The Cut, by George Pelecanos

Two things differentiate this novel from being just another cookie cutter, template -based mystery slash action story:  the author's rather annoying descriptive prose style, and his attempt to demonstrate relevance and connectivity with the times by making the hero a fan of dub music, e.g.,  Augustus Pablo.  These ploys aren't enough to make the book great, although the plot is interesting enough.

The hero is Spero Lucas who's back in Washington, DC after a decade as a soldier deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  He's either unable to find nine to five work, or uninterested in it, so instead Lucas does investigations for a local attorney, and makes his real money by taking a 40% cut for finding things for people (lawfully or not).   Adopted by a Greek family in DC, his brother is an African American school teacher (Lucas is white).

As you'd expect from the template, Lucas has all the Jack Reacher -model of toughness, lives for excitement, but doesn't suffer from an overactive moral compass.  He can, however, simply say hello to an attractive female in order to move to a sexual relationship in a matter of minutes.

Ugh.


The Cut (Spero Lucas)