Quel plaisir de retrouver les polars de Pelecanos et tout ce qui en fait une collection de perles noires. Les points de vue multiples clairs et complexes. Les personnages suivis par coups d’œil à leur vie, à leurs connexions qui finissent dans une grande explosion, faisant écho au titre original, The Big Blowdown. Et la ville, toujours Washington DC, en pleine mutation dans la décennie qui suit la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale, la ville comme personnage à part entière, avec ses personnalités multiples, ses bas-fonds, sa vie grouillante et surprenante.
Un polar qui commence par le début de la fin puis retourne dans l'enfance de ses protagonistes principaux, livrant les prémices de leur destin avec une escale par la guerre et la route qui se précise, inévitable, une bombe à retardement sans possibilité de la désamorcer. Tout est une question de temps. De moment, que ce soit le bon ou pas tout à fait. La tension qui monte brillamment, vers l'explosion attendue. Entremêlée à une histoire d'amitié et de mafia, une histoire de meurtres, dont le coupable, rapidement deviné, devient lui-même une nouvelle source de complications et de rebondissement, ajoutant une cran a cette tension étouffante.
Comme je le disais, mais il est facile de se répéter pour parler du plaisir de lire les intrigues de Pelecanos, un superbe polar aux épaisseurs multiples et denses dont on se rend encore mieux compte au moment de le refermer.
Après avoir chassé et trouvé les trois derniers tomes de ce quatuor de polars seulement, je souhaite remercier la bibliothèque universitaire d'anglais de Bordeaux pour les surprises cachées au milieu de ses multiples tomes de référence par très digestes et ce premier tome qui m'échappait depuis trop longtemps et m'empêcher de commencer cette courte série de polar sans lui.
Je trouve qu'on ne parle pas assez de Pelecanos et son œuvre noire et riche sur sa ville et sa communauté grecque, cette communauté qu'il sait conter l'entremêlant avec les autres communautés que l'on retrouve plus souvent dans le genre. Pourtant bel et bien un grand, tant dans le polar que dans le scénario de, à mon humble avis, la plus grande série policière (et pas que !) de l'histoire de la télévision, The Wire.
Amis lecteurs, découvrez-donc George P. Pelecanos !

It took me a while to get into this novel but I ended up liking it as well as any of his Nick Stefanos books, which I read last year. Pelecanos tells a good, if violent, story but he also builds strong characters. Center to this story is Pete Karras, a WWII veteran who mixes with low-level mobsters after he returns from the Pacific and ends up with a bum leg and a job at a cafe. His efforts to save a co-worker's sister and protect his boss from gangsters leads him right back to the mob and an old friend he thought he left behind. If you've never read Pelecanos, start with this one or A Firing Offense--he writes in trilogies and tetralogies, with overlapping characters. Get ready for lots of drugs and liquor, heavy but plot-driven violence and unforgettable views of Washington, DC.

Great example of Pelecanos' and his world. The start was a bit awkward, but I fell into a rhythm and really enjoyed the story, characters and pacing. Looking forward to the other books in the series.

A World War Two vet drifts into providing muscle for a protection racket in Washington D.C. but really does not have the stomach for the work. I thought this was a very interesting look at DC after the war, especially within the immigrant community.

Joe Recevo and Pete Karras were friends since they were kids, until their boss decided he didn't like Pete and had him badly beaten, giving him a crippling knee injury. Three years later, their lives will soon intersect when their old boss decides he wants Nick Stefanos, Karras' employer at a diner, to start paying him protection. Who will be left standing after the Big Blowdown?

Here we are. Another great book by George Pelecanos, the first in his DC Quartet. In the Big Blowdown, Pelecanos paints a picture of life in DC, with two vets, Karras and Recevo, as the main characters, taking them from their teens to their thirties. As with Pelecanos' other books, the Washington DC setting is a character unto itself.

The crime elements in this one aren't as pronounced as in the previous three Pelecanos book I've read, the Nick Stefanos trilogy, Nick being the grandson of the Nick in this book. The crime elements stick to the sidelines for most of the book, namely Florek looking for his missing sister and the hooker murders. Everything comes together at the end, just in time for the Big Blowdown.

Much like Nick Stefanos in his trilogy, Pete Karras is a conflicted character, not really sure how to act with his family. Or his mistress, for that matter. I think it's partly because of his experiences in World War II and partly from his upbringing. It sure goes a long way toward explaining why Dimitri Karras acts the way he does in [b:King Suckerman|307443|King Suckerman|George Pelecanos|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1314314188s/307443.jpg|298413], the next book in the DC Quartet.

Reading this right after reading the Stefanos trilogy, it's amazing to see what direction Pelecanos' writing was going, from a hardboiled style to a more literary one.

Four stars. I will continue to preach the Pelecanos Gospel.

A taut crime novel set mostly in postwar Washington, D.C.

I usually don't care for crime and suspense, but Pelecanos's style lifts the book above formula, with his fine eye for plotting and ability to sketch his characters quickly and effectively. His prose only occasionally lapses into the sentimentality or tough-guy-speak that one usually finds in crime novels. Overall, though, his portrait of Washington, D.C. in the 40s sings, with not a single detail ringing false. He builds suspense not through wild plot twists or intrigue (the only real mystery in the book is pretty obvious once a big clue drops), but through the gradual accretion of detail that sucks you into the story as a literary novel would (Pelecanos would go on to become a writer on The Wire, using these skills to script some of the show's most powerful episodes).

This is the first novel of his D.C. Quartet. I eagerly look forward to reading it all.

Pretty straight-forward noir. A little predictable, but enjoyable in a one-day read kind of way.