CWA Judges’ comments: 'A remarkable portrait of a blue collar family whose son is struggling to break free from his criminal past.'
The Lovereading view...
A crime novel that focuses largely on the relationship between a father and son. The crime element feels almost secondary to the intricate and tricky relationship between a son, who has spent time in a juvenile facility and now trying to go straight, and the father trying to help and understand him. However, having said that this lacks none of the punch of Pelcanos’s brilliant crime writing style and it a great thriller.
September 2010 Guest Editor Belle de Jour on George Pelecanos...
This is the sort of crime writing I love most – stripped down, but not simple; the characters are well-drawn without being overbearing. So many writers seem tempted to create more and more ludicrous plots to keep the interest going but Pelecanos holds on to you not with impossible crimes but with flawless realism and excellent writing.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 13 May 2010.
Featured on The TV Book Club on More4 on 7 March 2010.
Synopsis
The Way Home by George P Pelecanos
Hidden beneath the floorboards in a house he's remodeling, Christopher Flynn discovers something very tempting-and troubling. Summoning every bit of maturity and every lesson he's learned the hard way, Chris leaves what he found where he found it and tells his job partner to forget it, too. Knowing trouble when he sees it-and walking the other way-is a habit Chris is still learning.
Chris's father, Thomas Flynn, runs the family business where Chris and his friends have found work. Thomas is just getting comfortable with the idea that his son is grown, working, and on the right path at last. Then one day Chris doesn't show up for work-and his father knows deep in his bones that danger has found him.
Although he wishes it weren't so, he also knows that no parent can protect a child from all the world's evils. Sometimes you have to let them find their own way home.
Reviews
'With pace, punch and depth to spare, The Way Home will satisfy old admirers and hook the newcomers.' Boyd Tonkin INDEPENDENT
'A typically assured performance ... notable for Pelecanos's mastery of teen talk' SUNDAY TIMES
'His pitiless concentration on how minor decisions end up making huge differences, and how two generations of a family try, and fail, to understand each other, makes this a riveting read' GUARDIAN
'Achieves a gripping balance between social comment and the suspense of a great thriller' UNCUT
'A masterly study of fathers and sons. Pelecanos, who worked on the TV show The Wire, has a gift for characterisation and location - in this case Washington DC. The result is that rare thing: a gripping thriller that is also intensely moving' LONDON EVENING STANDARD
'Who is the best crime writer working today? I can think of a raft of serious contenders for second place, but in my view the winner by a clear head has to be George Pelecanos.' Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY
About the Author
George Pelecanos lives in Washington D.C. with his wife and
children. He also manages Circle Films, an independent production
company responsible for such films as the Coen Brothers' Raising
Arizona, Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink.
04 Feb
Siobhan Dowd born 1960. In 2008 she became the first ever posthumous winner of the most prestigious prize in children's literature, the Carnegie medal for her novel Bog Child. Read books by Siobhan Dowd
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Crime / Who-dunit
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