The Man Who Came Uptown, George Pelecanos

His novel published in 2018, centers around the DMV, numerous complex characters, and most notably, Michael Hudson. He’s a man in prison who begins to enjoy reading books given to him by the prison librarian, Anna, who develops a soft spot for the man. She keeps passing him books until one day he’s gone, released after an investigator manipulates a witness to get Michael off. Now it’s payback time for Michael to the investigator and his partner who think it’s okay to rob people who have done bad to good people. One poignant job is their plan to loot some white supremacists – bad people who are racists and loot a wealthy home in Potomac, MD because they feel the teenagers there are Eight Milers (whites who want to be black), and that they are traitors to their race and deserve to be punished. The similarity b/w the racists and the “good guys stealing from bad people” makes a very relevant point. They are no different. Hudson needs to make hard choices to stay on the right path – trying to balance his new job, his love of reading, and the debt he owes to the man who got him released. As usual, you can’t put any of Pelecanos’s books down… it takes hold of you when you enter the characters’ world.