Park View, D.C.

Nearly a year ago, I posted about the book D.C. Noir (2006), a book of short crime stories where each one is based in a particular Washington neighborhood. The lead story in that book is by Georgia Pelecanos and takes place in Park View.

Here’s another book by Pelecanos that should be of interest to readers who like crime stories, Drama City (2005).

Main character Lorenzo Brown is a street investigator for the Humane Society. Brown lives on the 700 block of Otis Place and much of the action takes place in this section of Park View or further up on Georgia Avenue. A few other locations are thrown in for good measure. Brown has recently completed an eight-year stretch in prison for narcotics and is determined to stay on the straight and narrow.

Rachel Lopez is Brown’s parole officer. Lopez has demons of her own. While she works her cases by day she spends her nights getting drunk and having sex with strangers.

The violence in the book is ignited from a mistake in territory between two drug lords at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Morton, escalating into a series of revenge killings. The homicides ultimately touch the lives of Brown and Lopez before coming to an end.

As with D.C. Noir, Drama City portrays a darker side of Washington that is hidden to many while existing in plain sight.

This entry was posted on January 6, 2011 at 7:01 am and is filed under Sports leisure and entertainment. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: literature, Park View