Review of “The Cut” by George Pelecanos

Spero Lucas is a 29-year old Iraq war vet who has adapted his Marine training to his current lifestyle as an investigator for a criminal attorney in Washington, D.C. On the side, he has a business finding stolen property, whether legal or not, for a forty percent cut of the value. As the story begins, Lucas agrees to see what has happened with a drug shipment scheme gone bad: drug dealers are fed-exing packages to houses that are empty during the day, and then the distributors pick them up. It’s a great system, but some of the packages have gone missing before the pick-ups have been made.

When not occupied with work, Lucas is very focused on his family. He is part of a blended family of natural and adopted siblings headed by Greek parents. The much-loved father is now dead, however, and two of the siblings are out of touch. He, his black brother Leo, and his mother remain very close. But he “visits” his father frequently in the graveyard. He also visits with fellow vets, and contributes to their care. He eats a lot, and walks and bikes a lot, and works out in his apartment, especially when he can’t obtain a sex partner with whom to work off his energy:

As he often did after a good ride, he wanted a woman. Instead he did several sets of push-ups, normal and wide stance, and then did chin-ups and pull-ups on a bar mounted inside the door frame of his bedroom.”

But generally, he is pretty successful at finding women, and sometimes, they just show up unbidden at his door.

The main tool of his trade is his iPhone (one wonders how this will seem to readers in ten years), but when necessary, he has access to and skill with a number of lethal weapons.

His status as a vet enables Pelecanos to incorporate a plot line about problems faced by those who served in Iraq, including the let-down of quotidian life compared to the constant adrenaline rush of battle. Lucas’s flirtation in the borderlands of criminal life helps him reach the highs he felt in Iraq, for which he knows he is “lucky.”

This exhilaration is fully activated for Lucas as he chases down the stolen drugs, navigating through the dangerous shoals of D.C.’s violent underbelly of crime.

Discussion: Lucas is a Jack Reacher [of the Lee Child thriller series] who showers. He is bursting with testosterone, perfectly built, irresistible to women, trusted by black and white alike, and flexible on morality. (Killing is only done to bad guys as a means to a good end.) He is good to his mother, helps the needy with money, and respects the elderly. In short, he is a bit cartoonish.

Moreover, like Jack Reacher, we don’t know much about what goes in Lucas’s head. By contrast, we know the brands of every outfit he wears, we know every dish he orders in restaurants, and every component of his exercise routines. We also get a street-by-street map of everywhere he walks, bikes, or drives. It was all a little too much detail for me – as if Pelecanos were setting up the scenes for a screenplay rather than adding meaningful information to the story.

Women in this story are in all cases objectified: Lucas’s mother is saintly (in spite of a possible problem with alcohol), and younger women are either whores (used by bad guys) or outlets for testosterone excess (used by Lucas). Even though one of Lucas’s conquests is a lawyer and one a law student, their main function seems to be to show how irresistible Lucas is.

Evaluation: I was disappointed in this book. I loved the author’s Drama City because of the characterizations. But Spero Lucas is too cartoonish for me, and the book is written too much as if it is meant to include set directions for a movie. The role of women in Spero’s life gave me the creeps. Neverthless, some of the bloggers I consult regularly for book reading ideas, including Kathy, Julie, and Caite, all liked it very much, and I recommend checking out their reviews as well!

Rating: 3/5

Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2011

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