New York, NY: Little & Brown (2005)

First Edition. Signed.

Near fine in dust jacket.

George Pelecanos at last delivers the knockout punch his admirers have long awaited. Hard Revolution is a rich, dramatic, totally engrossing story of two brothers--one a rookie police officer, one a recently returned Vietnam veteran--who come to blows in the year 1968, when D.C. exploded into chaos and violence. Hard Revolution tells for the first time how Derek Strange first became a police officer, and what drove him to leave the force and go into business as a private investigator. Derek Strange was his family's straight arrow, but his older brother Dennis always had a harder time. Home from Vietnam with a disability pension, no job prospects, and old friends up to no good, Dennis is in danger of making one bad decision too many. While Derek makes his way as a rookie police officer, he also tries to be there for Dennis. But no amount of brotherly love can save him from Alvin Jones, a local drug dealer who draws Dennis into his plans. When Dennis runs afoul of Jones, the fallout will change Derek Strange's life forever. Filled with the rich details of time, place, music, and local color that are Pelecanos's trademark, and with an unerring insight into the morality of daily life, Hard Revolution is a fascinating, gripping novel about one man's personal quest for justice and revenge against the backdrop of a nation at war with itself.