After returning to his homeland following his service in Iraq, 29-year-old Spiro Lucas takes on a new job, conducting special investigations for a law firm. He is good at his job and has also discovered a way to make money in a very particular field: recovering stolen goods, without further questions, as long as he gets his commission - forty percent.

When a major drug dealer hires him to find out who is stealing from his business, it is the biggest job Lucas has ever taken on, with high risk but equally high potential rewards. However, before he can recover the stolen goods, he finds himself entangled in a world of people whose immorality and violence leave him speechless. Is there a commission worth your family, your loved one, your very life?

"The Cut," the first book featuring Spiro Lucas, confirms once again that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime novelist."
(Stephen King)

"Mr. Pelecanos belongs to a remarkable brotherhood of writers who push the crime novel to the level of pure literature."
("The New York Times")

"A new Odyssey in the zone of a hidden war, where everyone has the potential to be both 'bad' and a hero..."
("Kirkus Reviews")

"Every time I read one of his novels - and The Cut may be his best - I end up feeling a certain awe, a certain envy, and the absolute certainty that I have just experienced an authentic marriage of art and truth. This man is a national treasure."
(Dennis Lehane)

"A truly great new hero, a truly great crime novel..."
(Lee Child)

"His books imprint on the mind like no other's."
("Washington Post")