The Martini Shot: A Novella and Stories

by George Pelecanos

Overview

Short stories and a novella from one of crime fiction's most revered writers.

Whether they're cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos' characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants.

A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos' most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella - which takes its name from Hollywood slang for the last shot of the day, the one that comes before the liquor shots begin - we go behind the scenes of a television cop show, where a writer gets caught up in a drama more real than anything he could have conjured for a script.

By turns heartbreaking and humane, brutal and funny, these finely constructed tales expose the violence and striving beneath the surface of any city and within any human heart. Tough, sexy, fast-paced, and crackling with energy, The Martini Shot is Pelecanos at his very best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316284370
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	01/06/2015
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,223,672
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

George Pelecanos is the bestselling author of twenty novels set in and around Washington, D.C. He is also an independent film producer, and a producer and Emmy-nominated writer on the HBO series The Wire, Treme, and The Deuce. He lives in Maryland.

Hometown:

Silver Spring, Maryland

Date of Birth:

February 18, 1957

Place of Birth:

Washington, D.C.

Education:

B.A., University of Maryland at College Park, 1980

Website:

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/georgepelecanos/

Editorial Reviews

The novella takes up more than a third of this brisk, hard-boiled book…[the] story couldn't have filled a whole book, but it's perfect at novella length, one of this author's freshest and most original recent works—not to mention his most self-referential. Here is proof on the page that Mr. Pelecanos needed to do something more than keep writing Washington novels.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

11/03/2014
Edgar-finalist Pelecanos (Drama City) showcases his formidable skills in his first story collection. Among the standouts is the unforgettable “The Confidential Informant,” in which a Washington, D.C., man who lives in the shadow of his aging Vietnam vet father attempts to prove himself to the old man by helping the police “solve a homicide.” Fans of Pelecanos’s Spero Lucas series will welcome the emotionally charged “Chosen,” which fills in the back story of Lucas’s mixed-race family. In “The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us,” a raucous Depression-era story, a Greek immigrant gets mixed up with a corrupt Pinkerton agent. In the title novella, the life of Victor Ohanion—who, like Pelecanos, is a writer and producer for a cable TV crime show—begins to resemble his scripts after a set worker is murdered; Ohanion decides to settle the score. While these eight tales are not as deep as the author’s novels, the collection is still a winner. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for THE MARTINI SHOT:

"one of [Pelecanos'] freshest and most original recent works."
—Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Here we see what makes Pelecanos' best writing so resonant: the sense of longing, of miscommunication, the way love does not enlarge us but rather makes us small."
—David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times

"His writing is properly hard-boiled, his heroes are attractively flawed and his villains leave trails of blood from here to yonder. But even at his most gripping...he sets his aims high, bringing a sociologist's concerns to the street -level dramas that play out in his hometown of Washington, D.C."
—Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

"fast, dark, and dangerous...The gritty world [Pelecanos] knows so well provides ample fodder for the vignettes in this book, the characters are strong and the dialogue is sharp. The collection is a solid read for anyone who's a fan of crime writing and especially Pelecanos' work."
—Tim Alamenciak, Toronto Star

"bracing and witty...an inventive study of deception and fakery—one of Pelecanos's best works, at any length."
—Mark Athitakis, The Washington Post

"serves as an introduction to his dark, unblinking vision and a reason to stay until the night's bitter end. Don't miss this collection, a must-have for newcomers and longtime fans alike."
—Joe Hartlaub, Book Reporter

Praise for THE DOUBLE:

"It's astonishing all the good stuff Pelecanos can pack into one unpretentious book that make the story so rich."—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Pungent, funny dialogue...believable black-and-white friendships...outstanding scene-setting...The Double is fast-paced, its villains feel fresh...Call me a hard-core Pelecanos junkie."—Jocelyn McClurg, USA TODAY


"The author laces his story with vivid descriptions of Washington's changing urban landscape. The writing is taut, the violence is graphic and the characters are so well-drawn that they step off the page and into your life. The Double is as good as it gets."—Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press

Praise for THE CUT:

"The writing is spare; the dialogue rings with authenticity; and walking D.C.'s mean streets with Lucas is the next best thing to being there. Easily the best crime novel I've read this year."—Hallie Ephron, Boston Globe

"Pelecanos at his best...The Cut crackles with energy."—Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Every time I read one of George Pelecanos's novels, I'm left a little awed...The guy's a national treasure."—Dennis Lehane

"A lean, swift, atmospheric detective novel...The characters-good-hearted, ill-intentioned or in between-are shown by Mr. Pelecanos with loving clarity, free of cliché, condescension or illusion. Spero Lucas is an engagingly layered character...The Cut is a resourceful and notably original work the delivers the thrills of an action movie and the poignancy of fine storytelling."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

2014-11-05
Seven stories and a novella from the undisputed king of D.C. noir.Pelecanos, who made his mark as a guide to the lower depths of the nation's capital and a writer/producer of the acclaimed TV series The Wire, has been as resourceful and inventive as his heroes, and this collection showcases his versatility. In the first and best of the stories, "The Confidential Informant," a street-wise kid's scheme to claim a $1,000 reward, set forth in scorching, slangy first-person, backfires fatally. "Chosen" chronicles the very mixed fortunes of an adoptive family whose youngest child is Spero Lucas (The Double, 2013, etc.). "String Music" toggles back and forth between Tonio Harris, who's struggling to survive against an enemy he impulsively insulted, and Sgt. Peters, who's struggling just as hard to protect him. "When You're Hungry" shows a kid who escaped an impoverished background to become a crack insurance investigator sent to Brazil, where an alleged murder victim has been sighted, that there's always somebody hungrier than him. A kid who's dealing acquiesces in his childhood friend's murder but still feels bad for the friend's mother in "Miss Mary's Room." The narrator of "Plastic Paddy" recalls the dangers and dead ends he encountered in smoking dope with a faux-Irish friend destined for a "long fall." In "The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us," a young man who works under Pelecanos regular Nick Stefanos avenges a friend who tried to organize his fellow hotel employees, then wonders whether another employee who saw him on the scene will turn him in. The only real disappointment is the title novella, in which a TV writer/producer who sounds a lot like the author tracks down the men who killed his gaffer, an amiable doper, and sets them up for condign justice. The other stories all strike sparks as reminiscences of troubled youth recalled from the perspective of adult experience—or from beyond the grave.

Kirkus Reviews

10/01/2014
The first story collection from the prolific Pelecanos (The Double) collects several previously published pieces and two new ones, including the title novella. Mining the author's own experience as a writer and producer on HBO's The Wire, "The Martini Shot" nearly collapses under the heavy industry jargon but emerges as a clever tale about television dramas and the nomadic people who create them. "Chosen," which first appeared as an ebook add-on to the first "Spero Lucas" novel (The Cut), touchingly fills in the blanks of the elusive private investigator's past as one of three adopted children of a Greek American couple. Most of the stories here appeared in various noir anthologies over the last two decades, when Pelecanos emerged as one of the country's most distinctive and reliable crime writers, and they showcase an author whose gritty prose style and sympathetic characterization have remained remarkably consistent in that time. VERDICT The best pieces in this collection do linger in memory ("Miss Mary's Room"), but many readers will view this title as a stopgap until the author's next full-length novel. A welcome but inessential addition to any public library's collection. [See Prepub Alert, 7/7/14.]—Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Library Journal

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