George Pelecanos is a writer with a considerable body of work under his belt, a chronicler of urban crime who has made his native Washington D.C. the setting for most of his work – but I confess I would not have picked up Shoedog were it not for his involvement in immortalising the life of Baltimore as a writer and story editor for David Simon’s The Wire. No doubt this is the thinking behind Serpent’s Tail’s release of Shoedog as part of their Classics series, but get past The Wire connection and this is a fantastic bit of work in its own right. Shoe Dog is Pelecanos’ first non-series novel, a short, concentrated (200 pages exactly) explosion of violence, introspection, betrayal and mayhem – and it’s fantastic.

Constantine is a drifter, a traveller with no roots – but a chance meeting with a Korean War vet named Polk at the side of the road draws him in to the orbit of a criminal gang for a heist of two liquor stores in suburban D.C. It’s all orchestrated by Grimes, a crime lord who doesn’t need the money any more, but who has a hold over every member of the crew (except Constantine) and who can’t see the point of not taking advantage.

From a slow beginning, and with a second chapter that takes in Constantine’s many years of globetrotting and his occasional forays in to risk-taking and petty crime, Pelecanos steadily ratchets up the pace of Shoedog, culminating in the bloody explosion of the heists themselves (inevitably, things don’t go to plan) and Constantine’s final discovery of Grimes’ hold over Polk, and his taking of revenge. There is, of course, a damsel in distress thrown in to the equation – Grimes’ girl, inexorably drawn to Constantine – but there are not many happy endings for these characters.

As someone who doesn’t read a lot of crime, it’s easier for me to compare Shoedog to films rather than other books – and the films that spring to mind are not a bad bunch: Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Dog Day Afternoon, to name a few. Shoedog is gritty, compelling, bloody and, when it needs to be, surprisingly tender. For a concerted dose of adrenaline I highly recommend it.

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