The novelist George Pelecanos has been plugging away writing crime fiction for a number of years. He sets his books in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He just started a new series that features Spero Lucas, a veteran of
the Iraq War who is now working in a somewhat shady occupation: he recovers stolen merchandise.
In "The Cut" Lucas has been hired to recover some stolen shipments of marijuana. Lucas quickly becomes entangled in a nether world of creepy criminals. Lucas just wants his cut. He'll get 40% of the value of any goods he can recover.
Pelecanos writes taut, tense storylines that cruise in a languid speed then suddenly ratchet up into pulsating action. It should come as no surprise to know that he was one of the main writers for the HBO series "The Wire."
