Shame The Devil, George Pelecanos

The Pelecanos reading barrage continues… and I imagine will do so until I’ve read all his books from the library. The scene begins with a mass killing at a pizza parlor.  One of the victims is a boy… the boy of Dimitri Karras.. a major player in this series. The robbers get away and go into hiding while the victim’s families try and cope with the losses of their loved ones. This is another reason to love Pelecanos’s writing… he always makes sure to reveal all sides of the equation – the good, the bad, the ugly….. the why… Why these people ended up where they are now? The main culprit, Frank Farrow vows to get revenge for the death of his brother at the crime scene… and waits 3 years to return to kill the cop, who himself was maimed at the crime scene and is bound to a wheel chair. The story with an eye on the hereafter and the real cost of violence and its effects on those it blankets. All of this leads to a showdown… just like a Peckinpah film. All insightful on the very essence of human nature, the beliefs that give life meaning, and what people do when those beliefs are shattered.