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The Cut [Hardcover]

George Pelecanos (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.96 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Book Description

Publication Date: 25 Aug 2011

Spero Lucas has a new line of work. Since he returned home after serving in Iraq, he has been doing special investigations for a defence attorney. He's good at it, and he has carved out a niche: recovering stolen property, no questions asked. His cut is forty percent.

A high-profile crime boss who has heard of Lucas's speciality hires him to find out who has been stealing from his operation. It's the biggest job Lucas has ever been offered, and he quickly gets a sense of what's going on. But before he can close in on what's been taken, he tangles with a world of men whose amorality and violence leave him reeling. Is any cut worth your family, your lover, your life?

Spero Lucas is George Pelecanos's greatest creation, a young man making his place in the world one battle and one mission at a time. The first in a new series of thrillers featuring Spero Lucas, The Cut is the latest confirmation of why George Pelecanos is 'perhaps the greatest living crime writer.' (Stephen King)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Orion (25 Aug 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1409114562
  • ISBN-13: 978-1409114567
  • Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 2.7 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 47,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

As you'd expect from a writer with credit for both The Wire and Treme, Pelecanos expertly renders the streets of the US capital and succeeds where many have failed of late: creating a fully formed antihero whom readers will want to meet again. (SHORTLIST )

Pelecanos is incapable of writing a book that isn't gripping, and the dialogue is of a brilliance comparable only with Elmore Leonard and George V Higgins. (THE TIMES )

a bloody, brooding thriller of rare authenticity. (Mark Sanderson EVENING STANDARD )

expertly crafted writing, pop-culture references ... and a plot that keeps twisting to the dramatic finale. (SHORTLIST )

This is gold-standard character-driven crime writing that few will ever match. I can't wait for the sequel. (Christopher Fowler FINANCIAL TIMES )

Pelecanos keeps readers on their toes with with a series of twists that confound stereotypes, drilling the plot along with breakneck prose, sassy dialogue and even shifting into a serious analysis at modern society in all its flawed glory. Exceptional. (THE BIG ISSUE )

The language, like the action, is brutal, fast and hard ... Stephen King describes Pelecanos as 'perhaps the greatest living crime writer' and The Cut certainly marks him out as a name to watch. In fact, he may just come to give Ellroy and Leonard a run for their money in the hard-boiled stakes. (DAILY MAIL )

Pelecanos, heir to Elmore Leonard's throne, has landed another short, sparkling masterpiece. What's more, The Cut is just the beginning of a planned series for tough, streetwise, mother's boy Spero Lucas. (THE MIRROR )

George Pelecanos writes hard-boiled fiction with heart (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

He's best known for writing acclaimed US TV show The Wire. But George Pelecanos has spent many years penning brilliant but under-appreciated crime novels set in Washington DC ... the dialogue, characters and sense of location are superb. Pelecanos is a Cut above the rest. (Natasha Harding THE SUN 20111125)

Book Description

The first in a stunning action-packed new series from the writer of THE WIRE.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Struggling with Violence! 7 Sep 2011
By J.C.Coles
Format:Hardcover
In THE CUT Pelecanos vividly describes not only the struggle of a returning vet coming to terms with rejoining society, but that of young men in the city in general trying to make a living whilst avoiding crime and violence. The writing is in his usual style that uses little adverbs or descriptive prose, but somehow manages to build up the picture for the reader through the actions and reactions of the main characters. The street life and action scenes are very realistic and the main character both believable in his flawed or guiltless motivation and likeable as a result.

Spero Lucas is a tough Iraq veteran who keeps himself super-fit and on return to Washington finds work with a disreputable defence attorney. Spero is trying to find direction on civvy street and whilst figuring this out uses his talents to recover debts for Tom Peterson's clients. Things get heavy when he is hired to protect drop money for a dangerous crime boss (like there's any other kind) and the bag-men are hit and he becomes chief suspect. Lucas uses his military training to avoid his pursuers and gather forces whilst trying to figure out who is behind it all.

Another great read from Pelecanos that has left me eager for the next!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Fallujah, Half Smokes and Black Uhuru. 31 Aug 2011
By A. Miles VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
This shortish novel introduces Mr. Pelecanos' new character, Iraq veteran turned private investigator Spero Lucas. He's somewhat more of a man of action than Pelecanos more downbeat heroes -this is indicated in a neat bit of metafiction within a subplot set in an English Literature class, when the students stop reading Elmore Leonard and start on the hardboiled Donald E. Westlake - but otherwise this novel is everything we've come to expect from the author - a tightly plotted procedural, the working class DC setting, exhaustively detailed descriptions of clothes, food and cars, and of course the musical backdrop, Spero being a 70s reggae fan.

A justified criticism of Pelecanos work, I think, is that his heroes are all rather similiar. Like their author, their all deeply into pop culture, (often to a somewhat unlikely degree) fond of eating'half smokes' (whatever they are) at Greek cafes, have issues with their Fathers, etc. I'm not sure that Spero is different enough from Nick Stefanos to have been worthwhile creating, to be honest. But at least, as he's not an alcoholic, we're spared Pelecanos constant moralisising on that score (Though Spero's Mum has four glasses of wine on a Saturday night in order that Pelecanos can have a little tut-tut).

But I digress. Pelecanos has never written a bad novel, and 'The Cut' whilst not one of his very best, is certainly up there with the rest of his output. Recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent thriller 11 Jun 2012
By Peter Compton
Format:Paperback
As we have come to expect from George Pelecanos, this is an excellent thriller, but one with a bit of a twist to it. Rather than being a standard police thriller, we are looking at events in the life of Spero Lucas, a Fallujah veteran who has made a niche for himself "finding things" and taking a cut of the proceeds. Spero lives in a rather amoral world where he does not ask too many questions about the legality of what he is being asked to find, so when he is asked to locate some marijuana that has gone missing, he is happy to oblige.
Predictably enough, there are bad guys involved, including petty dealers, would-be gangsters and a bent policeman, and there are of course innocent lives that are being threatened. The book manages to be exciting throughout, but also to have a very convincing cast of characters, both the bad guys and the rest - Spero's Greek family, his occasional girlfriends, his other friends, etc. And there is a very well written closing scene, with all the violence and excitement you would hope for.
The comparisons with Elmore Leonard are both obvious and justified - a very competent and rather unusual thriller.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Not my Cup of Tea
Book 1, in the Spero Lucas series

This book sets off a new series for George Pelecanos and my first experience with the author. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Toni Osborne
5.0 out of 5 stars Pelecanos is cool
I have red all GP's books and have loved them all I particularly like his earlier stuff but everythiing he does from this to his TV work is brilliant. Thank you George.
Published 5 months ago by Paul Richards
4.0 out of 5 stars My first experience
A good read good pace and interesting characters. Nice twists and turns in the plot, first book I have tried by this author but will definitely try another one.
Published 5 months ago by Peter FRANKLIN
3.0 out of 5 stars Holding back?
A talented, intelligent writer and mostly this is realistic. Quite like the Wire.
I just feel he didnt take off the shackles. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Straw Hat
1.0 out of 5 stars pathetic drivel
Having struggled to get past the first few chapters it was not worth pursuing to the end of the book. Read more
Published 14 months ago by oldginger ebbw vale
5.0 out of 5 stars exactly as advertised
this item was recieved in the time stated and was exactly as it was in the advert, a good sale experience. thank you
Published 17 months ago by dillon
1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor, GP's worst book
I've read all of George Pelecano's books and this is absolutely the worst of the lot. Boring predictable characters, weak story lines and repeative narrative made it a really... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ben
1.0 out of 5 stars Drivel
This was absolute drivel. If you want to know how to get around Washington street names are frequently mentioned together with Designer clothes but as to a plot there is almost... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Snowey
1.0 out of 5 stars The Crap
Like weak boring, cliched, predictable rubbish?
Wanna know what our vain berk of a hero is wearing, and
how many push ups he can do? Read more
Published 19 months ago by rosp
3.0 out of 5 stars Good - but not one of his best
In Spero Lucas George Pelecanos introduces a very interesting new private eye, a war veteran with a complicated family background that I'm sure will come more to the fore in later... Read more
Published 19 months ago by J. H. Bretts
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