THE NIGHT GARDENER

A body is found in a garden in Washington, and the teenaged victim's first name spells the same forwards as back. For certain members of the police force, both past and present, the circumstances recall an unsolved string of murders twenty years earlier. But while homicide is the putative plot of Pelecanos's work, his real interests are far more universal: the consequences of one's choices, good and bad. Richard Davidson's voice is all gravel, the better to achieve the gravitas and ruefulness that Pelecanos brings to bear in this somber novel in which three cops, two rookies with different characters and aspirations and a legendary detective--all summoned to one of the early killings--are unexpectedly reunited after the last. M.O. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 07]