After reading a successive of romance novels, I needed a break, so I read a crime novel for a change. I have never heard of this author before, I bought this book for the cover, I feel it's money well spent after reading this book, hahaha!
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| The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos |
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| the synopsis |
The book started with a dead body found on a garden in 1985. It's the third murder with same pattern, all the murdered kids have palindrome names, Ava, Otto and Eve. There was a serial killer out there and the police never caught any suspects and it became cold case.
Then, zoom to 2005, another kid with palindrome name, Asa was found dead. Two persons who were police rookies back in 1985, Dan Holiday and Gus Ramone were the uniformed officers in the third murder case. Dan left the police force when he was investigated by the Department of Internal Affairs headed by Gus. Then, Gus continued his journey in the police force. Then, the Asa's murder case sort of united Dan and Gus.
Dan was drunk and slept in his car in the middle of no where and found the body after he woke up to relieve his bladder. He instantly suspected that it's related to the palindrome murder. He called in the police anonymously. Then, he went to find the retired Detective Cook who was the PIC for the palindrome murders 20 years ago to inform him about the latest case.
Asa was a friend of Gus's son. So, it's a little bit personal for him. Then, Cook, Gus and Dan met each other. Cook pointed out that he suspected a man who was a security guard when the first three murders happened. However, for the latest murder, the suspect had an airtight alibi. So, they were left with nothing.
In the meantime, there were some sub-plots, a man was found murdered and linked to seedy club. Two cousins robbed another drug dealer, etc.
At first, I didn't understand what the sub-plots for, at the end, it's all inter-related and crucial to the plot. Then the story revealed that Asa was not murdered, he committed suicide. It's kind of sad because he couldn't tell his parents about his sexual orientation and he couldn't bring himself to talk to his friends. Being different is very stressful and terrifying, even more for teenagers.
After the case was solved, Dan and Cook tried to investigate the suspect for the palindrome murder. Unfortunately, Cook died from an illness while trying to break into the suspect house. Dan didn't want Cook's reputation to be marred by this incident. So, Dan contacted Gus and they made sure that Cook's death was seen as normal as possible.
In this story, the palindrome murders were never solved. Gus went back to his family and Dan continued the investigation work to catch the murderer alone.
Well, this is a very good crime novel! I will definitely buy another novel by George Pelacanos.
I think a lot of us can relate to one of the paragraph from this book, especially on the politicians part.
"Can you imagine what it's like to be that way in this climate? Being told all the time that you're not wanted, that there's no place for you in this new compassionate world. All the hate we got out here, and the politicians throwing gasoline on the fire. I don't know what Bible those haters are reading, but it's not the one I was raised on."
Another story line from this novel is Gus wanted his son to go to a 'better' school, so he did some sort of cheating to enroll his son into a 'better' school. Then, when things didn't work out, he planned to send his kid to a private school even though he could barely afford it. Mmmm, this's another thing a lot of people can relate to. Parents will do anything to make sure the kids get the best things they can afford.
I have quite a number of Filipino colleagues who came to work in Malaysia alone. The wife and kids all stay in Philippine. I asked a few of them the reason to work overseas, the most common reason is they want to send their kids to private school and they need the money. One of my colleagues almost cried when his son came to visit him and told him "Dad, you don't need to bring us to fancy places, it's you and me, our time spent together, that's the most important thing!" Ah, so sweet!
Dan was drunk and slept in his car in the middle of no where and found the body after he woke up to relieve his bladder. He instantly suspected that it's related to the palindrome murder. He called in the police anonymously. Then, he went to find the retired Detective Cook who was the PIC for the palindrome murders 20 years ago to inform him about the latest case.
Asa was a friend of Gus's son. So, it's a little bit personal for him. Then, Cook, Gus and Dan met each other. Cook pointed out that he suspected a man who was a security guard when the first three murders happened. However, for the latest murder, the suspect had an airtight alibi. So, they were left with nothing.
In the meantime, there were some sub-plots, a man was found murdered and linked to seedy club. Two cousins robbed another drug dealer, etc.
At first, I didn't understand what the sub-plots for, at the end, it's all inter-related and crucial to the plot. Then the story revealed that Asa was not murdered, he committed suicide. It's kind of sad because he couldn't tell his parents about his sexual orientation and he couldn't bring himself to talk to his friends. Being different is very stressful and terrifying, even more for teenagers.
After the case was solved, Dan and Cook tried to investigate the suspect for the palindrome murder. Unfortunately, Cook died from an illness while trying to break into the suspect house. Dan didn't want Cook's reputation to be marred by this incident. So, Dan contacted Gus and they made sure that Cook's death was seen as normal as possible.
In this story, the palindrome murders were never solved. Gus went back to his family and Dan continued the investigation work to catch the murderer alone.
Well, this is a very good crime novel! I will definitely buy another novel by George Pelacanos.
I think a lot of us can relate to one of the paragraph from this book, especially on the politicians part.
"Can you imagine what it's like to be that way in this climate? Being told all the time that you're not wanted, that there's no place for you in this new compassionate world. All the hate we got out here, and the politicians throwing gasoline on the fire. I don't know what Bible those haters are reading, but it's not the one I was raised on."
Another story line from this novel is Gus wanted his son to go to a 'better' school, so he did some sort of cheating to enroll his son into a 'better' school. Then, when things didn't work out, he planned to send his kid to a private school even though he could barely afford it. Mmmm, this's another thing a lot of people can relate to. Parents will do anything to make sure the kids get the best things they can afford.
I have quite a number of Filipino colleagues who came to work in Malaysia alone. The wife and kids all stay in Philippine. I asked a few of them the reason to work overseas, the most common reason is they want to send their kids to private school and they need the money. One of my colleagues almost cried when his son came to visit him and told him "Dad, you don't need to bring us to fancy places, it's you and me, our time spent together, that's the most important thing!" Ah, so sweet!
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