Selected by the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel as one of the year’s best books
“Pelecanos does what few, if any, American writers do: he tells the truth. Twain told the truth; Faulkner toyed with the truth; Hemingway told his version of the truth; and Chandler certainly told a cold, cynical truth. Pelecanos’s truth is from deep in the heart, from places where red blood cells know more than all the sweet, heady words truth usually hides behind.”
—Randy Michael Signor, Chicago Sun-Times
“George Pelecanos is one of the most literary of America’s crime writers, and like most of his books, The Turnaround is more than mere entertainment. This beautifully written novel, rich with carefully wrought characters, is both a fine crime story and a thoughtful exploration of race relations in the lives of ordinary Americans.”
—Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press
“Fans will think of The Turnaround as Pelecanos’s Stand by Me—a heartfelt, deeply personal work about the limited but real possibilities for redemption.”
“Pelecanos tells a tight, suspenseful story. And he packs enough of a wallop to put The Turnaround on an express bus of its own.”
—Janet Maslin, New York Times
“One of the finest novels of the year.… Although Pelecanos pays homage to his crime-writing roots… it is the central questions of how men can have purpose and atone for their sins that makes The Turnaround an indelible read.”
—Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times
“There are moments in The Turnaround when George Pelecanos so perfectly evokes the 1970s that those of us who lived through that time may for a brief moment forget we’re living in a different century.… The Turnaround may reflect this thoughtful writer’s unflinching belief in the human capacity for love and forgiveness.”
—Carol Memmott, USA Today
“Mr. Pelecanos is a writer with formidable gifts. He builds a suspenseful story, both harsh and humane, and resolves it in a satisfying and plausible way. And like the best social-realists, he shows an understanding of each of his characters, from the least sympathetic to the most benign.”
—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
“Pelecanos is a virtuoso at finding the darker corners of love, loyalty, racism, rivalry, and hope.”
—Adam Woog, Seattle Times
“Yes, Pelecanos is among our very best crime novelists, but he may become even more renowned for writing fiction about working-class America that is both beyond crime and beyond ideology.”
“George Pelecanos, the working man’s champion among genre authors, is still keeping close neighborhood watch in The Turnaround, alert to signs of the social rot and moral decay that contribute to crime. The home truths he examines here [are] familiar themes of his gritty Washington-based novels. But he has rarely pushed these articles of faith to such painful extremes or seemed so optimistic about the chances for redemption.”
—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
“The change in Pelecanos’s writing mirrors the change in a typical Pelecanos character.… This is unquestionably a good thing: if he’s abandoned the longueurs about whiskey and Dischord bands, it’s in favor of sentences that say the most in the least amount of time.… In The Turnaround, every line behaves like there’s serious work to do.”
—Mark Athitakis, Washington City Paper
“The dialogue is dazzling.”
—Anne Stephenson, Arizona Republic
“Once again using the ethnic neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., to explore issues of class and race, and the possibility of bridging those gulfs, Pelecanos constructs a taut narrative in which the past exerts a seismic pull on the present. Pelecanos deserves the sort of popular breakthrough that Richard Price and Dennis Lehane have enjoyed.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“There wouldn’t seem to be much room for forgiveness in hard-boiled crime stories or the westerns they descend from, but emotional complexity and understated resolutions enjoy a rising presence in Pelecanos’s work.”
—Carlo Rotella, Washington Post Magazine
“The Turnaround tells its stories masterfully, constricting the characters’ lives into a white-hot singularity of violence.… The Turnaround isn’t an oddity in the author’s stellar career—it’s just another intimate, suspenseful, gritty, hopeful slice of life—but it does indicate that Pelecanos can chart his own course through the crime genre and beyond.”
—Donna Bowman, Onion A.V. Club
“Vivid locale, rich characterization, period features, a dense story, and convincing realism fuel Pelecanos’s new tale of transformation.”
—Carlo Wolff, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Another book that will encourage you, as it has encouraged me, to chase down the Pelecanos stories that we might have missed.”
—Steve Duin, Portland Oregonian
“As always, Pelecanos combines generosity of soul with scrupulous attention to detail and an acute sensitivity to the complicated dance of friendship and antagonism between people whose faces wear different colors. A virtue of this fine novel is the author’s evident love for his characters, even the lost ones.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“It almost seems that George Pelecanos is hardwired to write superbly observed urban crime dramas.”
—Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News
“The Turnaround features some of Pelecanos’s most precise and effective writing.… Even without the gunplay that’s long been a cornerstone of his work, his books have the potential to become true classics of urban American life. The Turnaround makes that abundantly clear.”
—Mark Athitakis, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“The theme of redemption rings out as loud as the gun fired on that fateful day.”
—Andrew Abrahams, People
“There are novels that happen to embrace elements of mystery stories but seek higher ground as serious mirrors of the world, and few writers achieve this effect more profoundly than George Pelecanos.… It is almost impossible not to become deeply involved with the threatened individuals who populate his superb books.”
—Otto Penzler, New York Sun
“George Pelecanos is my hero.”
—Barbara Liss, Houston Chronicle
“Pelecanos’s skill at digging deep to lay bare the soul of his characters has put him on many must-read lists. The Turnaround again shows Pelecanos’s role as a social historian.”
—Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Yet another gem of urban noir.… A beautifully written and thought-provoking novel of crime, friendship, aging, and redemption.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“It’s a mature story, told with easy mastery, and no one who cares about Washington and about excellence in American writing should miss it.”
—Patrick Anderson, Washington Post