One of the foremost crime writers of recent years, in his dozen novels Pelecanos has gradually sculpted a social history of Washington, DC - the 'dirty city'. Eschewing the world of politics normally associated with this region, he has instead fashioned an alternative portrayal, one that perhaps owes something to the hardboiled novels of the 1950s. Far removed from the well-cut, expense account-lined pockets and sleek limos of Capitol Hill, this DC could also stand for 'disparate communities'. These include poor black neighborhoods and those peopled by several generations of Greek immigrants. In each of his three series, music plays a big part, setting the period extremely effectively, whether it is the soul and funk of his 1970s' and '80s' novels like King Suckerman and The Sweet Forever, the new wave and rock of the Nick Stefanos books or the western movie soundtracks and rap that crop up in the Derek Strange novels. One thing all the books have in common is a powerful, deeply convincing depiction of a harsh universe, one in which losers, victims and a few good people roam, their lives punctuated by such distractions as sex, drugs and alcohol.

The three Nick Stefanos novels were published between 1992 and 1995 and feature the extreme and increasingly dark exploits of Nick, third generation Greek immigrant, reluctant private eye and enthusiastic binge drinker. A Firing Offence finds him working at Nutty Nathan's, a hi-fi and electronics store, when one of the young stockboys disappears. His grandfather asks Nick to try to find the boy and, moved by the old man's plea and the fact that the kid reminds him of himself a decade earlier, Nick starts looking. His search uncovers a drug-smuggling ring that's based at Nathan’s and, fired for his probing, he soon encounters bloodshed and violence in large proportions.