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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780446619219
ISBN number: 0446619213
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: August 01, 2007
Publishing house: Grand Central Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 52964
Studio: Grand Central Publishing
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The haunting story of three copsone good, one bad, one brokenand the murder that reunites them in a showdown decades in the making. Gus Ramone is good police, a former Internal Affairs investigator now working homicide for the citys Violent Crime branch. His new case involves the death of a local teenager named Asa, whose body has been found in a community garden. The murder unearths intense memories of a case Ramone worked as a patrol cop 20 years earlier, when he and his partner, Dan Doc Holiday, assisted a legendary detective named T.C. Cook. The series of murders, all involving local teenage victims, was never solved. In the years since, Holiday has left the force under a cloud of morals charges. Cook has retired, but he has never stopped agonizing about the Night Gardener killings. The new case draws the three men together, re-igniting the love, regret, and anger that once burned between them, and old ghosts walk once more as they try to lay to rest the monster who has stalked their dreams.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
I liked the book; the family aspect of the book was very real. Ramone and his relationship with both his Wife Regina and his Son Diego seem very real to me. There is nothing more honest than a man's love for his family. The mystery aspect of the story could have been better, I was kind of left down with who was the killer of Asa but it was the book in of itself is worth reading.
Rated by buyers 
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I think the Wire is the most brilliant piece of TV ever. And Pelecanos have received rave reviews here on Amazon, so I thought this must be great.
It didn't feel great. I'll start by saying this though: The writing is well done, the conversations sound real, and the story feels believable.
However, it took a whole one hundred pages before the story started moving. With that much time building characters, there should be a lot of depth - but it never happens. Ramone and Holiday are pretty one dimensional, and really have only one pattern of expressions. The parallel stories doesn't have a single character with whom I'd relate or care about what happened to, and thus many chapters felt like a chore to finish. Compared with James Lee Burke's depth or Robert Wilson's plots, this book has a long way to go.
Rated by buyers 
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Hmmm. I mildly enjoyed this book. It is what it is. An easy read crime story. But then I do wonder what the hype is about. The book is clearly writen but with no particular style or grace. It does delve into the same gritty urban territory as The Wire, but with only a fraction of the insight. Much of the writing is unfortunately ridden with mediocre crime novel cliches. And although I enjoyed it, I finished the book with the familiar feeling that I have when puting down 90% of crime fiction- undernourished - somewhat equivilent to having eaten a bag of potato chips.
Pelecanos is no Chandler, nor is he Ross Macdonald.
So why the hype? Why the desire to make the book more than it is? Perhaps it is to lend more status to the seemingly senseless suffering and hopelessness of many of the lives it depicts? If you are looking for writing that really does accomplish that and covers the same geography, I suggest Lost in the City or All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm a big fan of the police procedural/thriller genre when it comes to TV and movies--frequently getting sucked into reruns of "Law & Order: SVU" when I should be doing other things--but for some reason I haven't read many books like this. Maybe it's time to change that.
As the story begins, it's 1985 and a middle-aged cop named T.C. Cooke is examining a string of "Palindrome murders" in which three kids--all with names spelled the same backwards and forwards--have been killed and dumped in community gardens around Washington D.C. Also on the scene are two fresh-faced officers just out of the academy, Gus Ramone and Don Holiday.
Cut to 20 years later. Ramone is a respected police veteran and family man, Holiday a hard-drinking womanizer who resigned from the force under investigation, Cooke a retiree suffering the effects of a stroke. All three are still haunted by the unsolved Palindrome murders. And when Ramone's son's friend Asa is found dead in a community garden, all three are drawn into the case.
"The Night Gardener" succeeds on many levels, which is a credit to Pelecanos' sharp writing. He does an excellent job of fleshing out the lead characters, as well as some colorful secondary roles. The mystery itself is exciting to watch unfold, with many unexpected twists and turns along the way. And the ending manages to surprise but still remain satisfactory.
The book also has some interesting social commentary and insights into police work that give it more depth than the average page-turner. There's a great spiel from Ramone near the end of the book about what it really means to "solve" a crime. If you're looking for a top-notch thriller, I highly recommend "The Night Gardener."
Rated by buyers -
Picked this one up as George P had been recommended as a "Washington DC Author" and I was visiting on vaction. Chose this one as it had a contemporary setting.
I wasnt not disapointed as this is a great book. The plot cracks along, the characters are really good and ROUNDED, you felt they were real people rather than cut out "goodies" and "baddies". There wasnt the sometimes pointless traveling and descriptions you get in some thrillers and the whole thing has a delicious sense of ambiguity. I wasnt surprised to see George has been a co-writter on The Wire TV series.
For background, and in no way a spoiler, the killings are apparently loosely are based on the still unsolved "Freeway Phantom" killings of the early '70s.
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