Interview with George Pelecanos, author of The Night Gardener - Page 2

SB: What do you think it is about crime that so fascinates writers and readers?

GP: Crime novelists take readers places where they would otherwise not go in
their daily lives.  The "solving" of those fictional crimes, the righting of
a tilted world, reassures the readers that their world, too, is safe.  Which,
of course, could not be further from the truth.  But that's why it's called
crime fiction.

SB: I was struck by how well you do interrogation scenes. The reader feels like he's in "the box" with the cops. Am I correct in assuming you had the chance to watch some interrogations? What was that like to observe?

GP: I had full police access with this book.  I followed a murder investigation from the day of the event to the confession in the box.  After a few days the police pretty much forgot I was around.  I ended up watching the interrogation, and the confession, on a video screen set up next to the box.  I came away with respect for the detectives.  They were very good at getting the perpetrator to open up.  The whole thing was pretty sad, actually, for everyone involved.  You'd think they'd be elated with catching a killer.  But the feeling was, everybody lost.

SB: You seem very insightful when it comes to matters of race and gender. I love, for example, this exchange:

"Is it that time of the month?" said Ramone.

"You mean that time of the month when you start talking ignorant?"

Do you take extra care to try to capture the right nuances with that? 

GP: Yes.  The actual work of homicide cops is fairly routine.  If you were to just transcribe it the result would be stillborn.  The dialogue moves it along.  And it's not artificial.  Some of the conversations I heard between the police were very, very funny.  And extremely politically incorrect.

 
SB: You often have cops and others of different races not only interacting but talking about how they get along. Is this because race relations is of particular interest to you or because it's such an important part of D.C. or some of both? Put another way, is it important that the "record" you leave of this region contain these examinations of the often unspoken issues of race and class?

GP: I have never lived anywhere else, though, because of my job I have traveled extensively.  So I've seen a good bit of this country and the world.  I have never been in another city or region where race is discussed so frequently or matter-of-factly.  It's one of the reasons I find the DC area so interesting.  The weight of the issue is so heavy here that it has become a kind of character in my books.

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education.

He is an in-house media critic, a recovering Tetris addict and a proud uncle.

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