Soul Circus, George Pelecanos

Book 3 of the Derek Strange series. Strange and Quinn start off where the last book in the series ended. Strange is helping a local drug czar jailed on murder charges and the prosecution is seeking the death penalty. Strange is on the case because 30+ years before when he was a cop, he called the man’s father in a crime gone wrong. The book is full of young men who think they’re immortal with Strange and Quinn right in the middle – two men with a conscious yet also at the same time working out their inner demons. One pushes too far and pays the price, and the other tries to amend his soul. I enjoy Pelecanos’s dialogue the best… it’s not flashy, it’s real.. with a few one-liners meant to sting. I have a feeling I’m going to end up reading every book he’s published… just a feeling.