Doing Some Good, In 'Drama City'

(CBS)  Fans of Washington, D.C. crime writer George Pelecanos get what they've been waiting for, and more, with his latest book, "Drama City," according to the critics. Reviews call his 13th novel his best yet.

While Pelecanos' last few books centered on private investigator Derek Strange, "Drama City" introduces us to a new protagonist -- after serving eight years in prison, Lorenzo Brown goes from drug dealer to dogcatcher, hoping to lead a straight life, but facing temptations along the way.

Brown is not the only character confronting these challenges, Pelecanos tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. Brown's parole officer, Rachel Lopez, is "struggling, as all the characters are in the book -- struggling to find some kind of peace and spirituality in a violent world, and running for daylight in a way."

Their world is Washington, D.C., which has been called "Dodge City" in the past because of its gun violence. Pelecanos says he chose the title "Drama City" because he wanted to show the capital as a multifaceted place: There's violence, but it's not just about violence.

"It's not the evil and the good," Pelecanos tells Smith. "It's everybody in between. Hopefully, when you read books like this, you will look at people in a different way as you are driving through the city."

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, Click Here.

Asked how he manages to offer an authentic voice to the variety of characters, all from different walks of life, Pelecanos says, "It's living in the city my whole life and growing up the way I did, in kind of a blue collar atmosphere, working at my dad's lunch counter and that sort of thing. But it's really showing respect and listening and carrying that over to the page."

His aim is not just to deliver a good crime fiction thriller to the fans, he says: "I also want to leave people with something else, which is the characters, and the city -- painting this kind of portrait of the city as a whole and the people in it."

Pelecanos is also the writer and producer of the critically acclaimed HBO drama, "The Wire," which is about the lives of drug dealers, cops, politicians, unions and every day people in Baltimore.

"We write 'The Wire' as a novel, with each chapter as one story," Pelecanos explains. "It's very novelistic. We have employed novelists to work on the show, all people who think in that way. And the good news is, we just got picked up for a fourth season."

The show will air early next year. Famous crime writers Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River") and Richard Price are among those working in "The Wire."