The Blue Flame
If there is another case in store for Derek, let’s hope Mr. Pelecanos won’t make us wait another 14 years to read about it.
Does for Washington, D.C., what Raymond Chandler did for LA. Strange takes us into the D.C. the tourists and politicians don't know: from neat rowhouse neighborhoods to the D.C. Central Detention Facility. The title, The Blue Flame, refers to the fact that Strange, an ex-cop, still has that burning cop curiosity. I hope it's never extinguished.
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The Blue Flame operates in a mostly quiet register, and I read it as a book about aging, and about the tools still at your disposal when youth is a long-ago memory. This shouldn’t be your first Pelecanos novel — start with the D.C. Quartet — but it is a fitting return for both the character and the author.
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