The Cut by George Pelecanos *****

Spero Lucas is a man of details - food, dress, music, neighborhoods, movies, really nothing goes unnoticed. In these details Spero earns his living as a freelance investigator and George Pelecanos renders a setting more reminiscent of high fantasy that an inner-city thriller.

In the The Cut by George Pelecanos, Spero accepts a simple job to recover some stolen property. Well not that simple as the stolen property consists of several shipments of illegal drugs. Well not that illegal, just marijuana. Well there is also the problem of the two murders ... and the crooked cops ... and Spero two girlfriends ... and the nice inner-city boy who should really be applying to college ... and it just continues like that.

Aside from the excellent descriptions, George Pelecanos has more characters that the reader really cares about than most thrillers ... especially than those by best selling authors (they know who they are), and these characters are on both sides of the good/bad line. The result is a thriller of more depth and complexity than the ordinary tough-guy thriller.

Did I mention that Spero is an ex-marine and leaves a trail of body  wherever he goes for you action junkies?