In this blistering and soulful novel of the D.C. underworld, an ex-con finds himself caught between the light and the dark sides of the street after a malevolent young killer spoils his chances to stay straight.
Grand Central Publishing
April 2006
On Sale: April 1, 2006
Featuring: Lorenzo Brown; Rachel Lopez
320 pages ISBN: 0446611441 EAN: 9780446611442 Paperback Add to Wish List
Lorenzo Brown loves his work. As an officer for the Humane Society, it is his job to cruise the city streets, looking for dogs that are being mistreatedβunderfed, unclean, trained to kill. He takes pride in making their lives better. And that pride helps Lorenzo resist the pull of easier money doing the kind of work that got him a recent prison bid.
Rachel Lopez loves her work, too. By day she is a parole officer, helping peopleβLorenzo Brown among themβalong a path back to responsibility and advancement. At night she heads for the city's hotel bars, where she can always find a man who will let her act out her damage. She loses herself in sex and drink and more.
But Rachel's nights are taking a toll on her days. Lorenzo knows the signs. The trouble is, he truly needs her right now. There is an eruption coming in the streets he's left behind, the kind of territorial war that takes down everyone even near it. Lorenzo needs every shred of support he can get to keep from getting sucked back into that battleground. He reaches out to Rachelβbut she may be too far gone to help either of them.
Writing with the grace and force that have earned him praise as "the poet laureate of the crime world," George Pelecanos has created a novel about two scarred and human people who must navigate one of life's most brutal passages. It is an unforgettable, moving, even shocking story that will leave no reader unchanged.
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