|
Outstanding
|
Los Angeles Times Miles Corwin
Those who can appreciate a writer who transcends the genre will forgive Pelecanos' transgressions and find The Night Gardener a powerful and compelling book.
|
|
Outstanding
|
Publishers Weekly
A dignified, character-driven epic that succeeds as both literary novel and page-turner. [19 June 2006, p.40]
|
|
Outstanding
|
Booklist Bill Ott
One thinks of Michael Connelly, John Harvey, and Ian Rankin--other writers able to look inside their cop heroes with remarkable sensitivity--but Pelecanos' scalpel may cut more precisely than any of them. [1 May 2006, p.37]
|
|
Outstanding
|
Library Journal Craig Shufelt
As in his previous novels, as well as his work on HBO's "The Wire," he manages to weave several threads perfectly into the larger story. Another winner from arguably our best contemporary crime writer. [15 May 2006, p.95]
|
|
Outstanding
|
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Margaret Cannon
If you're not already a die-hard Pelecanos fan, The Night Gardener should bring you into the fold. This gritty, gripping, beautifully constructed police drama is the best book by one of the best authors now writing. [2 Sept 2006, p.D12]
|
|
Outstanding
|
USA Today Jocelyn McClurg
Pelecanos, the reigning bard of D.C. crime writing, delivers his most mature and accomplished novel in The Night Gardener. And that's a mixed blessing for cult followers of this underappreciated writer. Because in honing his craft to a high gloss, Pelecanos has lost a bit of the hyperkinetic, ultra-violent edge that made his earlier books so explosive. Still, it's hard to fault somebody for being too good. [17 Aug 2006, p.04D]
|
|
Outstanding
|
Salon Laura Miller
The Night Gardener, has all the elements that make a season of "The Wire" so engrossing and refreshing.
|
|
Outstanding
|
The New York Times Janet Maslin
Like "Drama City" it is heart-in-your-throat gripping from beginning to end.
|
|
Outstanding
|
Sydney Morning Herald Sue Turnbull
Structurally, this may just be the perfect crime novel...Structure, however, is hardly enough; it's the detail that seduces and convinces.
|
|
Outstanding
|
The Independent Mark Timlin
Things are never quiet in Pelecanos land and we should be grateful. Police procedural at its very best.
|
|
Outstanding
|
Boston Globe John Koch
There isn't a dull page in the book.
|
|
Favorable
|
Washington Post Stephen Amidon
His evocations of the "other" Washington -- geographically proximate but also a world away from K Street, Georgetown and Capitol Hill -- are superb.
|
|
Favorable
|
Daily Telegraph Susanna Yager
By concentrating on the relationships between the characters as much as on the detail of the pursuit, Pelecanos turns a mystery into a moving story with no easy conclusion.
|
|
Favorable
|
Atlantic Monthly Jon Zobenica
A host of supporting characters—family members, barflies, prostitutes, precinct mates, thugs big-time and small—help flesh out this deeply human tale, which doesn’t shy from the unexpected discoveries and laudably unsatisfying resolutions of all great noir.
|
|
Favorable
|
Chicago Sun-Times Paul Saltzman
The Night Gardener isn't among his best work, but even average Pelecanos is something to behold. [27 Aug 2007]
|
|
Favorable
|
The Onion A.V. Club Keith Phipps
Plenty of writers have captured the grotesque attraction of serial killers, but few so capably get how their aberrant compulsions reflect more acceptable, public patterns of destruction.
|
|
Favorable
|
Entertainment Weekly Adam B. Vary
Like Pelecanos' work on HBO's "The Wire," Gardener brims with meticulous, humane, sprawling authenticity — and takes its sweet time getting anywhere.
|
|
Favorable
|
Kirkus Reviews
The setup screams "Mystic River," but Pelecanos's olympian yet furiously impassioned take on urban violence remains his own. [1 June 2006, p.541]
|
