SERENDIPITOUS TUESDAYS: INTROS/TEASERS – “THE TURNAROUND” — NOV. 27

 

 

 

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

I’m posting my featured book late!  For some reason, I decided to read awhile before getting on the computer…and almost convinced myself to stay unplugged for the day.  It is cozy curled up on my sofa.  But then the inevitable pull drew me here to showcase The Turnaround, by George Pelecanos, a story of family, of violence, and of changing times.

 

Intro:  He called the place Pappas and Sons Coffee Shop.  His boys were only eight and six when he opened in 1964, but he was thinking that one of them would take over when he got old.  Like any father who wasn’t a malaka, he wanted his sons to do better than he had done.  He wanted them to go to college.  But what the hell, you never knew how things would go.  One of them might be cut out for college, the other one might not.  Or maybe they’d both go to college and decide to take over the business together.  Anyway, he hedged his bet and added them to the sign.  It let the customers know what kind of man he was.  It said, This is a guy who is devoted to his family.  John Pappas is thinking about the future of his boys.

What do you think?  Would you keep reading?

Teaser:  He ran his hand under the T-shirts and felt nothing.  He closed the drawer and pulled on the one below it, which housed jeans and shorts.  Beneath the shorts, Raymond found steel.  A short barrel, a crenellated cylinder, and a checkered grip.  p. 37

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Amazon Description:  On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever.
Thirty five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it.
THE TURNAROUND takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the ’70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war. A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, THE TURNAROUND is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, “the best crime novelist in America.” –Oregonian

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Now I’m off to see your tempting excerpts!  Come on by and chat.  And leave your links so I can return the visit.