Ten Things I Learned at Murder & Mayhem in Muskego, 2012

10. Daniel Palmer thinks writing is like a boiling cauldron and his favorite character (that is not of his own creation) is Jaws. His least favorite character--not his own--is also Jaws. This man is hysterical; if you've never met him in person, remedy that at your earliest convenience.

9. Craig McDonald says the Prologue is the over-used device he likes the least. Down with the prologue!

8. Lisa Lutz once (unknowingly) told a New York Times bestselling author that his mother was a major pain!

7. Chris Holm can not start writing a story without a title. To date he has been fortunate. The titles he's picked for his books have stuck, no publishing changes there.

6. Brad Parks knows a lot about fracking--actually I learned that one at lunch on Friday, but still...

5. Marcus Sakey is making a new television show. It won't be Hidden City, but a similar concept for the Travel Channel. 

4. Lou Berney is ambidextrous....and smart....and funny...and talented...and kind...and...

3. Jeff Lindsey has some very scary fans, and his minister likes to sermonize about Dexter!

2. Most of the panelists with Ayo Onatade didn't want to fess up to a character they didn't like (that wasn't their own) but John Lutz had no problems proclaiming Susan Silverman...with the caveat that he loved the Spenser books.

1. George Pelecanos is even more amazing than I thought he was last week!

I wanted to save this last one to the end of my list because there are several things I want to share with you. You may know them already, but this was my first chance to meet George Pelecanos and I can't even put into words how in awe I was. And he's not the kind of person who makes you feel uncomfortable or like you need to bow down and kiss his ring. He's down to earth, funny, kind, generous...and oh my goodness so smart.

If you followed my tweets during the interview with George, you already know that he will be working as an executive producer (as will Dennis Lehane) for Boardwalk Empire following the end of Treme. He also has the sequel to THE CUT coming out next year and it's called THE DOUBLE.

But I just have to tell you how this man won my heart in his interview. I don't even remember what the actual question was that brought this up, but he told the audience that he was acutely aware of the fact that he would leave a nice job, drive in his nice car to his nice house and live a comfortable life as a result of his writing about people far less privileged than he. So, he felt a need to give back. He's doing that through writing and reading programs in urban schools and prisons. One of the most incredible statements he made was, "If you give a kid in prison a book, that's how he escapes the cell."

Each year this one-day conference reminds me of the power of the story...the inspiration, the friendships, the fulfillment, the fun. The world always looks a little brighter after this conference for me. I highly recommend making an honest effort to attend it at some point. Save your pennies, plan your vacation, and get here. You won't regret it!

I'm going to leave you today with the other video I recorded this weekend. This is the panel I moderated Friday night...really I just pointed to people and said, "you share your story now." The panelists did the hard part--and they did it well. I apologize profusely. I thought I had the camera set up to get all the panelists, but poor Marcus got cut off. He's off to the left of the screen, but you can hear him when he talks. A couple times he leans into the picture. I hope you enjoy the show!

My Life According to Books 2012

Several years ago, my friend and fellow blogger, Pop Culture Nerd, started an annual tradition for us. She posted her "Life According to Books" based on a post she had seen. Since then, each year she creates new starter sentences and we each complete the sentences with book titles from things we've read in that year. I always look forward this fun meme.

Yesterday she posted her 2012 version. Be sure to stop over and see her fun responses. And today I have mine for you. So here we go:

Every Monday I look/feel like THE FEAR ARTIST (Timothy Hallinan)

Last time I went to a doctor/therapist was because (of) THE CUT (George Pelecanos)

Last meal I ate was BEFORE THE POISON (Peter Robinson)

My savings account is CRIMINAL (Karin Slaughter)
When a creepy guy asks for my number I LOCKDOWN (Sean Black)

Ignorant politicians make me HEARTBROKEN (Lisa Unger)

Some people need to spend more time ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING INDIAN (Rupinder Gill)

My memoir could be titled THE WHOLE LIE (Steve Ulfelder)

If I could have, I would’ve told my teenage self THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE (Carla Buckley)

In five years I hope I am TAKEN (Robert Crais)

I love to see what others say for this, so either leave your responses in the comments or make your own blog post and share the link with me so I can check them out. It's fun, give it a try.

Happy Reading!

THE WAY HOME - George Pelecanos

Christopher Flynn tended to be slightly more than rebellious as a young man. And his rebel-rousing landed him in Pine Ridge juvenile detention facility. His father Tom Flynn simply didn't know how to respond to or deal with his trouble-making son.

After serving his time in the juvenile detention facility, Chris goes to work for his father in Tom's carpet business and does his best to get his life straightened out. Until one day when fate would intervene and tempt Chris to return to his old ways. Would the bonds between a father and his son be enough to overcome the old demons that try to recapture the Flynn family?

Pelecanos does an astonishing job of capturing the world around him. The characters of Chris and Tom are ones most of us can see in people we know personally. And as I read through THE WAY HOME, I found myself nodding and mumbling, "uh hum." There's no sugar-coating or overdramatizing, just an honest glimpse of a less-than-"Leave it to Beaver" family situation. THE WAY HOME shows the growing pains of both father and son as they learn there really isn't such a thing.

George Pelecanos is a master of not only urban crime fiction but also social commentary. In THE WAY HOME he throws the Flynn men under a microscope to examine the fibers that make up a father-son relationship. Is there something in those fibers, or a lack of something in those fibers, that makes some sons take the path of trouble and others the path of success? After all, Tom Flynn was present in his son's life. He had rules and boundaries and expectations.

Pelecanos also throws an institution under that same microscope. The juvenile detention facility, always a controversial issue. THE WAY HOME is in no way preachy about these elements of society, but it does lay them out under the microscope for the reader to examine and ponder. THE WAY HOME doesn't offer up solutions or answers, but it does point out possible weaknesses in the fibers. Weaknesses that we don't often want to admit or look at. We simply want a quick and easy answer. Take care of it and don't make us look at it. THE WAY HOME makes its readers look at it and look closely.

If you're a fan of Pelecanos, you will enjoy THE WAY HOME. If you haven't experienced Pelecanos' work before, THE WAY HOME is a great place to start. You needed worry about background from any of his previous works. If you don't want a book to challenge you, to make you think, look elsewhere. THE WAY HOME is a great crime fiction novel that is also a reflection of the times we are living in. It is my hope that through books like THE WAY HOME, people will look back on them years from now and say, "things were really like that? Wow! We've come a long way."

THE WAY HOME (ISBN: 978-0-316-15649-3) is now available from Little, Brown and Company.

Thursday's This and That

Wow! It's been a bit of a whirlwind week. I'm not even exactly sure how it got to be Thursday already. I guess time is distorted when one is up on Cloud 9!

Monday's author event with Craig Johnson was absolutely amazing! So, it definitely warrants it own post. That will be Saturday, so I hope you'll check back to hear about my visit to Mystery Lovers Bookshop hosting Craig. In the meantime, I would like to leave you with a few links that you can enjoy about Craig. I turned a colleague on to Craig's work and we've been talking about him a lot at work, so I shared the NY Times article with my colleague and he dug up this site that shows the original "kit" Craig bought to start his house - he built his home in Wyoming if you did not already know.

Someone asked Craig Monday if Walt Longmire looks like him. I said I wasn't sure if Walt looked like Craig but "he definitely sounds like George Guidall." George Guidall is to Walt Longmire what Mark Hammer is/was to Dave Robicheaux. In my humble opinion of course. But you can check out what Craig things about his books on audio here at this site.

And I would totally LOVE it if Penguin would make one of these for me with a Walt Longmire title! Actually, could I get a set? If anyone's looking for a gift for me...;)

So tonight I'll be thinking about my other favorite bookstore in the entire world, the Mystery Bookstore in LA. The super, wonderful folks on the Pacific Coast will be hosting Craig tonight. Lucky folks!

We had a pretty hefty line-up this week for the six-word memoirs. I don't know...maybe I shouldn't have stacked so many great authors in the first three weeks. Keepin' up this pace is gonna be a challenge. But, I'm up for it. Hope you'll keep checking back.

However, I do need to get caught up on reviews. Hopefully you'll get one or six of those in the very near future. June is just crazy on this blog! Isn't it? Well, crazy doesn't even begin to describe this blog post from the L.A. Times. They have a list of 60 new books to read this summer - have you seen this? THIS SUMMER? Now that's a lot of reading. Michael Connelly's SCARECROW made the list, and so did THE SILENT HOUR. THE ANGEL'S GAME is one I have and am hoping to get to. Donald Westlake's final Dortmunder made their list, as did Pat Conroy's SOUTH OF BROAD. If I was making the list these would all be there but so would THE DARK HORSE (Craig Johnson), THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU (Michael Stanley), TRUST NO ONE (Gregg Hurwitz), MIND SCRAMBLER (Chris Grabenstein), and BREATHING WATER (Timothy Hallinan). But the most blatantly missing title? RAIN GODS? Really? It didn't make their list? Guess that's why no one asks ME to make those lists, huh?

O.k., so I don't want to forget to congratulate Lori from Kansas who won the signed copy of Lisa Unger's DIE FOR YOU. I will be getting that in the mail to Lori this week. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. And stay tuned. I have some more contests planned for this month!

I don't think I've mentioned here yet that I've been reading the May/June 2009 CRIMESPREE Magazine. Do you have a copy of this? There are some fabulous articles in this magazine! If you don't have a copy; you need to get one!

I still have to wrap up the read-a-thon. There was a final meme that I was supposed to answer and just simply didn't get to it because of my trip to PA on Monday. I had a wonderful time on Sunday reading, though. As you know if you followed my posts then I finished up BREATHING WATER, which I will be reviewing for you later this summer. I also finished THE WAY HOME, George Pelecanos' most recent novel. That review will be forthcoming. It was a beautiful day and I spent most of it on my front porch swing or the lawn chair in the back yard - so the dogs could be outside, too. It was a great time, but if I do something like that again, I need to make sure I don't have a day trip planned the NEXT day, too. Too crazy!

I hope you will check back tomorrow. As I mentioned on Tuesday, I'll be hosting an interview with the author of THE SECRET KEEPER, Paul Harris. I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot more from Mr. Harris down the road!

Until then...Happy Reading!

***Update 6:36 EST - I have fixed my major, major botch, but if you happen to be coming back to this post, Gregg Hurwitz's book is called TRUST NO ONE. It's due out later this month. TELL NO ONE is the first stand alone that Harlan Coben wrote and that I recently finished listening to on audio book. My sincerest apologies to both authors. Too bad spell check can't catch idiot mistakes!

The End

This will be my final post for the 12-hour Mystery Read-a-thon. I will still be reading another half hour to an hour once I sign off. I will finish George Pelecanos' THE WAY HOME. And this morning I also wrapped up the last part of Timothy Hallinan's BREATHING WATER. I almost don't want to start another book after these because they were both so amazing. I'm sure the next book is going to end up being a let-down. But, I will continue! :)

I'll post a wrap-up of the read-a-thon probably Thursday. Tomorrow I'm off to Oakmont, PA to visit The Mystery Lovers Bookshop and see Craig Johnson. I'll be leaving you all with Monday's Mystery Backlist title. Tuesday I hope you'll join me as I review Paul Harris' THE SECRET KEEPER as part of his TLC Book Blog Tour. And Wednesday will indeed be Week Number 3 of the Six-Word Memoirs Series. You're in for another great treat.

Have a wonderful week! And as always - Happy Reading!