The ensuing narrative swirls around two scenarios: a plan by Dennis and two street-thug pals to rob a local Greek-owned store (Pelecanos wrote extensively about D.C.'s Greek community in early novels, and many of the nonblack characters here are Greek-American) and a plot by three young white hoods to rob a bank, but only after they drunkenly kill a young black man for sport. By 1968, Derek is a young cop partnered with a white guy Dennis is a pot-smoking slacker and many of their acquaintances from '59 are working dead-end jobs with an eye toward crime.
The first few chapters, though, unfold in 1959, introducing major characters whose paths will entwine later: Derek-who's nabbed for shoplifting but given a break that will set his life on a (more or less) law-abiding path-and his older brother, Dennis their hardworking parents and some ancillary figures. This memorable tale is a prequel to those novels, set in Washington, D.C., mostly just before and during the 1968 riots sparked by the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. , etc.) so strong that one critic has dubbed Pelecanos the Zola of contemporary crime fiction. The author's admirers are familiar with middle-aged black PI Derek Strange, featured in several novels ( Soul Circus
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