The Man Who Came Uptown

This was a great book. First time reader of George Pelecanos and impressed with his capacity for making me like all the characters, even those who did terrible things. The characters have such depth and there was good and bad (sometimes very bad) in all of them. The main character, Michael, is the heart of the story. As the story opens he is being released from prison (without knowing that a shady investigator had something to do with it). He found a love for reading while inside, and became fond of the librarian who guided him. The librarian, while mostly happy, struggles with recognizing and finding compromise with the yin and yang of marriage. Michael gets a job and is determined to lead a good life when the investigator comes calling for a “favor”. The lives of Michael and the librarian intersect after his release and she is a bellwether for him and his attempt at a new life. The investigator and a cohort do horrible things in the name of evening the score and Michael struggles with fact that he owes the man for his release. I found the ending to be very satisfying and hopeful.