The blurred photo of the Washington Monument on the cover of Right As Rain might qualify as false advertising. Like all of George Pelecanos' novels, the book is set in the nation's capital, but it deals not with the town of white marble monuments made familiar through civics classes, but with the other Washington, home to more than its share of crime, police corruption, and other urban perils. Private investigator Derek Strange knows the city well and happily pursues unambitious but financially rewarding cases involving marital infidelity and bail jumpers. He makes an exception when approached by the mother of a black policeman killed while out of uniform by a white officer who blames the incident on a misunderstanding. Pelecanos deals with any discomfort he has as a white author working with a black protagonist by putting it on the page: Early on, Strange mocks a white NPR commentator's claims of insight into black culture, while the topic of racial misconceptions, as much as the mystery itself, provides the thrust of the novel. After interviewing Terry Quinn, the officer at fault, Strange dismisses the notion that he played a part in any larger conspiracy, but still harbors notions that unconscious racism might have played into his actions. So does Quinn, and as he develops an unlikely camaraderie with Strange and aids his new friend's investigation, he begins questioning his own unexamined attitudes. Defining characters through their CD collections and reading material is a lazy writer's trick, but Pelecanos, like his most apparent model Elmore Leonard (himself a Pelecanos fan), makes the accumulation of pop-culture details amount to more than background clutter. Strange and Quinn's shared love of Westerns, for example, echoes the way Pelecanos' characters are shaped and possibly redeemed by their dangerous environment. It also reinforces the author's notion that crime fiction, as much as tales of sagebrush and showdowns, is fully equipped to deal with deeper matters, as this novel of big themes, high stakes, and small moments does with considerable subtlety.