Hell to Pay: A Novel
InHell to Pay, Washington, D.C., is just one more thug in an  endless list of thugs who brutalize the poor, the weak, and the young. The  primary victim this time is a rising star on Derek Strange's Pee Wee football  team. In this city where making T-shirts for bereaved families of young murder  victims is a full-time business, the boy is an accidental victim in a war  between drug dealers and lowlifes.Private investigator Strange, in his second George Pelecanos outing (after  2001'sRight as Rain),  has seen enough of this face of D.C. His relationship to his secretary/lover  Janine sputters in the wake of increasing, irrational infidelities. His moral  compass swings wildly as he tracks the killers, Garfield "Death" Potter and  friends. Not knowing if he can be satisfied seeing these men in prison, Strange  contemplates other brands of "justice."For fans of Pelecanos, all the usual trappings are here: the hyper-real  dialogue, the bloody street fights, the immersion in classic R&B;, and themostcurrent music on the streets. Pelecanos does stumble in a few  places. His narrative becomes wooden at times, and his plot features a couple of  glaring coincidences (e.g., Strange justhappensto jot down the license  plate of a car that later turns out to be the one driven by the murderers). But  Pelecanos is the real deal innoir. IfDennis Lehaneowns Boston andMichael Connellyis master of L.A., Pelecanos is dark D.C.'s intimate chronicler.--Patrick  O'Kelley