The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos is an interesting read. It covers a time span from the 1980s to current day in the Washington DC-Maryland area. The case of the Palindrome Killer has never been solved linking two young policemen and a highly regarded detective together over the years. When what appears to be a similar murder happens to one of now Detective Ramone’s son’s friends the old case comes back to haunt the aging detective and the disgraced policeman. Can they solve it? Add in drug thugs stealing from one another, guns bought and sold on the streets like hotdogs, and all of the usual personal problems that arise while raising teens. I enjoyed this book, the characters were fallible humans which gave credence to the story for me.

This is my first book I have read that is by Pelecanos, so I was ready for anything. He is a newly discovered author for me. It is very police routine, & just a police story. Did not care for it very much, except, two of the characters were "fleshed out", and I always like to know about the characters. The crime was everyday crime in a big city. No suspense, or, caring "who done it?".

There are times friends and family give me books to read. I never say no to a free book! This has been on my shelf for a while from my Dad. He loved a good Crime writer.

This book was surprisingly good! The Author was a writer and producer for the HBO series The WIRE. What I loved about this story, it was not the formula written crime story. Set in DC, there are quite a few characters in this novel to keep up with. It opens up 20 years ago with an unsolved crime. Fast forward to today and another body is found in the same location. Is it the same killer? 3 different men who were involved in the original crimes begin to look into it. As this is going on, other crimes are being solved. We follow some criminals in this book as well who is part of a different crime. That is what makes this different. You get a glimpse into Urban life through the eyes of cops , criminals and families. Life goes on and every day there are people dying in the streets due to crime.

George Pelecanos writes noir like no other. He really invests in the characters more than on the plot, seemingly, which leads to eventful occurrences that turn into his stories. His prowess already witnessed in The Wire shines bright in The Night Gardener. A cop, a retired police sergeant and an ex-cop who’d resigned from the Washington DC force team up to solve a murder the MO of which resembles an unsolved cold case file. The conclusion, although anticlimactic, is poignant and ripe with social commentary on an America that goes hard on diversity, or anything that doesn’t fit in the box of ideal America (read: white people). Pelecanos thrusts issues to the front, builds up the idea of non-linearity, the inevitable repetition of what’s happened, and paints on a canvas called the Dream that’s already tainted and maimed. The story simmers and takes it own sweet time to build up, scattering a thrill here and there, but has a definite hook to it.

Another solid, well written crime thriller from the always consistent George Pelecanos.

Much more than just a police procedural. Pelecanos writes with style and empathy, creating real characters, interesting plot lines and moral dilemmas, and it is always fun to read about the side of D.C. we don't experience. I really enjoyed this. It has been a summer of great reads so far!

Gus Ramone is a homicide cop in Washington DC, married to a black woman and with two kids. Dan “doc” Holiday used to be his partner in 1985 when both were still regular cops. And when the palindrome murders happened; three kids with palindrome names were murdered.

We follow the lives of Ramone and Holiday and other characters when a young boy (Asa) is found shot to death in a communal garden.

Interesting characters, some good dialogue. Does give of some of the vibe of TV series The Wire (Pelecanos was one of the writers the cover tells me). All the more because not everything ends will, but people keep going on with hope.

Great story telling, as with every Pelecanos novel, with an outstanding message. To quote Stephen King: "One of the saddest endings in modern fiction."

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.

Mr. Pelecanos's name has been rattling around in my awareness for a while now, and I thought I'd give him a try. For a noir, it's respectable.

I admire the author's fearlessness in writing (partly) about "what it's like to grow up black and poor in Washington DC." as another Goodreads reviewer wrote. Because, presumably, he grew up neither, and not in DC. His powers of perspective and empathy are impressive. In this novel, there are a lot of disparate characters and they were on the whole believable. Complex, capable of growth.

The tone is tough & male. I like to eavesdrop in on, and spy on, this world. (I am aware it's fiction.) I feel that it's useful to keep an eye on the tough and male, because folks who like this world-view are still in positions of power out of proportion to their numbers.

I get impatient with fiction that is too frilly, and equally impatient with fiction that is too macho. This novel came close to the latter. In addition, I felt the author's presence and point of view too clearly. It wasn't a polemic, but it came close at times. I am glad that I finally read a novel of Pelecanos, but this one did not send me straight to the P section of the library for another experience.

4.5 About the only thing you should be paying attention to up there at top is that it won the Barry Award for Best Novel. Trust the discerning readers. Bookended by a couple of flashbacks, this one is contemporary, ever so slightly tangential to the Derek Strange series, and centers on three MPD detectives (two former) who see a possible link between a current teen murder and a set of old ones. It's great stuff on its own, but what makes this one exceptional is the scope of story – it's much more about daily personal, multi-generational, and internal struggles, and those interwoven threads are no less compelling.

There was two stories going but one seemed just like filler and the not that well developed. This was more about developing the main character. Thus, it was okay.