Reviews

The Night Gardener
by George Pelecanos
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When we chose George Pelecanos for our August “Man of the Month”, I found myself in a position of not being familiar with his work. Granted, I had drooled a bit over his photos and was entranced by his piercing eyes, but I hadn’t read any of his books. Soon, his upcoming novel, The Turnaround, arrived on my doorstep, and I was happy to add another author I enjoyed to my list of authors to keep an eye out for.

Recently as I arrived at the airport, I found myself in an unusual position: I didn’t have a book to read on the flight. As I browsed through the bookstore, I went to the “P’s” and found The Night Gardener. Soon after the plane took off, and long before the drink cart made it’s way around, I was hooked on the tale of a serial killer on the streets of DC that had suddenly stopped. Twenty years later, all of the police officers involved in the last murder, find themselves brought together by an eerily similar murder.

Twenty years, however, is a long time, and everything has changed, not just the streets of DC, but each of the police officers involved in the 1985 investigation have changed as well. The hot-shot detective T.C. Cooke is retired, has health problems due to a stroke, and is still haunted by his inability to solve the murders. Gus Ramone is a text-book cop: a by-the-books officer, a loyal husband, and an involved father. He is shaken when he realizes the new victim is a friend of his sons. And then, there is Dan Holiday. A man who loved being a cop, but after a fall from grace, owns a limo company, is still a womanizer and a heavy drinker. Can they find the murderer of the young man? Will they be able to stop more killings?

The Night Gardener is everything a crime novel should be. It’s both gripping and gritty, giving a realistic view of the dirty underside of crime and the criminals and earnest and semi-tarnished crime fighters.

The Night Gardener was published in 2006 and can be found in bookstores everywhere. Be sure to check in next month for our interview with Novelist (producer and screenwriter) George Pelecanos as well as our review of The Turnaround.

Deb Smouse is the Editor in Chief for All Things Girl. She just edged into her 40’s and has discovered no matter the age, she still loves books. She reads between 4 to 8 novels a month, depending on how much flight time she has…. Find out more about Deb on our about page

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