The Turnaround

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In yet another gem of urban noir, bestseller Pelecanos (_The Night Gardener_) explores the possibility of making the turnaround, of starting over and building a new life, regardless of the past. One summer day in 1972, three teenage white boysAlex Pappas and his friends Billy Cachoris and Pete Whittendrive into a poor Washington, D.C., neighborhood, high on booze and weed, looking for trouble. They confront three young black men, Billy winds up dead and Alex badly beaten. In 2007, Alex runs the family coffee shop, as did his father, and grieves for his son, recently killed in Iraq. Then, one of the black survivors of the incident contacts Alex, opening a door that may finally put the trauma of the past to rest. At the same time, another survivor, the man who beat Alex, has gotten out of prison and has extortion on his mind. The result is a beautifully written and thought-provoking novel of crime, friendship, aging and redemption. (Aug.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From While some may see shades of Tom Wolfes Bonfire of the Vanities in Pelecanoss plotboth deal with the after effects of a racially charged incident in the inner cityin reality they have little in common. Critics all commended Pelecanoss ethos and his focus on what it means to be a man in modern America, rich and poor and white and black. Some praised the experience he gained writing for the HBO series The Wire , which focused on the problems of people a lot like those in The Turnaround . There was the occasional hint that the repeated focus on What It Means to Be a Man bordered on annoying, but if anyone can use the mystery novel as a vehicle for introspection and spiritual longing, its Pelecanos. Copyright 2008 Bookmarks Publishing LLC On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever. Thirty-five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it. The Turnaround takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the '70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war. A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, The Turnaround is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, "the best crime novelist in America." - Oregonian This novel takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the 1970s to the changing neighbourhoods of Washington DC today. It is a story about fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and ultimately violent redemption. Thirty-five years after a devastating accident that irrevocably shapes the lives of six people, a pair of redemption-seeking survivors reaches out to one another in an effort that is compromised by a fellow survivor's release from prison.