Author George Pelecanos has been writing about life in D.C. for over fifteen years, but it's not the Washington you expect. He shuns the overdone political thriller, with the glamorization of Capital Hill and shiny Northwest. Instead, Pelecanos finds the homegrown stories of families who've been here for generations. The author, who also contributes to HBO's The Wire, was born in the city and raised in Mt. Pleasant (but now lives in Silver Spring), and over the years has acquired a knowledge of this town and its inhabitants like few others.

His new novel, The Night Gardener, which arrived on bookshelves last Tuesday, follows D.C. detectives and families as a serial killer, once thought dead or gone after a killing spree ended in the 1980's, reappears with the slaying of a young boy. Pelecanos took time out of his busy touring schedule to answer a few questions for DCist. You can meet the author and pick up his new book at Politics and Prose, tonight at 7 p.m.

What inspired you to focus on D.C.'s inner-city street crime? Have you always wanted to write in this genre, or did you notice your early stories begin to move in that direction?

It's more accurate to say that I write crime novels that are set in the neighborhoods whose inhabitants were previously ignored in most Washington fiction. I'm more interested in the people and the social aspects of crime than I am in the crimes themselves. The thriller part is the engine that moves the narrative.

Every one of your characters, even those with very brief roles, is given an extremely thorough background history. Why is each person given such detail, even when they're passing through? Do you take any of these characters from real life?

I guess I'm trying to find out who they are while I write the book. Their backgrounds help me shape them. Sometimes a character who I thought would be a walk-on turns out to be a major player in the book. I don't outline. I "find" the book as I write it.

Though you were brought aboard The Wire because of your novels, have you learned anything through that experience that's contributed to your storytelling?

The police in Baltimore gave us full access to their inner workings. We built many relationships with those on the other side of the law as well. When you've been shooting in devastated neighborhoods for three years, you end up talking with regularity to the people who live there. Yeah, you learn quite a bit.

Gentrification comes up more and more often in your novels. Do you have any opinions on the changing face of D.C., or are you trying to bring a point across through your characters?

I touch on it on the last couple of novels. I let my characters talk about it and think on it, and it becomes a presence in the books. I'm not a big fan of gentrification, even in the downtown Silver Spring area where I live. But I've been around long enough to know that you can't stop it.

You know the streetmap of D.C. better than a Google satellite. How did you become so familiar with the part of the city you didn't grow up in? Do you think you might try setting a story outside of the D.C. area?

I won't write about a neighborhood if I don't spend time in it. I think it's disrespectful if you try to wing it. That doesn't mean I always get things right, but I do make the effort. I feel like I'm leaving a record of this town. At least that's my aim. As for writing a novel set outside the D.C. metro area, I doubt it. I don't have that kind of imagination.

While we're picking up The Night Gardener, you must be thinking ahead already. Can you give us a sneak peak into your ideas for the next story?

I hope to get started on something soon. I'm waiting for inspiration.

Finally, as someone with the aforementioned familiarity with D.C. about which I bet many of your fellow natives can't even boast, let's hear some tips! When you need your fix of local food, where do you go? As a music lover, what venues do you frequent? Do you have a favorite quiet spot to reflect on the city (and dream up your next book)?

I don't give up those kinds of secrets. I like Italian food and local bands. Cemeteries and Rock Creek are good for thinking and walking my dogs. There's a place just off North Capitol Street where I often stop for inspiration. But I'm not going to tell you where it is.