Apologies this took us a few hours longer to announce than expected, but finally we are unveiling the book suggested by DCist readers that will join titles selected by Martin and I for a feature next month at Politics & Prose. Yesterday, we told you that Martin is going with Too Big to Fail, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s retelling of the financial crisis that devoured the U.S. economy in 2008, while I nominated The Map and the Territory, the latest depraved novel by Michel Houellebecq.

On the suggestion of commenter Pete_eats, our third book will be George Pelecanos’ new hard-boiled volume, What It Was, the latest adventure for D.C. detective Derek Strange.

Reviewing the book for the City Paper, Mark Athitakis called What It Was “as smart, cooly efficient and streetwise as any of Pelecanos’ best recent novels.” And as new as What It Was is, it’s an atmospheric throwback set in the grittier Washington of the 1970s.

Another commenter, Bethesdaist, suggested we also include Dream City, Tom Sherwood and Harry Jaffe’s classic tome on the decline of the old D.C. But sadly, it’s been out of print for many years. Hopefully that Spike Lee-directed HBO biopic about Marion Barry will soon be cause for a reissue.

We’ll have more details about what Politics & Prose plans to do with our book selections in June. In the mean time, if you haven’t read any of these four books, get cracking. There might be a quiz.