(04/10/2008) King Suckerman by George P. Pelecanos. Boston. 1997. Little Brown. keywords: Mystery America Washington DC. 264 pages. Jacket by Michael Ian Kaye/Kristian Russell. 0316695904. August 1997.
KING SUCKERMAN kicks off my favorite trilogy of George Pelecanos novels. It also reintroduces Dimitri Karras, who we met as a child in THE BIG BLOWDOWN.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
KING SUCKERMAN is a thriller that weaves the blaxploitation films, the drug deals, the soul music, and the racial tensions that defined the seventies into a story of natural-born killers and two men who risk everything to bring them down. Dimitri Karras and Marcus Clay are old friends whose affection transcends the barriers of race. Clay is a Vietnam vet trying to make a go of his own small business, while Karras is drifting, playing pickup basketball and supporting himself with small-time drug dealing. When Karras takes Clay with him to make a buy from a new supplier, they cross paths with Wilton Cooper - and enter a world where merciless, unpredictable violence is the only certainty. Cooper cuts a swath of bloody mayhem that leads straight to Karras's door, and Karras has the battle of a lifetime to keep his walk on the wild side from destroying his entire world.
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