A review by jakewritesbooks
The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

4.0

Like George Pelecanos, I've transitioned from my roaring twenties phase of parties and Cool Guy mystery novels to my thirties phase of maturity and focus. This is a good historical tale: part bildungsroman, part small-scale gangster fable, part ode to post-war DC. I had an idea of what was coming given my knowledge of the children/grandchildren in the Stefanos and Karras clans but the ending still impacted me and it reminded me how Pelecanos is not a sentimental writer. Whatever dirtbag stuff he did in his 20s, he has no desire to romanticize it. One of my favorites of his.