Pelecanos, George (1957-…), is an American author known for his crime and detective novels set in his hometown of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Critics have praised Pelecanos’s fiction for its gritty realism and vivid portraits of Washington neighborhoods, including violence, drug abuse, and racial tensions.
Pelecanos has created several series of novels, beginning with stories featuring private detective Nick Stefanos. The first Stefanos novel was Pelecanos’s first published work, A Firing Offense (1992). Pelecanos later introduced the private detective team of Derek Strange and Terry Quinn in Right as Rain (2001). Private detective Spero Lucas was introduced in The Cut (2011).
Pelecanos wrote a series of four novels called the “D.C. Quartet.” The series surveys several decades of life in Washington following the end of World War II in 1945. It consists of The Big Blowdown (1996), King Suckerman (1997), The Sweet Forever (1998), and Shame the Devil (2000). The novels include several recurring characters, including Stefanos and the white private investigator Dimitri Karras and his African American friend Marcus Clay. Washington is also the setting for The Man Who Came Uptown (2018). The novel describes the struggle of a young man with a criminal past and a new love of books to avoid being drawn back into a life of crime.
Pelecanos has also worked as a motion picture and television producer and a television writer. He was a producer and writer of the highly praised TV crime series “The Wire” (2002-2008) and “The Deuce” (2017-2019). He also edited the short story collections D.C. Noir (2006) and Best American Mystery Stories 2008 (2008).
George P. Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 18, 1957. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Maryland in 1980. Pelecanos worked at several jobs during the 1980’s and took his first film job in 1990. He began writing professionally at the age of 31.
