...
Show More
Pelecanos writes the kind of dialogue I aspire to. Prime noir, DC to the hilt, always moving. He’s a master.
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
The Night Gardener
...
Show More
When the body of a local teenager turns up in a community garden, veteran homicide detective Gus Ramone teams up with T. C. Cook, a legendary, now retired detective, and Dan "Doc" Holiday, his former partner who left the force under a cloud of suspicion.
372 pages, Hardcover
First published August 8,2006
This edition
- Format
-
372 pages, Hardcover
- Published
-
August 8, 2006 by Little Brown and Company
- ISBN
-
9780316156509
- ASIN
-
0316156507
- Language
-
English
Characters More characters
-
Gus Ramone
Gus Ramone is a veteran of the homicide unit and a family man married to Regina, with two children, Diego and Alana. Gus is Italian-American while Regina is African-American....
-
Dan Doc Holliday
A boozy, womanizing ex-cop forced to resign during an Internal Affairs investigation conducted by Ramone....
About the author
...
Show More
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.
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.
Readers also enjoyed
Community Reviews
Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
37(37%)
4 stars
35(35%)
3 stars
28(28%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
...
Show More
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
… 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
...
Show More
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.
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.
...
Show More
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.
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.
...
Show More
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.
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.
...
Show More
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...
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...
...
Show More
“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.
...
Show More
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.
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.
Leave a Review