George Pelecanos: The DC King of Crime Writers

You aren't always lucky enough to meet your favorites in any field, but tonight we heard a book reading and talk by George Pelecanos, my favorite crime writer, who also wrote for HBO's heralded The Wire, which happens to be my favorite TV series of all-time.

Pelecanos, a DC native who uses the streets and seedier sites of the nation's capital as the setting for his best-selling novels, was appearing at The Politics and Prose Bookstore as part of a  tour supporting his new novel The Cut, which features Spero Lucas, a young, just-returned-from-Iraq investigator as its protagonist.

Pelecanos said that he came up with ideas and settings for much of the novel in his bike rides around the city.  His new characters, which include 2 teenage drug dealers and a social studies teacher at a real-life Washington high school, sprang from  real-life encounters from research for previous works.

For about 30 minutes after his reading, Pelecanos answered questions about his books, the writing process, and particularly about using real-life DC as a basis for his works. He said the research he has undertaken  for his writing has helped him form many of his social stands. For example, he is for the legalization of marijuana, noting that the jails are full of young people involved in possession and sale. "Now, I don't smoke weed, but I've ridden with a lot of officers on domestic calls and every time there was a strong smell of alcohol around," Pelecanos said. "Alcohol is legal, but I can tell you, you're not going to beat your wife up if you're smoking pot."

Pelecanos said he was grateful  for the opportunity to have written with David Simon, Richard Price, Dennis Lehane and the other talented writers on The Wire.  "I never went to writing school and I thought that what I did was instinctual.  But I learned a lot from them; I learned there was a method to what I was doing. Of course, that being said, I did write the best episodes of The Wire," he said to hearty laughter from the standing-room only crowd.

Travelers' Tip:
When you travel, you never know when you are going to get an unexpected bonus and tonight I got 2. First, Pelecanos announced that he will have a new book out in January which is set in the 1972 DC Watergate summer.  And, each of us who purchased a copy of The Cut, received a free copy of the short story "Chosen" which details the beginnings of Spero's unique family.  And, for those of you who might be interested, I broke my ban on autographs and got Pelecanos to sign both copies.