A review by thomasroche
The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

5.0

I loved this richly textured noirish crime novel set in the Greek community of Washington DC in the immediate postwar era. I came to it because I was so frustrated with James Ellroy's "Perfidia," and Pelecanos's DC Quartet seems to be one of the few crime series at all similar or related to Ellroy's LA Quartet. Unfortunately, from what I can tell they're not even remotely similar. The two authors have styles so unbelievably different it's pretty much impossible to compare them. Nonetheless, I loved The Big Blowdown's details about Greek-American culture, and the sights and smells of DC at the time. Sometimes Pelecanos indulges his history-nerd pop culture trivia obsession a little too deeply, but ultimately it all comes out in the wash. This is a stupendously enjoyable and yet memorably melancholy book, extremely readable and filled with crystalline moments.