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Right As Rain
 
 
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Right As Rain (Paperback)

by George Pelecanos (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (18 Oct 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752843885
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752843889
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 21,410 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
It was late at night and everyone was shouting, when off-duty black cop Chris Wilson was shot dead by his colleague Terry Quinn; middle-aged black private eye and ex-cop Strange is hired by Wilson's mother to find out exactly what happened--Wilson ended up being blamed for his own death and she wants her son's name cleared. Strange finds himself taking to Quinn, a bright young man with anger-management issues; Quinn himself is anxious to find out what caused the misunderstanding and shooting that ended Wilson's life and Quinn's career. Right as Rain is an intelligent thriller because it offers no especially easy answers--Quinn is so little a racist that he falls easily into a friendship with Strange, enough of a friendship that he will from time to time make crass assumptions. And meanwhile Pelecanos lets us see enough of the drug-dealing underground of Washington DC and the near-terminal decline of Wilson's junkie sister Sondra that we know there are revelations to come. Pelecanos is good on male friendship and the things that keep people sane--Strange is a richly imagined smart cautious man who puts himself in serious danger for what is right. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Derek Strange and Terry Quinn are ex-cops turned private detectives in Washington, DC. Hired to investigate the death of an off-duty black police officer at the hands of a white policeman, Strange and Quinn are faced with the institutionalised racism of the nation's most poorly trained and dangerous police force. As the two private detectives confront the degradation of the city's flourishing drug trade, they find themselves up against some of the most implacable, dead-eyed killers ever to grace the pages of a novel. In RIGHT AS RAIN George Pelecanos introduces a memorable pair of characters into the grittily real Washington DC landscape which has led to him being acclaimed as 'A great writer' (The Times).

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional crime novel, 19 Mar 2004
By D. Proctor "dproc2001" (Kendal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
There is much to recommend in this novel. To begin with it is really exceptionally well plotted. The tension builds very slowly as the two stories that begin the novel are brought gradually together to a gripping climax. The images that this novel brings out in the reader are also much more powerful than the average novel of detection. Some of the scenes still stick in my mind. One reviewer compared him to Dostoyevsky and it is true that like the great Russian he has a way of portraying the underbelly of society in a uniquely powerful way. The novel also has a very satisfying conclusion. You get to like the investigator in the story even though he has serious weaknesses and the growing relationship he develops with his future partner (in investigation) is also very interesting. I began the novel thinking that it would be mediocre but now afterwards I am determined to read all others in the series. Pelecanos really is as good as the media has made him out to be. Other writers could learn alot from the intelligence of his plotting.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Strong One From George, 16 Aug 2001
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Right As Rain (Paperback)
I've lived in DC for 20 years, my family is from here, and Pelecanos is only the second author I've come across who writes about the DC that I know and recognize (the other Edward Jones, check out his story collection "Lost in the City" if you can find it). In this new book, he steps away from his established characters Nick Stefanos and Dmitri Karras, and launches a new duo, black, middle-aged PI Derek Strange, and younger, white ex-cop Terry Quinn. Through them, and the story of Chris Wilson, an off-duty black cop shot by Quinn, Pelecanos displays the racial awkwardness and tension that pervades Washington, D.C. The central message of the book is that everyone, regardless of race, carries preconceptions with them about other groups. That doesn't make them racist-that term is reserved for those who carry hatred in their hearts.

Strange is hired to investigate the shooting of her son, Chris Wilson, leading him to Quinn, who works in a little used bookstore in Silver Spring (Like all the locations in the book, the store really exists, it's a few blocks from my office and I sometimes swing by on my lunch break). The two men fall into an uneasy partnership as this discover more about he events that led to Quinn's killing of Wilson. They make an engagingly effective odd couple as they verbally spar with one another about race, underneath their respective flaws, they're good men. At the same time, both men are struggling to make relationships work, Strange with his divorcee secretary, and Quinn with a Latina student/waitress. As with most of Pelecanos's men, they often make selfish or simply clumsy moves in looking for love. And like most of those same guys, they have well-defined tastes in music, cars, movies, and books.

Following the tone of Pelecanos's previous work, what is gradually revealed is a sordid tale of drugs and corruption, with some powerful drug pushers, and a few violent rednecks. All this unfolds in a world instantly recognizable to Washington natives, where drug dealers work in the open, neighborhoods revolve around local restaurants, and corruption has spread to even the upscale oases (the well-known high-end restaurant Red Sage being one example). As we have come to expect from Pelecanos, everything comes together in a cinematic violent climax offering some attempt at justice. If you've read and enjoyed previous books of his, you're likely to enjoy this one as well. It's got two great new characters, and is a bit more explicit in examining racism, but is otherwise very much in keeping with his previous work.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An okay Pelecanos, 2 Aug 2007
By MrShev "mrshev" (Gloucestershire, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
I have been reading pretty much everything that Pelecanos has written but this is my first foray into reading his Quinn and Strange books and I think it is an okay book with all the usual Pelacanos ingredients: music references, car culture and a bit of Greek when he can lever it in.

It's the first book in the Strange series and introduces the two (pretty clichéd, to be honest)leads. They seem to be walking stereotypes, but I am honestly not that bothered about that. The plot itself is pretty humdrum and I worked out most of it by mid way through. What does feature, though, is Pelecanos' gift for dialogue and scene setting and he is very, very good at both of these. It's sassy and cool and just makes you want to walk the streets of DC. Pelecanos obviously loves his city and sticks with the maxim that one should write about what they know: I like his creative honesty in that respect.

I have ordered the next in the series because I like his style of writing - but to be brutally honest this is not one of his best books. If you want a proper introduction to Pelecanos read the Washington Quartet (starting with The Big Blowdown) - those books are what Pelecanos is all about.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
My introduction to Pelecanos was The Big Blowdown a brilliant noir novel that reads like a lost classic from the '40's, and from his work on The Wire. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Johnnybluetime

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start to a great series
Right as Rain is the first in a series of private investigator books by George Pelecanos. The series focuses on Derek Strange a lifetime resident of Washington DC (on the other... Read more
Published 22 months ago by O. Parker

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow to get going
This is my first Pelecanos novel. I normally read a book this size in a week, this one took me 5. Not that its a bad book, its just not that rivetting and moves quite slowly all... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2006 by Scully Bloke

3.0 out of 5 stars Competent writing and a pleasant diversion
I'm not sure I understand where the 5 star ratings are coming from - possibly Pelecanos' formula crime story is just better than most of the dross being published in this genre... Read more
Published on 29 May 2002 by M. I. R. Clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars Another very good Pelecanos novel
"Right as rain" is another very good Pelecanos thriller. The author is recognizable and is still faithful to the space where his novels take place: Washignton DC; and he... Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2001 by Marina Heck

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets
A most exceptional book about masculinity, race and modern America. Pelecanos paints some deeply disturbing pictures, which stayed with me all day. Read more
Published on 3 May 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars simply fantastic
a wonderful crime story, a moving tale of the growing friendship between two very different men and a fantastic ending. Read more
Published on 5 April 2001

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