Thanks to Oline Cogdill for sharing her review of The Blue Flame by George Pelecanos. Pelecanos will be the guest author for The Poisoned Pen on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 4 PM MST for a virtual event. You can catch the event on the bookstore’s Facebook and YouTube pages. You can also order a signed copy of The Blue Flame through the Webstore, https://shorturl.at/AWfWY
Here’s Cogdill’s review, originally published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Book review: Friendship, conspiracies & community at heart of George Pelecanos’ ‘The Blue Flame’
‘The Blue Flame’ by George Pelecanos; Cardinal; 256 pages; $29
When George Pelecanos introduced Derek Strange in 2001’s “Right as Rain,” the private detective was at a pivotal time in his life, firmly established in his career after decades as a cop in Washington, D.C. He was youngish and devoted to finding justice for his clients.
In a stroke of genius, Pelecanos’ subsequent novels took Derek back to the 1970s when, after receiving a “lump-sum payday” on one of his first cases, he hung a neon sign that read “Strange Investigations” outside his office. It was important, he said, for the neighborhood’s younger residents “to see a Black man turning the key of his front door in his own shop every day.”
Through the years, that neon sign has become a talisman for Derek, as Pelecanos shows in “The Blue Flame.”
This latest novel catches up with the private detective 50 years after he first launched his career. That sign is still his touchstone, but it’s now in disrepair, some letters “gone dark” long ago. The sign no longer signifies “strong or successful; it said faded or on its last legs.”
Business is off and Derek can’t afford to repair the sign. But his devotion to justice and doing what is right has not faded and propels the incisive plot of “The Blue Flame,” in which he’s hired by wealthy drug lawyer Billy Lake.
Billy wants Derek’s help to prepare his defense of Antone Anthony for drug distribution (which he freely admits) and murder (which the nonviolent Antone denies). Billy hires Derek because he believes the aging detective will “do just enough,” that Derek won’t have the energy to “turn over too many rocks.” Obviously, Billy underestimates Derek, who has no intention of “just putting in his time” and cashing the paychecks. Overturning rocks is a Derek specialty.
The novel evolves into a look at the bonds of friendship, at conspiracies and at the importance of community in a tightly wound plot.