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The Night Gardener | 
 enlarge | Author: George Pelecanos
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $8.81
You Save: $16.18 (65%)
New (5) Used (11) from $5.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 98297
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B0015UWOVC
Publication Date: August 8, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 A gripping crime drama and intimate look at a City and its people August 12, 2008
Mr. Pelecanos has just found himself a new fan because from the very first page of The Night Gardener, he spins a heart-breaking, multi-faceted tale that is simply too hard to resist.
Ostensibly, this is a crime drama. A serial killer with an appreciation for constrained writing is tormenting the residents and law enforcement officials of Southeast DC. Dead teenagers are popping up in neighborhood gardens and their names are spelled the same forwards and backwards -- these are the Palindrome murders of the infamous "night gardner."
Okay, the whole palindrome thing gets threadbare fairly quickly but the story compensates by moving boldy beyond the constraints of hardboiled crime fiction and into a richer and more meaningful exploration of a city and people in conflict, and a dualism that seems to serve up equal helpings of salvation and damnation on the same plate.
Here is a tale set in the Capital of world power, Washington, DC. A city with a glorious veneer and a rotting urban center where people live lives of not so quiet desperation. And it is in his description of DC and its environs that this novel draws much of its power. It is simply drenched in authenticity, the mark of a caring local who has a soft spot for the people and places he writes about. Yes, this is fiction, but told with such bona fides that the reader may half expect to be able to walk into Leo's and have a drink with the notorious womanizer and ex-cop Doc Holiday.
And then there's the dialogue and the characters themselves. Mr. Pelacanos clearly has a way with the lingo of the streets and the police that survey them. He's obviously an adroit student of street culture and portrays them it with convincing force. Not once does he strike anything resembling a false note. All dialogue is sharp and well-crafted and often riotously funny.
It is in such fashion that we get to meet the detectives of the Violent Crime Branch of DC's Metropolitan Police Department. Mr. Pelecano produces an intimate look into the lives of inner-city youths, parents and their children, husbands and wives, criminals and, of course, law enforcement professionals coping with the often unbearable pressures of their work, some with more grace than others
In the end, The Night Gardener is less an exploration of crime than it is an exploration of the human soul told in cool and detached style that belies a soft and warm core.
It is an examination of time and place. A look at human beings doing the best they can with the circumstances they've been dealt. Sure, there are elements of mystery and good old fashioned whodunit, but this book is not about a serial killer at all, it's about making choices and living with the consequences of those choices. Happy and sad.
Reader beware, Mr. Pelecanos sucks you into his world, and forces you to think in ways that no other crime novel ever has.
Like I said, he's got an enthusiastic new fan.
 Overhyped Novel, Far From Transcending Genre August 12, 2008
Ken Bruen says in a blurb on the back of the book that nothing in mystery touches The Night Gardener, that this is what other writers try to achieve, and that this novel puts to rest the question of mystery as Literature.
Really? If so, it's no wonder crime fiction is mired in mediocrity. The bar is set too low.
The Night Gardener is an average book at best. There's no real conflict; nothing is at stake for the main characters. Ramone, the protagonist, is supposed to be a guy who goes by the book all the time, yet he NEVER goes by the book throughout the whole story. He even does something that would and should get him fired and put in jail if it were found out.
The commentary at racial and sexual prejudice is shallow. Pelecanos shows us what racial prejudice looks like, and that it exists, but he goes no farther. It's a very black and white view of an important issue in our society, yet Pelecanos never asks why or how such an issue persists, or what can be done about it.
If this book is an attempt at transcending genre, then it is a failed attempt. I'm sure there are many crime novels which do cross the barrier over into Literature, but The Night Gardener is not one of them.
The novel is not boring, but it's ultimately forgettable.
 Night Gardener Should've Kept His Day Job... July 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Unfortunately, my high expectations for George Pelecanos' work - after reading his rave reviews - were sadly unconsummated after reading The Night Gardener.
Initially, the book seemed to have it all: Well drawn characters, gritty dialogue, authentic idiom, and just enough offensive people to make it all the more believable. Sadly though, the story's protagonist Gus Ramone almost fell into the latter category. Neither fish nor fowl in character, it was hard to accept him as a true crusader for justice, considering what was in actuality a serious transgression of his code of ethics (and the Police department's) in his relationships with ex cops Dan Holiday and TC Cook.
As for the plot... where was it? The storyline was so muddied with "bit" characters who added nothing at all of relevance to the plot, but whom Pelecanos seemed at pains to paint in great detail. We didn't really care. All too often, I was muttering: forget what he/she looks like and what they're wearing, and what they're thinking: just get on with the story.
Another minor but constant irritant was Pelecanos' inclusion of EVERY street name that EVERY character drove along. We didn't need a lesson in geography, and it's impossible to convey the "sense" of a city (unvisited by most readers) by simply quoting street names from the directory. None of the names have any relevance to a non-native... so why worry? Just leave 'em out.
So... a muddy plot; a forgettable hero; too many coincidences; cliched racial undertones; half a dozen extraneous characters; and 100 pages too long.
Out of fairness, I'll give Pelecanos another read - particularly as everybody else loves his stuff. Maybe it's me!
Pelecanos at his best June 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The most mature G. Pelecanos work up to now. Dark, lively and up to date.
Not the Best from Pelecanos May 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First, let me say that I'm a huge fan of Pelecanos. I think some of his earlier books are brilliant, and even his worst books are better than almost anything else coming out these days.
That being said, though, I was hugely disappointed with The Night Gardener. I get the feeling that Pelecanos wanted to tell a deep, thoughtful, detail-rich story about three interesting cops but just didn't have a plot to go with it so he hashed together something about a serial killer just to give the book some purpose. Well, this idea failed miserably. The "plot" of the book is this; years ago, someone was killing kids and leaving the bodies in city gardens. The victims all had several things in common. The crime was never solved. Now, 20 years later, another child is found dead in similar fashion. Has the killer returned after all these years? Two former cops and one guy who is still a cop want to find out.
It sounds interesting at first, but guess what? This plot is pushed so far to the back of the book that all we really get are long, detailed scenes of guys sitting around and thinking about other stuff, plus a strange sub-plot about two wanna-be gangsters which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the book. When the "mystery" about the serial killings is finally "solved," it is done so in a cheap, throwaway fashion that makes the reader say "I plowed through 430 pages just for this?"
My advice? Skip this book and read an earlier Pelecanos book like Nick's Trip or Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go.
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