The Night Gardener - Softcover

Pelecanos, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752875949 ISBN 13: 9780752875941

Publisher: Orion, 2006

Synopsis

They never found the killer.

All they knew, back in the winter of 1985, was that someone was taking teenagers, killing them and leaving their abused bodies in public parks. Three victims in all, with no link between them except a oddity of their names. They read the same back-to-front - Otto, Ava and lastly Eve.

A lot has happened in the twenty years since. Detectives Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday - two of the leads on the case - have pursued very different paths. Gus has climbed to the heights of Detective Sergeant and built himself a reputation as a very good cop, whilst Dan has been drummed out of the force - his sleaze finally getting too much for his superiors. However, their paths are about to cross again. A boy named Asa - a close friend of Gus's teenage son - has been found in the public park, his skull shattered by gunfire. Now it seems that both men are once again in the path of this disturbed serial killer.

THE NIGHT GARDENER is a stunning crime thriller - the story of two very different men united by the maliciousness of a deadly attacker.

About this title

Review:

Among aficionados of crime fiction, the name of George Pelecanos is revered. And the fact that he is not particularly known to the general public -- who spend their money on far less accomplished authors -- only adds to the lustre of his reputation among those who have discovered him. If you are wondering why this is the case, pick up The Night Gardener, and the chances good that you will see the appeal of this highly accomplished author.

Stephen King has called Pelecanos 'perhaps the greatest living American crime writer', and one of the reasons for this praise may be the total verisimilitude of his writing: this is crime fiction that makes most entries in the fields seem glossy and insubstantial. The plot here involves unsolved crimes and a killer who has never been brought to justice. In 1985, a ruthless individual was kidnapping teenagers, killing them and dumping their mutilated bodies in public parks. 20 years have passed, and detectives Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday -- who worked on the original case -- have taken different career trajectories: Gus has made Detective Sergeant, while Dan has lost his job over a series of irregularities. But then a boy is found murdered in a public park, and both men find themselves seeking closure on a dark case from their pasts. All the things that distinguish Pelecanos' best writing -- flinty characterisation, solid plotting and a marked social concern -- are present here. If you haven't already, it's time to join the legions of Pelecanos admirers. --Barry Forshaw.

Review:

PRAISE FOR THE NIGHT GARDENER:
"Like Drama City it is heart-in-your-throat gripping from beginning to end, The Night Gardener is another of Mr. Pelecanos's beautifully delineated moral tales, filled with gut-wrenching turns of fate and razor-sharp, boisterously vivid characters." -- New York Times "Janet Maslin"

PRAISE FOR THE NIGHT GARDENER "Like Drama City it is heart-in-your-throat gripping from beginning to end, The Night Gardener is another of Mr. Pelecanos's beautifully delineated moral tales, filled with gut-wrenching turns of fate and razor-sharp, boisterously vivid characters." Janet Maslin, "New York Times""

"The Night Gardener can be read as a police procedural hipper but just as good as those of the late, great Ed McBain. But it is also a wise, textured examination of life in urban America, as sophisticated as the best work of Richard Price....[Pelecanos's] last book, Drama City, is a masterpiece of American crime fiction; The Night Gardener is even better." "Associated Press""

"Mr. Pelecanos...is part of a fraternity of writers, including Dennis Lehane and Richard Price, who push the boundaries of crime writing into literary territory, exploring character more deeply than many crime novelists dare, introducing challenging social themes and bucking expectations that everything will come out all right in the end." Motoko Rich, "New York Times""

"Perhaps the greatest living American crime writer." Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly""

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0752875949
• ISBN 13: 9780752875941
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384