Book Review - The Night Gardener
A Washington DC Murder Mystery by George Pelecanos
"The Night Gardener, " George Pelecanos' 13th novel, follows the ressurection of a 20-year old case on the rough and often heartless, streets of Washington DC.
This novel begins in 1985 at the murder scene of a 14-year old girl in an urban Washington DC community garden. There's a veteran detective on the scene -- T.C.Cook -- as well as two rookie police patrolmen -- Gus Ramone and Dan "Doc" Holiday. This is the third in a series of murders that the press has dubbed the "Palindrome Murders," since the names of the young victims are spelled the same forward or backwards.
A New Related Case?
Next, the reader finds himself in 2006, following the lives of those patrolmen that were at the 1985 crime scene. Gus Ramone is now a detective, married with two children -- one a teenager. "Doc" Holiday is struggling, somewhat. No longer on the force, it seems for shady reasons, he runs a limo company and spends his free time drinking Vodka and pursuing women for short-term alliances. T.C. Cook has retired, has had a stroke, and is yet haunted by the still-unsolved murders from 1985.
The More Things Change...
A new murder is discovered by Holiday one evening after he sleeps off a drunk parked in his limo on a DC side street. The scene is eeriely familiar -- a community garden and a victim named Asa. It happens that the young man is a friend of Ramone's son and the detective is friendly with the family. As the investigation progresses, we learn more about the lives of these three individuals -- all touched in some way by the events of 1985. At the end, surprising events will change the way all of them look at their lives. Will the murders of 1985 be any closer to being solved?
The Night Gardener's crisp style and use of the DC street vernacular reminds me of a TV movie and when I read that Pelecanos also works in Hollywood, that certainly makes sense. However, the strength of this novel is the characters. None is perfect -- far from it, but all have a basic sense of justice -- a reminder of the movie anti-heroes of the 1970s. Because of this, the novel has a realistic feel that many recent novels lack.
About George Pelecanos
George Pelecanos is the author of a series of novels set in and around the Washington DC area. He is also an essayist, an independent film producer, and an Emmy-nominated writer for the HBO television series, The Wire. Mr. Pelecanos lives in Silver Springs, Maryland with his wife and three children. He is working on a new novel as well as a television mini-series about World War II, to be produced by Tom Hanks, Stephen Spielberg, and HBO.
Related Links
- Shop for your own copy of The Night Gardener
- George Pelecanos Official Website
- Echo Park by Michael Connelly -- a similar police detective novel
