Soul Circus

Soul Circus by George Pelecanos Master crime writer Pelecanos follows Hell to Pay with the second novel featuring both Derek Strange and Terry Quinn. They're both ex-DC police officers now working as private detectives. Derek, who is older and black, tries to be calming influence on Terry, who is a younger white detective with a lot of anger issues. With a local drug king-pin jailed, a violent struggle for respect and for control of the local streets keep the duo busy. Check our catalog. Ebook.

Right as Rain

Right as Rain by George Pelecanos. 332 pages.

All of Pelecanos's books deal, on some level, with relations between people of different races, backgrounds, and outlooks. Right as Rain, the first book featuring Derek Strange and Terry Quinn places the relations between blacks and whites in Washington D.C. in the center of it's main storyline. Strange is hired by the mother of a slain police officer to clear her son's name. He was off-duty at the time of his death, and shot by a fellow DC police officer. The dead officer was black. He was shot while holding a gun on a white civilian.  The officer who shot him was also white, and while he was cleared of all charges, he ended up leaving the force. Because of the murky circumstances surrounding the shooting and the circumstances leading up to it, both officers reputations suffer.
The secondary storyline in Right as Rain was a little less satisfying than most Pelecanos stories.

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Hell To Pay

Hell To Pay by George Pelecanos, 344 pages.

Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, both ex-cops now working as private investigators, return in this somewhat grim and noire-ish novel set (as is most of Pelecanos's work) in the meaner streets of our nation's Capitol.
Reading this, it is easy to see why Pelecanos was asked to write so many episodes off HBO's excellent drama The Wire.
The last volume featuring this duo of detectives.
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