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The Turnaround by George Pelecanos

The Turnaround begins in 1972 when three stoned, white boys looking for trouble drive into a black neighborhood in suburban Washington, DC. They throw a pie and shout racial slurs and when they discover they've done this on a dead-end road, they're forced to execute a turnaround and face an angry group of young, black men. One white boy is killed and one is severely beaten. 35 years later, Alex Pappas has survived the beating he took that night and has lived a decent life. He encounters Raymond Monroe, who had been one of the black men, and they find they have a lot in common, including sons who had been sent to war. Raymond's brother, James, did a long prison stint for the murder and finds it hard to let go of the past. The other black man, Charles Baker, has been a violent, career criminal and decides to extract his revenge from Pappas and the other white survivor, who has become a powerful lawyer. George Pelecanos' latest novel has received mostly positive reviews with BookReporter.com saying, "Without moralizing, George Pelecanos forces us to pause and reflect on the consequences that flow from an instant of thoughtless violence. That he does so in the form of a page-turning novel makes his achievement all the more impressive."