Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic reviews!
Review: "It's stark, menacing, terrifying, violent, gut-wrenching---and perfect of its kind." ---Emily Melton, Booklist (Starred review)
"Pelecanos's plotting is superb, as is his use of dialog and sense of place." ---David Dodd, Library Journal (Starred review)
"With stylistic panache and forceful conviction, Pelecanos delivers a darkly powerful story of the American city." ---Publishers Weekly (Starred review)
"Pelecanos is too skilled a writer to deny his source material; instead, he brings it up to the level of violent art." ---Chicago Tribune
"One of those writers whose books I would never miss." ---Harlan Ellison
"The picture Mr. Pelecanos paints of Washington's past is compelling. Furthermore, he has a gift for fast-paced action and vigorous characterization." ---Judy Frank., Washington Times
"To miss out on Pelecanos would be criminal." ---Barry Gifford
"Pelecanos writes hard-boiled prose full of music and pain, like he just might be in charge of saving his characters' souls." ---Jonathan Lethem
Rating: 
Summary: A very satisfying period piece
Review: Fans of George Pelecanos will not be disappointed in this excellent novel. Set in D.C. during the years just before and after WWII, his familiar cast of characters inhabit a world of hope and violence that somehow seems appropriate to the American Dream. The plot is engaging and believable, the action is fast paced, and the character portrayals are as satisfying as a reader could want. This is a great story of friendship, betrayal and flawed redemption. Much more than just a 'crime novel' (and this is true of his other books as well) The Big Blowdown evokes a time when everthing seemed possible, from great success to 'the Big Blowdown' (atomic annihilation) and tells the story a few immigrant kids whose future turns out to be quite different from any they would have imagined.Reading a Pelecanos book always leaves me feeling as though I had touched a piece of real life. This book has the added appeal of touching a real piece of time gone by as well. Very satisfying. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Really liked this book
Review: George Pelecanos must really love or hate his home town of Washington. He always seems to write about it, but what he writes about won't appear in any Chamber of Commerce brochure. Druggies, organized crime, and ethnic violence seemingly permeate the lives of all Washingtonians. "The Big Blowdown" departs from the author's other works in that much of it reads as a biopic. We are given a "Reader's Digest" biography of a young Greek-American man raised in 1930s/1940s Washington. While it is all not uninteresting even fans of the author will find it to be a prosaic. Fortunately halfway through the book all the characters from this man's childhood come together for a very violent, and well-written, conclusion. The author deftly tackles subjects like loyalty and personal ethics along the way. Bottom line: despite its slow start this book ultimately comes together with "oomph". Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: hoodlums and druggies of 1940s Washington..
Review: George Pelecanos must really love or hate his home town of Washington. He always seems to write about it, but what he writes about won't appear in any Chamber of Commerce brochure. Druggies, organized crime, and ethnic violence seemingly permeate the lives of all Washingtonians. "The Big Blowdown" departs from the author's other works in that much of it reads as a biopic. We are given a "Reader's Digest" biography of a young Greek-American man raised in 1930s/1940s Washington. While it is all not uninteresting even fans of the author will find it to be a prosaic. Fortunately halfway through the book all the characters from this man's childhood come together for a very violent, and well-written, conclusion. The author deftly tackles subjects like loyalty and personal ethics along the way. Bottom line: despite its slow start this book ultimately comes together with "oomph". Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read!!!
Review: I read this book, along with Suckerman, after reading interesting article on Pelecanos on Washington City Paper and I was not disappointed. Excellent plotline and rich characterizations of immigrants and others in 1930s and 40s Washington. Pelecanos captures the feel of the streets, the diners, organized crime, and the sordid side of life like no one else I've read. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Book Noir
Review: I really liked this book. It is a perfect example of its genre -- hardboiled, 40s style, film noir, tough-guy-with-no-heart-of-gold fiction. I have lived in the DC area for over 30 years so I especially appreciated the geographical nuance. There is much more to this city than politics, media and sex. There is crime, gangs and sex, too. Pelecanos knows this intuitively and gives the reader a great ride thru the "seamy underbelly" of Washington, DC. Pelecanos has a keen understanding of the racial dynamics of the city in the 30s and 40s, which pervades our lives today. Overall, this is a really good story well told. I can't wait to read another of his books.
Rating:
Summary: Book Noir
Review: I really liked this book. It is a perfect example of its genre -- hardboiled, 40s style, film noir, tough-guy-with-no-heart-of-gold fiction. I have lived in the DC area for over 30 years so I especially appreciated the geographical nuance. There is much more to this city than politics, media and sex. There is crime, gangs and sex, too. Pelecanos knows this intuitively and gives the reader a great ride thru the "seamy underbelly" of Washington, DC. Pelecanos has a keen understanding of the racial dynamics of the city in the 30s and 40s, which pervades our lives today. Overall, this is a really good story well told. I can't wait to read another of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull
Review: I really wanted to like this book, but I just found it so care in the least about the characters. I couldn't like them for being good, and I couldn't hate them for being bad - they were all in some kind of bland personality limbo, stumbling about being one-dimensional. I am a DC resident and read it on the metro every day and couldn't even get excited about all the familiar locations in the story. James Ellroy is much better if you are looking for hard noir fiction and interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: A great period piece of crime fiction by a superstar author
Review: Pelecanos continues to amaze me. The thing that particularly struck me about this book was the way he is able to transfer his scene writing skills to an earlier era. He's just as effective in putting the reader in a scene in the 1940's as he is in writing more modern material. Other than that, this book is just what I've come to expect from this author: great character development with complex personalities, gritty people and places, a twisting, hard story that truly holds your interest, etc. I particularly liked the way the author worked World War II service into the lives of these characters, along with the fear of the big bomb being dropped on Washington, D.C. Also, as usual, the good guys are not even close to being all good and not everything turns out OK in the end. Let me just sum up my thoughts on this book and this writer like this: If you think you like crime fiction and you're not reading everything Pelecanos has written, it's your loss.
Rating:
Summary: A great period piece of crime fiction by a superstar author
Review: Pelecanos continues to amaze me. The thing that particularly struck me about this book was the way he is able to transfer his scene writing skills to an earlier era. He's just as effective in putting the reader in a scene in the 1940's as he is in writing more modern material. Other than that, this book is just what I've come to expect from this author: great character development with complex personalities, gritty people and places, a twisting, hard story that truly holds your interest, etc. I particularly liked the way the author worked World War II service into the lives of these characters, along with the fear of the big bomb being dropped on Washington, D.C. Also, as usual, the good guys are not even close to being all good and not everything turns out OK in the end. Let me just sum up my thoughts on this book and this writer like this: If you think you like crime fiction and you're not reading everything Pelecanos has written, it's your loss.
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