Only a few more days until the release of George Pelecanos' new novel, The Night Gardener. Will this be the one to put him over the top? Who knows; early reviews are favorable as usual, and his fans are primed for another great tale. Still, while often mentioned in the same breath as Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane, he can't seem to scale similar commercial heights. This is analyzed in a New York Times write-up about Pelecanos, in which it is revealed that his books average about 13,000 in hardback sales compared to sales near 100,000 for Lehane's later books and more than 300,000 for Connelly's most popular books. Perhaps the pending film of Right as Rain will do for him what Mystic River did for his buddy Lehane. Here's hoping.

Meanwhile, as he does before each book tour, Pelecanos offers his latest "tour music" feature on his web site. If having good taste means agreeing with the person conferring that praise, then Pelecanos has good taste. His new iPod is filled with the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sam Cooke, John Coltrane, Paul K and the Weathermen (whither thou, Paul?), the Silver Jews and the Replacements. Not a bad list. He further offers a look at his iPod on shuffle, revealing a deeper look with a list of tracks that include those by the Pernice Brothers, Tom Verlaine, Magnolia Electric Co., Mark Lanegan and Josh Rouse. He also lists Steve Wynn, with whom he'll do at least one reading in the increasingly popular hip-indie-artist-plays-guitar-while edgy-author-reads format. The two collaborated on a song on Wynn's latest disc, the fiery ...tick ...tick ...tick. While I certainly wish Pelecanos all the commercial success in the world, I do hope he is able to continue these other music-related endeavors.