No one would choose to live in the underbelly of Washington DC, but this is private investigator Derek Strange's world. Along with his partner Terry Quinn, he witnesses the worst that the city has to offer - the runaways, the teenage hookers and, of course, the drugs. Just a few miles from the White House is the ultimate have and have-not nightmare.

But one more senseless death on a sunny afternoon in the city shakes even Derek Strange's existence. A victim shot down by bullets meant for another. A tragic accident that strikes just too close to home. Strange's grief is all-consuming and he swears to track down and destroy the killer - ghetto style. But as he throws himself deeper and deeper into the hunt, he has to ask questions of himself and his world that he would rather not.

Dark, powerful and moving, Hell to Pay marks Pelecanos as one of the finest crime novelists of his time and a supreme chronicler of modern American life.