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The Turnaround
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Review
'Pelecanos maps the social landscape of DC with a compassionate complexity, scouring the badlands of the city and the psyche for the causes of criminality and the bonds that bind communities.' (GUARDIAN )
'A stunning, gripping read' (Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY )
'Pelecanos is in the top rank of American crime scribes, and this is him at his very best.' (SUNDAY MERCURY )
'A fine novel with rich dialogue and characters.' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
'A stunning, gripping read' (Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY )
'Pelecanos is in the top rank of American crime scribes, and this is him at his very best.' (SUNDAY MERCURY )
'A fine novel with rich dialogue and characters.' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
Review
'George Pelecanos is in subdued, reflective mood: the novel is no less powerful for that. ... in its quiet way it is just as truthful and provocative' -- Marcel Berlins THE TIMES 'The Turnaround is about fathers and sons, growing up and growing old, yet it is effortlessly gripping and moving. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.' -- Mark Sanderson EVENING STANDARD 'Crime novelist George Pelecanos has created a stylish, unsettling meditation on the repercussions of wrongdoing that confounds expectations. ... Thought-provoking as ever, Pelecanos manages to write a tale that is intimate and panoramic, taut and lyrical.' METRO 'He is, we reckon, the best Amerian writer working at the moment. And no, we don't just mean in crime fiction.' THE HERALD 'Pelecanos has a perfect ear for the rhythms of life and language in his beloved Washington - not the nabobs of Capital Hill, but the ghettoes and the immigrant communities he knows so well. ... This is an excellent thriller about choices, family values, loyalty, and, ultimately, violent redemption.' -- Matthew Lewin THE GUARDIAN 'What Billingham does for London in terms of grim reality, George Pelecanos and Richard Price, two of the writers on The Wire, do for urban East Coast America. The Turnaround is a complex story ... a wonderful low-key novel, as much about guilt and redemption as about crime, and - as always - Pelecanos is a meticulous chronicler of his place and time.' -- Carla McKay DAILY MAIL '[Pelecanos] deserves all the praise showered on him. ... Once again Pelecanos scores high ... American crime writing at its finest.' -- Mark Timlin INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Pelecanos has a wonderful gift for scene-setting and his unobtrusive way of slipping in a subliminal soundtrack for the reader makes already supremely strong stories really burst into life.' DUBLIN EVENING HERALD 'Just as Dickens gave literary expression to the lives of the powerless in the most powerful city in the world, 19th century London, George Pelecanos too arguably has achieved the same feat in Washington. In The Turnaround ... you will not find prostrate oppressed characters ... there is always resilience, intelligence and, most of all, hope. These elements are not thrown together but beautifully combined in the prose and dialogue that may yet make The Turnaround a modern classic.' SOCIALIST REVIEW 'being one of the trio of crime novelists responsible for much of hte scriptwriting on The Greatest Show Ever is all the recommendation us Wire fans need. ... His eye for the detail (and the music) of American blue-collar life and willingness to let his creations breath make The Turnaround a credible and forceful examination into making up and making do.' THE WORD 'Pelecanos is skilled at narrative, and his characters' dilemmas are evoked grimly and vividly. Best of all is his bleak picture of the poorer side of a city where lives are constantly menaced by an unholy trinity of crime, racism and deprivation.' -- Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR 'This is an intelligent, moving and compelling novel, even by Pelecanos' high standards.' MORNING STAR 'George Pelecanos's work has long since transcended the crime fiction genre, and his fifteenth novel, The Turnaround, finds him at the height of his powers as a trenchant social critic.' NEW HUMANIST
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Who among us hasn't done something dumb and lived to regret it? Hopefully none of our blunders have been as blindly, irrationally stupid as the act of three young white men, Alex Pappas, Pete Whitten, and Billy Cachoris. Their decision sets the stage for one more haunting, richly configured story by George Pelecanos (The Night Gardener).
Alex is in the backseat when Pete and Billy decide that a sure cure for their boredom is to go over the tracks into the black area of Washington, D.C., and cause some trouble. They get more than they bargained for when they find themselves in a dead-end facing a tough trio - Charles Baker and brothers Raymond and James Monroe. Perhaps the devil-take-the-hindmost interlopers didn't know that they'd been preceded by other white boys who got their jollies by shouting racial epithets and tossing garbage at residents. Angered by this treatment one of the black boys had something new - a gun. It was fired and lives were irrevocably changed.
Skipping ahead decades we find Alex, still bearing the facial scars of that night, has married and taken over his father's lunch business. Raymond, who served time for the shooting is now employed as a Walter Reed Hospital physical therapist. Life had not been kind to Charles nor was he kind to life - he became a full-time dangerous criminal. Pete is now an attorney, and Billy who died that night is long in his grave.
Some are trying to forget the past, one wants vengeance. What happens when two who were once enemies meet again?
- Gail Cooke
Alex is in the backseat when Pete and Billy decide that a sure cure for their boredom is to go over the tracks into the black area of Washington, D.C., and cause some trouble. They get more than they bargained for when they find themselves in a dead-end facing a tough trio - Charles Baker and brothers Raymond and James Monroe. Perhaps the devil-take-the-hindmost interlopers didn't know that they'd been preceded by other white boys who got their jollies by shouting racial epithets and tossing garbage at residents. Angered by this treatment one of the black boys had something new - a gun. It was fired and lives were irrevocably changed.
Skipping ahead decades we find Alex, still bearing the facial scars of that night, has married and taken over his father's lunch business. Raymond, who served time for the shooting is now employed as a Walter Reed Hospital physical therapist. Life had not been kind to Charles nor was he kind to life - he became a full-time dangerous criminal. Pete is now an attorney, and Billy who died that night is long in his grave.
Some are trying to forget the past, one wants vengeance. What happens when two who were once enemies meet again?
- Gail Cooke
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A new Pelecanos novel is something to look forward to and to savour,like a fine whiskey. I've enjoyed all his books, but The Turnaround stands out because you cannot help but feel for the characters, deeply flawed though they may be. In reality, the opportunity to return to our past failings and at least redress the balance rarely occurs, but that doesn't make the denouement here any less moving.My favourite novel of the year by an absolute master of the genre.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Pelecanos has taken the crime genre and given it a darn good shake up. He imbues his books with a humanity and level headedness which is miles away from the schlock horror of many of his peers. He is like an easier om the eye James Ellroy and by setting some of this book in 1972 he can discourse on politics, society and gang culture then annd now which gives this fiction a veneer of believeable truth. This is a thriller of the highest order, not just a "crime" novel, a read in one sitting masterpiece. Yes it is that good!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Turnaround by George Pelecanos
I suppose most people with an interest int his area will knkow this writer now, due to his work on teevee, but he has been writing for a long time, and is one of the best, in a... Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Duncan
As the Evening Standard says on the cover, 'Quite simply, a...
This novel came to me some time ago, amongst several others, from a friend. Until then I had never heard of George Pelecanos. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. D. A. Chettleburgh
George Pelecanos
This is the third book I have read from this wonderful author, and once again did not disappoint.
Published on 8 April 2010 by Stevie
Gripping crime novel by a master
George Pelecanos brilliantly recreates the world of 1972 Washington D.C. - through deft references to music, sport,clothes, attitudes. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2010 by J. H. Bretts
hard to beat
Pelecanos was a fine novelist before he began contributing scripts to The Wire but his experience on the television series appears to have further honed his skills. Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2009 by Ewing Grahame
Raising the bar
George Pelecanos takes a passing swipe in The Turnaround at a certain genre of American crime fiction, implying that amusing dialogue is OK for an easy read but ... Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2009 by G. M. Sinstadt
impressive
Being a James Lee Burke fan myself this gets a nod of approval, too! A gallery of totally believable characters set in a somewhat racially devided D. C. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2009 by Kurt Brian Isaksen
Have I been here before?
While I read this quickly and with enjoyment..there was an element of deja-vu. Denis Lehane's Mystic River seemed to have left more than a tide mark on the narrative structure used... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2009 by John S. McDonald
An enjoyable read
This was my first novel by Pelecanos and it certainly lived up to the newspaper reviews I had read. The story engages you from the start and whilst the denouement comes as no real... Read more
Published on 26 July 2009 by D. P. Mankin
Under the Skin
Another great book from one of the greatest authors on the planet.
Pelecanos is often pigeon-holed as a crime writer but he is so much more than that. Read more
Pelecanos is often pigeon-holed as a crime writer but he is so much more than that. Read more
Published on 22 July 2009 by H. meiehofer
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