Right as Rain, George Pelecanos

The brilliant writer and author behind one of the best series in the history of TV, The Wire, introduces us, in the first of a series, to the detective, Derek Strange, a former cop who now runs his own private detective agency. He’s hired by the mother of the victim of a cop to clear up lingering doubts surrounding the death of her son. Through his investigation, he interviews Terry Quinn, a cop who pulled the trigger, and has been exonerated, though his guilt torments him. He joins Strange in the investigation and begins to examine the prejudices that may have occurred, cloudy judgment, and overall stereotypes. The setting is DC and the Beltway, and George’s assorted lowlifes eat up the page. Strange and Quinn- honest, good men tainted by lawlessness, ethics, commitment, and overall conflicted juxtaposition with what’s right and wrong leave you wanting everything to be all right. But life is never that way now is it?