Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Audiobook10 hours
The Sweet Forever: A Novel
Written by George Pelecanos
Narrated by Cary Hite
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A bold, brilliant tale of mystery, revenge, and survival in the 1980s, when cocaine and money ruled the city streets and even the good guys wanted a piece of the action. It's March madness and the college boys are playing basketball on TV. But on the streets of D.C., the homeboys are dealing, dissing, dying. From behind plate glass, with an 80s backbeat pounding in his brain, Marcus Clay watches it all happen, and prays that he can make a go with his downtown record store. Then a car comes careening down U Street, and what Marcus sees next will plunge him into the middle of a war.
A drug runner is decapitated in the crash. A bystander--a white boy desperate to buy a woman's love--snatches a bag of cash from the wreck, and a prince of crime wants it back. For Marcus's buddy, Dimitri Karras, the mayhem is a chance to make a score. For a pair of dirty cops it's a chance to get free. And for dozens of lives swept up into the maelstrom, it's just another springtime in America's capital, where the game is played for keeps.
A drug runner is decapitated in the crash. A bystander--a white boy desperate to buy a woman's love--snatches a bag of cash from the wreck, and a prince of crime wants it back. For Marcus's buddy, Dimitri Karras, the mayhem is a chance to make a score. For a pair of dirty cops it's a chance to get free. And for dozens of lives swept up into the maelstrom, it's just another springtime in America's capital, where the game is played for keeps.
Unavailable
Author
George Pelecanos
George P. Pelecanos is the author of nine richly praised crime novels set in and around Washington D.C., including Hell to Pay, Right as Rain, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, King Suckerman, and The Big Blowdown.
Related to The Sweet Forever
Related audiobooks
Die by the Gun Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Devil Creek Crossfire [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ralph Compton Shadow of the Gun Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Gunless Gunman [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shootout at Gold Creek [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return of the Rio Kid Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Montana: A Novel of the Frontier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNetherland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gunsmoke and Gold [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jelly-Bean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinchester 1886 [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brotherhood of the Gun [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost Rifle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAces & Eights: The Legend of Wild Bill Hickok Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cassius X: The Transformation of Muhammad Ali Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anyone But Rich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deathwalk Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Old Turk's Load Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Road to Appomattox Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Die by the Gun [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Shadow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Adventures of Johnny Vermillion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wicked Detroit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScared Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Stage to Hell Junction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hard Row Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jackals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writ of Execution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night of Thunder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Darkest Glare: A True Story of Murder, Blackmail, and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Hard-boiled Mystery For You
The Hunter and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prayers for Rain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kiss Me Deadly Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Postman Always Rings Twice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Double Indemnity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moonlight Mile Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Sleep: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What the Dead Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncharted Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man's Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Open and Shut Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to Lose: A J.P. Beaumont Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Treatment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'd Know You Anywhere: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birdman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heaven’s Crooked Finger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Dragon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Gone: Special Agent Tom Lange, Book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Fuck Spoiled Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Jack Justice, Season 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inherit the Dead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poodle Springs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Friends of Eddie Coyle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Valley of the Devil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5City of Margins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the Power of Three Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Missing Go Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Black-Eyed Blonde: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Sweet Forever
Rating: 3.982556046511628 out of 5 stars
4/5
86 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It feels odd to review a novel 13 years after its publication, but as I'm working my way through George Pelecanos' extensive catalog, I guess it's bound to happen. This is yet another example of his ability to take an incident that is just a part of life in a major city, a traffic accident, and create a masterful story about what really happened and its repercussions.
I won't go into the plot, which I'm sure you can glean from the product description on this site. What I like to do when I review is to compare a book to the mental checklist I have on what I like in the particular genre. I also like to determine if there's anything distinctive that makes it stand out or reminds me of other authors or novels.
The coolest thing The Sweet Forever has going for it is that it's like opening a time capsule of the mid-1980's. The author does a great job evoking the music, clothing, hairstyles, drug use, etc. from that era. As with his other novels, Pelecanos uses his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music to great effect, and it truly produces an aural soundtrack for the story line. He incorporates music heavily into most (all? don't know, haven't finished the lot) of his books, but this time it seems a little different just because of the '80s time slice for the story.
The story is believable and the characters react in predictably unpredictable ways. The dialogue is crisp and life-like, which is one of the author's great strengths. In a lot of ways he reminds me of another favorite, Elmore Leonard- he really 'owns' the genre in a city (Leonard in Detroit, GP in DC), he writes great dialogue, his stories aren't about FBI mastermind crime solvers going after criminal masterminds but more about 'blue collar' lower-level street criminals. I think the thing I like best about him is that he creates characters that are really in the 'grey area'.... the good guys aren't really all that good, the bad guys have some redeeming qualities (at least some of them), the cops have seemingly the same good-to-evil continuum, and there's a number of side characters that contribute color and depth.
This is another Pelecanos gem that I can't recommend highly enough.