George Pelacanos's novel Drama City is a mediocre thriller that never really thrills.

The main characters, parole officer Rachel Lopez and ex-con Lorenzo Brown, are two dimensional at best. The way Pelecanos has written these characters gives them no depth. Even in the face of Rachel's battle with alcohol and sex addictions, you find yourself unable to empathize with her struggle. Lorenzo's battle to stay on the path of the straight and narrow, holding down a job and living a normal life after prison has marginally better development, and is somewhat easier to believe, but in the end that story loses the thread as well.

Lorenzo has a childhood friend, Nigel, who runs a major drug crew. Nigel is instrumental in keeping the thugs on the street off Lorenzo's back so he can live his new straight life. Further in the story, turf wars begin between a rival drug dealer who wants Nigel's turf and Nigel, trying to keep his drug business whole and protect his "people".