A-- B-- C-- D-- E-- F-- G-- H-- I-- J-- K-- L-- M-- N-- O-- P-- Q-- R-- S-- T-- U-- V-- W-- X-- Y-- Z

Pelecanos, George P.

A Firing Offense

London, Serpent's Tail. 216 pp. £7.99. US $12.99.

Nick Stefanos worked his way through college, the sales floor and then administration in Nutty Nathan's ("the miser who saves you money") electronics empire. He is divorced, smokes a little, drinks a lot, chases girls and is chased by girls.

One of the stockboys disappears and the grandfather asks Nick to find him. The stockboy reminded Nick of himself. But Nick gets fired (ostensibly for inattention to duty), becomes a PI and goes after the missing boy.

A conventional enough search and find mission, but again with the magic extra, a portrait of the eighties generation lost along the way. You hear the music they heard, you see the clothes they wore, you see the clubs they frequented. A total addiction to substance abuse, beer and sex, and never mind how the money is raised to feed their addictions. The morality of the eighties is seen through the characters. They are moral enough, in their way.

The background is the discount electronics trade. You'll never go to one again, probably not even look at their ads as you realize how you are manipulated the moment you drive up.

This is the Nick Stefanos debut novel and it has us hard-nosed PI buffs jumping for joy. More to come, hurrah!

Pelecanos, George P.

Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go

London, Serpent's Tail. 234 pp. US $13.99.

George Pelecanos is good news for those of us who enjoy hard-nosed noir novels. If you like James Cain, David Goodis and Jim Thompson, read on.

In the seedier parts of Washington DC, Nick Stefanos is an "unsuccessful" PI, moonlighting as a barman. He drinks too much and smokes too much. He maintains a low culture existence. His favourite music is New Wave bands and some jazz. If you know that kind of music you can plot his emotional life from the music he plays. He is an atheist. He is not a nice guy when it comes to women. He passes out in a public park, when a murder occurs. He is too drunk to do anything about it then. When he wakes, he feels guilty and wants to know what happened. The thirst for knowledge, he says, is like a piece of ass you know you shouldn't chase; in the end, you chase it just the same. And he does.

The victim is Calvin Jeter and other than blaming drugs, the police haven't a clue what is going on. In fact, the crime is connected with porno films. The people who manufacture porno films try to maintain that this is a business like any other business, but Pelecanos through his PI Stefanos is too shrewd an observer of human nature to accept that. Porno film manufacturers have another nature.

Like so many modern writers, Pelecanos sees the cracks in our society everywhere, shows them up to be not exceptions to the rule of a good society, but as part and parcel of society. It may be too distressing to contemplate.

This is the third Nick Stefanos crime novel and there are more on the way.