Shame the Devil
by George P. Pelecanos
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Book Summary Information
Author: George P. PelecanosEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-03-06
ISBN: 0440236355
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Dell
Book Reviews of Shame the Devil
Book Review: PELECANOS-ELMORE LEONARD MOVE 5 Stars
I caught Mr. Pelecanos being interviewed on NPR the other day, and decided to purchase one of his paperbacks. Lucky for me, Shame The Devil was selected.....Do you know the feeling when you find a new author who has written numerous books, and you realize that his style of writing, descripions, etc., strike a chord within you, and you realize you now have numerous hours of enjoyment reading? It is a time of great joy! This is how Shame The Devil affected me. As a born and raised native Washingtonian, I can attest that his descriptions of bars, homes, etc. are exactly how they are in DC and surrounding parts, and as retired law enforcement officer, who now does investigations and process serving in all areas of DC, I can vouch for his first hand descriptions of the streets of the DC area. When Mr Pelecanos creates his characters, the reader is treated to all aspects of their persona, including weaknesses and strengths, their ability and inability to deal with tragedy, and a sense of what motivates each person. He delivers great insight on black/white prejudices, and how people survive in a sometime hostile, deadly enviroment. The murderers in this story are mean and nasty enough, and the victims will warrant sympathy. His use of music, naming songs and artists that the characters are listening to on the radio also add to the atmosphere. Mr. Pelecanos has lived a lifetime farther than his 44 years on this earth. He truly is a student/observer of human behavior. I believe his use of his characters' inner mental dialogue is very similiar to another of my favorite writers, Ken Follett. Do I suggest you buy this book? I suggest you buy all 10 of his books. I did. I gotta go now, it's time to read.Summary of Shame the Devil
The boys are back in townFrank Farrow is a natural-born killer. Roman Otis is a fine-looking crooner who does his killing on the side. On a hot D.C. afternoon Frank and Roman hit a pizza shop called May's. When the hit was over, four people were executed. A cop was shot. A boy was dead. And when the sirens stopped wailing and the killers vanished into the heat, dozens of lives were shattered forever.
Now it's three years later, and Dimitri Karras, who lost a son, is starting to live again. But Dimitri's old acquaintance, a P.I. named Nick Stefanos, has just unburied the past--by discovering the killers' identity. Suddenly the second act of a crime story is about to be told. Because the May's pizza parlor killers are coming back into town: where they'll be greeted with open arms, broken hearts, and at least one loaded gun.
Penzler Pick, February 2000: Just as Robert B. Parker and Dennis Lehane have made Boston their own and Los Angeles has been the distinct province of a lineage leading from Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald to Michael Connelly and Robert Crais, so is George Pelecanos the storyteller who's put Washington, D.C., on the noir map. Once considered "the best-kept secret in crime fiction" by his peers, he is now fast leaving behind those days of strictly word-of-mouth fame and cult status.
Telling it like he sees it, and looking fearlessly into those dark, forgotten alleyways that lay too far beyond the corridors of power to make it into any guidebooks, Pelecanos conjures up a gritty, ghostly Washington of working-class neighborhoods and aging suburbs and shoots it through with chillingly unpredictable menace. Most Washington natives probably wouldn't recognize the place--but they couldn't stop trying either, knowing that they've at least glimpsed (out of the corners of their eyes) those environs where a Pelecanos character is most at home.
In Shame the Devil, we find a society of grieving men and women connected by loss, betrayal, the need for revenge, and the shadowy presence of evil. As in other Pelecanos tales, the heroes are not easily identified, love is a coming together of wounded souls, and answers are found where least expected. In the aftermath of a botched armed robbery, a fair number of lives have been thrown into a downward spiral. The problems, however, come on faster and with more fury once the status quo sustaining the survivors has been breached by an ill-wishing and unwanted addition to their little group.
Here are two favorite moments. In one, protagonist Dimitri Karras asks the name of a fellow bar patron. Hearing that he's called Happy, Karras comments that he doesn't look too happy. The answer: "He's pacing himself." The other: we hear the thoughts of the sociopathic villain: "Some believed that incarceration was a mark of failure, but Frank disagreed. Prison was an essential element of any career criminal's education."
With Shame the Devil, Pelecanos solidifies his position among the elite of the brilliant coterie of young noir writers who are creating the emerging classics of the genre. --Otto Penzler
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