Stefanos is one of a rotating, multigenerational cast of Pelecanos characters, most of whom are either black (working class, professional class, or criminal class) or like Stefanos, second- or third-generation Greek immigrants (with a similar range of class backgrounds). Pelecanos himself is the son of a Greek immigrant. As a teenager he worked as a delivery boy for his father's lunch counter in Washington. Before becoming a writer, he worked in restaurants, appliance stores, and other commercial places he describes in his books, and he articulates the jaundiced views of the unpampered.