Pelecanos continues his gritty exploration of the streets of D.C bringing together the old black private investigator, Derek Strange, and Terry Quinn, young and white. This time the story is tauter and more in the vein of Elmore Leonard – at least as far as how the good guys, the bad guys and the shades of grey guys come together. The interesting twist here is that Terry Quinn, the ex-policeman, is actually drawn into an investigation in which he is the primary suspect.

Technical note: the soundtrack is important to Pelecanos, the characters live and breath music – it sets the tone of their interactions to the point of almost being a character of the novel.