SHAME THE DEVIL - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: Signed by George P. Pelecanos - SIGNED ON THE TITLE PAGE

Pelecanos, George P.

ISBN 10: 0316695238 / ISBN 13: 9780316695237

Published by New York City, NY: Little, Brown & Company, 2000, 2000

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. 300 pages. Published in 2000. The author's eighth novel. One of George P. Pelecanos' finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents George Pelecanos' "Shame The Devil". Essential Pelecanos at his absolute best. Pelecanos' novels are set in Washington, DC, prompting his most ardent followers to call him the Emile Zola of the nation's capital. "We find a society of grieving men and women connected by loss, betrayal, the need for revenge, and the shadowy presence of evil. In the aftermath of a botched armed robbery, a fair number of lives have been thrown into a downward spiral. The problems, however, come on faster and with more fury once the status quo sustaining the survivors has been breached by an ill-wishing and unwanted addition to their little group. Here are two favorite moments: In one, protagonist Dimitri Karras asks the name of a fellow bar patron. Hearing that he's called Happy, Karras comments that he doesn't look too happy. The answer: 'He's pacing himself'. The other: We hear the thoughts of the sociopathic villain: 'Some believed that incarceration was a mark of failure, but Frank disagreed. Prison was an essential element of any career criminal's education' " (Otto Penzler). "Pelecanos is that rare bird among Washington novelists, a writer who loves and knows the city he writes about" (Publishers Weekly). One of about five American thriller writers of our time who completely inhabit and transcend the genre at the same time. An absolute "must-have" title for George P. Pelecanos collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black pen on the title page by George P. Pelecanos. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER GEORGE P. PELECANOS TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0316695238. Seller Inventory # 10090

Bibliographic Details

Title: SHAME THE DEVIL - Scarce Fine Copy of The ...

Publisher: New York City, NY: Little, Brown & Company, 2000

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

A restaurant robbery goes badly wrong in Washington, D.C., leaving a number of employees dead, the gunman's brother killed by police, and a young boy run over by the getaway car, a situation that rapidly worsens as the gunman vows to avenge his brother by killing every person involved in his death. 20,000 first printing.

Review:

Penzler Pick, February 2000: Just as Robert B. Parker and Dennis Lehane have made Boston their own and Los Angeles has been the distinct province of a lineage leading from Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald to Michael Connelly and Robert Crais, so is George Pelecanos the storyteller who's put Washington, D.C., on the noir map. Once considered "the best-kept secret in crime fiction" by his peers, he is now fast leaving behind those days of strictly word-of-mouth fame and cult status.

Telling it like he sees it, and looking fearlessly into those dark, forgotten alleyways that lay too far beyond the corridors of power to make it into any guidebooks, Pelecanos conjures up a gritty, ghostly Washington of working-class neighborhoods and aging suburbs and shoots it through with chillingly unpredictable menace. Most Washington natives probably wouldn't recognize the place--but they couldn't stop trying either, knowing that they've at least glimpsed (out of the corners of their eyes) those environs where a Pelecanos character is most at home.

In Shame the Devil, we find a society of grieving men and women connected by loss, betrayal, the need for revenge, and the shadowy presence of evil. As in other Pelecanos tales, the heroes are not easily identified, love is a coming together of wounded souls, and answers are found where least expected. In the aftermath of a botched armed robbery, a fair number of lives have been thrown into a downward spiral. The problems, however, come on faster and with more fury once the status quo sustaining the survivors has been breached by an ill-wishing and unwanted addition to their little group.

Here are two favorite moments. In one, protagonist Dimitri Karras asks the name of a fellow bar patron. Hearing that he's called Happy, Karras comments that he doesn't look too happy. The answer: "He's pacing himself." The other: we hear the thoughts of the sociopathic villain: "Some believed that incarceration was a mark of failure, but Frank disagreed. Prison was an essential element of any career criminal's education."

With Shame the Devil, Pelecanos solidifies his position among the elite of the brilliant coterie of young noir writers who are creating the emerging classics of the genre. --Otto Penzler