ARE YOU LISTENING? WHAT IT WAS - AN AUDIO BOOK REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S" 
ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" 
I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE TODAY'S 
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE.....

GIVEAWAY ENDED
WHAT IT WAS 

BY GEORGE PELECANOS

READ BY JD JACKSON

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:

Washington, D.C., 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn's turf, where a local drug addict's been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment. Soon both men are on the trail of a ruthless killer: Red Fury, so called for his looks and the car his girlfriend drives, but a name that fits his personality all too well. Red Fury doesn't have a retirement plan, as Vaughn points out - he doesn't care who he has to cross, or kill, to get what he wants. As the violence escalates and the stakes get higher, Strange and Vaughn know the only way to catch their man is to do it their own way.

Rich with details of place and time - the cars, the music, the clothes - and fueled by non-stop action, this is Pelecanos writing in the hard-boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans and placed him firmly in the ranks of the top crime writers in America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

George Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C. in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992.

Pelecanos is the author of fourteen crime novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down By the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, and The Night Gardener. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix Du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men From Boys, Murder at the Foul Line, and D.C. Noir, for which he also served as editor. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire magazine called Pelecanos "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world."

Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. His novel Right as Rain is currently in development with director Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, Wonder Boys) and Warner Brothers. He is a writer on the upcoming World War II miniseries The Pacific, to be produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and HBO.

Pelecanos lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and three children. He is at work on his next novel.

HOW MANY OTHER BOOKS BY GEORGE PELECANOS HAVE YOU READ?

 

 

 

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

George Pelecanos is back with favorite character, Derek Strange, in his latest, WHAT IT WAS. Set in Washington, D. C., in 1972, Pelecanos as always uses the setting almost as a character in that his vivid description of places transports the reader into the story.  Strange is now working as a Private Investigator and is hired by a woman to find a ring that was stolen from her during the murder of her boyfriend, Bobby Odum.

The killer, Red Jones, known in the hood as Red Fury, committed the murder and isn’t shy about telling people about it. He thinks it makes him out to be a big shot. However, he also stole some dope as well and it happened to belong to a mob in New York who has sent out men to get revenge. With Frank Vaughn, a homicide detective, also looking for Jones, there is quite a lot of people hunting for him. It is only natural to have them all run into each other throughout their search and in fact, brings Strange and Vaughn together to work toward their mutual goal.

With George Pelecanos at his best, WHAT IT WAS starts out with this plot line and holds the reader for the entire time. It was especially exciting to listen to this one on audio book. Pelecanos’s research for the time period is perfection and those of us who were alive back then will enjoy all the nuances and elements he uses. WHAT IT WAS will keep you turning pages, or listening, because it is just too exciting to stop so plan your time before you begin. If you weren’t a fan of Derek Strange before, you will be now and it is my guess that you will want to look up his earlier titles because this is mystery writing at its best!

 GIVEAWAY

 THANKS TO MITCH AND THE FINE FOLKS AT

HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE TWO COPIES

OF THIS EXCITING AUDIO BOOK TO

 GIVE AWAY TO TWO LUCKY WINNERS!

 

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

 6 PM, EST, MAY 22

GOOD LUCK!