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:	9780594683155
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	01/06/2015
Pages:	304
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 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

"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 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

Dion Graham's character range is on display in Pelecanos's first collection of stories. The diversity of characters runs the gamut. And while Graham doesn't nail every accent in the collection, he thoroughly grasps the element that connects all of the characters: struggle. Whether it's conflict on the street over drugs or identity conflict, family strife at home or an internal battle with right and wrong, Graham pulls listeners in, helping them empathize with the characters. Graham also exhibits flexibility adjusting to Pelecanos's storytelling styles, like the screenplay dialogue in the title novella. Graham delivers atmosphere, dark humor, and genuine humanity in a great listening experience. J.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2014 - AudioFile

Dion Graham's character range is on display in Pelecanos's first collection of stories. The diversity of characters runs the gamut. And while Graham doesn't nail every accent in the collection, he thoroughly grasps the element that connects all of the characters: struggle. Whether it's conflict on the street over drugs or identity conflict, family strife at home or an internal battle with right and wrong, Graham pulls listeners in, helping them empathize with the characters. Graham also exhibits flexibility adjusting to Pelecanos's storytelling styles, like the screenplay dialogue in the title novella. Graham delivers atmosphere, dark humor, and genuine humanity in a great listening experience. J.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2014 - AudioFile

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