Published by Grand Central Publishing/Cardinal on August 4, 2026
The Blue Flame is an old-fashioned private detective story. The detective, Derek Strange, appeared in four novels (the D.C. Quartet) between 2001 and 2004, when he was partnered with Terry Quinn. Strange starred in another novel published in 2012. George Pelecanos has gifted crime fiction fans with other series, standalone novels, and screenplays for many years. While he’s been less prolific recently, his fans can be happy he brought back Strange in a novel that has the feel of classic PI fiction.
Strange was in his 40s when his actions were chronicled in the D.C. Quartet. At the beginning of The Blue Flame, Pelecanos tells us that he’s had his storefront office in D.C. for fifty years. He’s mentoring and renting space to a young female detective, Graciella “Grace” Lopez. Grace is a feisty, independent woman who isn’t a business partner and has no desire to become one.
Strange was a cop for a brief time before he became a PI. Near end of The Blue Flame, a police detective tells him, “Once you wear the uniform, the blue flame never goes out.” Hence the title. In the tradition of private detective fiction, however, Strange is both an ally and adversary of the police. He ignores their warnings not to investigate a case and he is selective about sharing the discoveries he makes. His loyalty is to his client and his allegience is to the truth.
Strange has fallen on hard times: “business was off; these days, he was barely getting by.” He therefore agrees to accept Billy Lake’s invitation to conduct an investigation in a murder case, despite his sense that Lake is ethically challenged. Lake’s client, a marijuana dealer named Antone Anthony, is charged with killing Nigel Walker.
The key witness is Cynthia Barnes, who told the police that she spent the afternoon in bed with Walker, then drove him to his car (which Walker parked at a distance from Walker’s home so her father wouldn’t see it). Walker told Barnes that he was going to meet Anthony at the apartment of Ricardo Lennox.
After Barnes drove away, someone shot Walker as he was sitting in his car. Barnes was a lifelong friend of both Walker and Anthony. She didn’t believe that Anthony would kill Walker, but she told the police that Anthony and Walker were “beefing over an unpaid debt.” All this would seem pretty insubstantial but for the murder weapon being found in Walker’s apartment when the police searched it for drugs.
With that setup, Strange conducts a traditional gumshoe investigation. He meets Barnes’ angry father when he tries to interview her. With the help of his office mate, he follows Barnes to a hotel and discovers that she and her friend are being pimped to businessmen who attend conventions. The investigation becomes more complicated after another murder occurs. Strange helps the police solve two murders while managing to avoid his own arrest for obstructing justice.
I admired The Blue Flame for it throwback view of private investigators who aren’t action heroes. The story doesn’t need shootouts or fistfights to maintain a steady pace. The characters have interesting takes on life; the contrast between the worldviews of Strange and Lopez is particularly sharp. I enjoyed Strange’s depiction of two creeps who are part of “the manosphere. They had got there by listening to bro podcasts and both had taken the red pill. Masculinity was the only flag they worshipped, and misogyny was their code.” Strange hasn’t gotten so old that he’s unaware of the direction in which younger men have traveled.
Strange worries about the blurry line between right and wrong. He gets information out of Barnes while buying her drinks. He can see that she has a drinking problem and doesn’t try to get her drunk but takes advantage of the alcohol loosening her tongue as he questions her. A good many detectives in modern fiction are either self-righteous or don’t care at all about ethical conduct. I enjoyed spending time with one who appreciates the difficulty of drawing lines in a morally muddy world.
False leads and loose ends are all tied up by the story’s end. The plot, while not particularly surprising, does not overreach. That’s another pleasant surprise in a time when crime fiction plots are often shockingly implausible. While The Blue Fame isn’t Pelecanos' finest work, it is an entertaining book that should appeal to fans of traditional private detective fiction.
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