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Double: A Novel
Author:
Pelecanos, George P.
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PS3566.E
Print Run: 50000
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ISBN-13: 9780316078399
LCCN: 2013017709
Imprint: Little, Brown and Company
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Pub Date: 10/08/2013
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $26.00
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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292 pages ; 25 cm.
H 9.5",
W 6.5",
D 1.25",
1.13 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Spero Lucas
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Blockbuster List
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Fiction Core Collection, 20th ed.
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Awards:
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Booklist Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Booklist
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TIPS Subjects:
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Mystery/Detective Fiction
Suspense/Thriller
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Traditional
FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
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LC Subjects:
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Art thefts, Fiction
Detective and mystery stories
FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General
FICTION / Suspense
FICTION / Thrillers
Mystery fiction
Suspense fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Art thefts, Fiction
Mystery fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 07/01/2013 |
| Darkness beckons when Spero Lucas accepts an assignment to track down the ex-boyfriend who stole Grace Kincaid's painting from her...and find a career criminal with thug connections and a violent streak, the man responsible for Grace's humiliation. Spero also comes face to face with his own dark side as he sets out to enact justice. 304pp., 50K, Auth res: MD |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Booklist | 08/01/2013 |
| Pelecanos fans who found in The Cut (2011) a return to the classic crime-fiction style of the author's terrific Nick Stefanos novels will be doubly pleased with The Double: not only does it deliver another straight-ahead, head-banging, yet still character-focused crime story, but it also heralds the return of Spero Lucas, the Travis McGee-like knight errant who helps out clients who have lost something and keeps 40 percent of the take (McGee kept half). This time Spero comes to the aid of a fortysomething D.C. woman with bad taste in men; her latest wrong choice has robbed her of a valuable painting and her self-respect. Spero agrees to get the former back, and perhaps even a touch of the latter, but he quickly discovers that his antagonist, a sociopath who loves humiliating his victims more than he covets their possessions, will present a formidable obstacle and require the kind of Old West confrontation that Spero loves in spite of himself. In a kind of homage not only to John D. MacDonald (especially The Deep Blue Good-by) but also to Charles Willeford and Don Carpenter (all three are mentioned in the acknowledgments), Pelecanos reinterprets and updates the theme of the charismatic sociopath who revels in draining the souls of his willing victims, bringing a heightened sensitivity and social consciousness to the story without losing the visceral terror that drives the narrative. Those who know their crime-fiction history will love the references to earlier masters, but, finally, it's Pelecanos with a new series up and running hard that's the real cause for celebration here. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Pelecanos' television credits--first for The Wire and currently for Treme--have extended the reach of his fame; to capitalize on that, Little, Brown is planning an extensive multimedia publicity campaign,. Ott, Bill. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Kirkus Reviews | 04/15/2013 |
| The second in a series featuring a new investigator represents an update for the veteran mystery novelist. Pelecanos (The Cut, 2011 etc.) has long rotated protagonists rather than settling on a signature hero. His latest is Spero Lucas, who differs from his predecessors in terms of generation, experience and bloodline. And perhaps code of morality as well. A young veteran from the Iraq War, he has become a defense attorney's special investigator at least partly for "a replication of what he'd experienced there every day: a sense of purpose and heightened sensation." He's also a digital native who knows that "the secret most investigators keep is that the bulk of their modern day work is done via computer programs." He comes by his Greek name via adoption, as part of a loving, mixed-race (but dysfunctional) family, and he tends to associate the music that Pelecanos and his previous protagonists favor with his late father. What remains constant throughout the work of the novelist is the deep knowledge of local Washington, D.C. (where this and most of his novels are set), popular culture (from music to sports to literature and beyond) and the human heart. Here, the murder Lucas begins to investigate soon seems like an afterthought, and the romance with which he becomes obsessed seems more like fantasy (though revelatory of his character) than reality. The title (fittingly enough) has a double meaning, referring both to a stolen painting Lucas tries to recover and the adversary he finds himself facing (one of them insists that the two of them are very much alike). He seems to scoff at the very notion of "literary fiction, whatever that was," while praising "a good story told with clean, efficient writing, a plot involving a problem to be solved or surmounted, and everyday characters the reader could relate to." A few more loose ends than usual, but this is a novel Spero Lucas would appreciate. Cult favorite Pelecanos deserves an even wider readership. 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Library Journal | 06/15/2013 |
| An Iraq War veteran, Spero Lucas takes work from a D.C. defense attorney who needs help securing reasonable doubt for his client; at the same time Spero freelances by retrieving stolen property, in this case an expensive painting, for a standard 40 percent recovery fee. As he hunts for the thieves, Spero also finds time for a torrid affair with a married woman. But longtime readers know the details of a Pelecanos thriller are never the primary focus; it's the music his characters listen to, the clothes they wear, and where they stack up on the manhood spectrum that matter more, beginning with his main character: Pelacanos's title is the name of the missing painting, but it also refers to Spero himself, a man portrayed as thoughtful and humane but who will work for criminals and has killed (in combat and out) without compunction. VERDICT In his second book (after The Cut) featuring private investigator Spero Lucas, Pelecanos juggles multiple narratives without sacrificing the austere narrative style he's perfected. Though the author doesn't break new ground thematically, this sequel brings his ambiguous hero into sharper focus, making him a character readers will want to know better. Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ. 304p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 04/29/2013 |
| Getting back the painting stolen from Grace Kinkaid will be child's play for Spero Lucas. But tracking down the violent criminal who humiliated her is going to be dirty and dangerous business. A big push at BEA; with a 50,000-copy first printing. 304p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 08/26/2013 |
| Reviewed by Patrick Millikin Pelecanos's novels have always kept one eye toward the recent past--a constant touchstone being the 1970s. The decade's popular culture, its fashion, film, music, and automobiles inform novels such as Hard Revolution, King Suckerman, and What It Was, which are set during one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation's history. In a way, all the novels that Pelecanos has written have been influenced by the Vietnam War. Now Pelecanos, a producer of The Wire and Treme who's also written for both HBO shows, has given us a new series that brings us right up to the present. With Spero Lucas, introduced in 2011's The Cut, Pelecanos has created one of his finest, and most complex, protagonists. An Iraq War combat veteran, Lucas has seen more than his share of death, but, unlike many of his returning peers, he has found work that allows him to tap into the heightened levels of adrenaline that were awakened overseas. His primary gig is as investigator for D.C. defense attorney Tom Petersen, who gives him a difficult case at the outset of this sequel to The Cut. A client, Calvin Bates, faces the death penalty for the first-degree murder of his mistress, Edwina Christian, whose body has been discovered in a nearby wooded area. Inconsistencies in the case, including physical evidence at the crime scene, have Lucas convinced that the story might not be as cut-and-dried as it appears. In the meantime, Lucas has found himself another side job, the retrieval of a stolen painting called The Double from a young divorcee's condo. His usual terms apply: 40% of the stolen item's value, in cash, no questions asked. The trail leads Lucas to a trio of thugs working together on various criminal enterprises: a Russian Internet scammer, a sociopathic lothario preying upon vulnerable women, and a young ex-con and former tweaker. As Lucas follows the various strands of his investigation, he finds himself enjoying the hunt, the prospect of violence that will result as he lures his quarry into the open, and the inevitable confrontation. Indeed, the painting itself becomes an apt metaphor for Lucas's life: the "civilized," outward identity and the darker shadow self, containing a primal warrior side that, as Pelecanos writes, he doesn't fully understand. While several of his most trusted friends, fellow Marines, have been able to leave the violence in them behind, Lucas has been unable to do so. Further complicating matters is a gorgeous, unavailable married woman, with whom Lucas has fallen into a passionate affair. At the background of the novel is Lucas's own family, his mixed-race siblings, his Greek-American parents. Pelecanos puts the race issue out there, but doesn't focus on it; the Lucases are simply a family, and a loving one. With respect for D.C.'s past on one side, and a vibrant, youthful new protagonist looking squarely into the future, this is the start of a remarkable series. Longtime Pelecanos diehards will be more than satisfied, and new readers will find themselves jonesing for more. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (Oct.) Patrick Millikin is the editor of the Akashic anthology Phoenix Noir. 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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9780316078399,dl.it[0].title
| Review Citations |
| New York Times Book Review | 10/06/2013 |
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