Product Description

When Thomas Flynn leaves his son, seventeen year old Chris, at Pine Ridge, a juvenile prison near Washington, D.C., his heart is broken but his mind is made up: Chris will have to pay for the mistakes he's made. Inside, Chris is exposed to kids from a different D.C. than the comfortable one he knew - one less remote from the street fights, car chases, and marijuana deals that got him here in the first place. A decade later, Chris and the friends he made at Pine Ridge seem reformed. Chris has a job, thanks to his father, a girlfriend, and his own apartment. But when he and the others are inadvertently caught up in a burglary, old habits and worse instincts rise to the surface, threatening this new-found stability with sudden treachery and violence. With the drama, compassion, and urgency for which Pelecanos is celebrated, The Way Home travels the streets of Washington, D.C. and tells the story of its people, and the tensions that always linger just out of sight, circling back again and again to that clapboard house on Livingston Street where Thomas and Chris Flynn's rocky relationship moves from distrust and scorn toward a flawed, but real, redemption. How far will a father go to save his son? That question is the beating pulse beneath George Pelecanos's spectacular new novel, a page-turning story of rebellion, greed, and the high price of a second chance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5803 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
'his pitiless concentration on how minor decisions end up making huge differences, and how two generations of a family try, and fail, to understand each other, makes this a riveting read.' (THE GUARDIAN )

'a compelling social and domestic drama that's enhanced by Pelecanos' dynamic crime genre narrative style.' (THE LIST (Glasgow & Edinburgh) )

'a powerful tale of a wayward son and his disappointed father, with the hard-won redemption at the end staying with you long after putting it down.' (SHORTLIST )

'Eighteen years after his first novel, the diverting A Firing Offense, he has written a masterpiece ... The Way Home should confirm his status as one of America's great writers. ... he refines and underlines [his] themes to the point of perfection, until a final page that will have you gulping for air. Not just good. Great.' (Paul Connolly LONDON LITE )

'The Way Home, like The Turnaround before it, is a masterly study of fathers and sons. Pelecanos, who worked on the TV show The Wire, has a gift for characterisation and location - in this case Washington DC. The result is that rare thing: a gripping thriller that is also intensely moving.' (Mark Sanderson EVENING STANDARD )

'A typically assured performance ... notable for Pelecanos' mastery of teen talk'' (John Dugdale SUNDAY TIMES )

'The most intelligent crime novel of the year. *****' (Boyd Hilton HEAT )

'as good a piece of modern crime fiction as there is ... a gripping study of the father-son relationship that just happens to stray into the justice system. Pelecanos has a gift for characterisation and conveying a sense of place. The result is that rare thing: a believable thriller that is also intensely moving.' (David Robinson THE SCOTSMAN )

'The Wire scriptwriter is known for his dextrous tales of corruption.' (OBSERVER )

About the Author
George Pelecanos is the author of fifteen previous crime novels set in and around the Washington area. He is also an award-winning journalist, screenwriter and producer - most recently being nominated for an Emmy award for his work as a producer, writer, and story editor on The Wire. Pelecanos lives in Maryland with his family.

Customer Reviews

One of Crime Fiction's Best Kept Secrets (at least in the UK!)
Chris Flynn comes from a good family, consisting of a hard-working father who owns his own business and tries to do right by his son, and a loving mother. Yet he still strays from the straight and narrow and gets involved in petty crimes as a teenager - larceny, drugs, some minor violence. He ends up in a young offenders' camp where he makes friendships and is taught life lessons.

A few years down the line we pick up his story. He's gone straight and works for his father's carpet-laying firm alongside a friend he made inside the camp. One day, whilst on a job, they discover a large sum of hidden money underneath the floorboards of a property. Although they resist temptation to take it, the find nevertheless sets events in motion that will have far-reaching effects on their lives.

The author once again provides a touching portrait of a father and son, unable at times to articulate their feelings for one another. He asks age-old questions, such as does incarceration work? Are those from a poor background who drift into crime totally beyond salvation? Pelecanos seems to say `no' - he believes in redemption, of people overcoming obstacles in their lives, and in the intrinsic goodness of the human spirit.

What more can I say? His dialogue is equal to, if not better than, any other crime writer you care to name and his characterisation is beyond great. He is a poet of the streets, a champion of the underclass.

`The Way Home' is excellent, but having said that, it's not quite as good as his other recent novels - `The Turnaround' and `The Night Gardener'. However, if you've never read anything by him before this is still as good a place as any to start.

George Pelecanos is criminally under-appreciated in this country. Perhaps it's because he doesn't write crime thrillers per se - you won't find a detective piecing together clues in his books, no rampant serial killers, no red herrings or brilliant twists. Or at least not very often. No, he largely writes crime DRAMAS, wherein he tackles sociological themes, examining cause and effect, brilliantly presenting the inner-city tensions and unease within a big American city - Washington D.C. He's not merely a superb crime writer, he's a brilliant writer, period.

He was an executive producer/writer on the superb American TV show `The Wire' and the publishers draw attention to this on the front cover - in the hope that it will boost sales. The manager of the bookshop where I picked this up lamented to me that he'd bought in a lot of George's back catalogue, but no one was interested in buying them. Pelecanos has many fans among the crime writing fraternity, and critics love him too. So why doesn't he sell in this country when he's easily one of the best writers around? It's a big mystery.

Another solid read from Mr Pelecanos
Less than 12 months after last book The Turnaround Pelecanos returns with another solid, enoyable read.

When Chris Flynn & co-worker Ben find $50,000 hidden in a cut-away floorboard while fitting a carpet in an empty house they leave it there, even though the temptation is there to take it. Both have been in trouble before & met in a juvenile detention centre but are trying to go straight. Ben fatefully lets their secret out to another ex inmate, the money is stolen & the people it belongs to come looking for it.

The book, though, is really about the relationship between Chris & his father, Tommy & how it is possible to change over time & earn a second chance. There is a lot of back story regarding Chris' time at Pine Ridge correctional facility & his day to day working life for his fathers floor laying firm after his release. This is the backbone of the book & balances the missing money plot nicely.

Pelecanos has a high profile at the moment due to his work on The Wire & well deserved it is, too. More mellow these days (the punky fizz of earlier Nick Stefanos books almost gone) he can still keep readers interested in the lives of his characters by making them plausible & real. Highly recommended.

best book i have read this year
Having read "the scarecrow", which i thought was a return to form for Michael Connelly, Pelecanos's latest book eclipses that by a mile as it brings family tension into the story which though starting slowly ties all the pieces together while offering some hope of redemption. The one quibble i would have wih an excellent book is the preview of the rest of their lives put in a couple of paragraphs right at the end. I dont think this adds to the book rather than leaving the reader to imagine what might happen down the line.