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Boy am I glad to be me. You see, I've never read any of Lehane's novels until now. I've known about him for quite some time; mostly I know of his movies, or, more accurately, his novels that have been turned into movies. Think; Mystic River, Shutter Island and Gone, Baby Gone. The first two movies were adaptations of his two stand-alone novels but the third, Gone, Baby Gone is an adaptation of his fourth novel in the Kenzie and Gennaro series of detective novels.
As I've mentioned before, I love my dark, noir detective fiction. Show me the underbelly of society and I'm yours. I prefer the desperate to the depraved; people hard on their luck not sickos. A crime of passion or opportunity is much more interesting, to me, than some nut-job who kills or tortures for fun. Through what I've heard of the movies I've always known that Lehane was an author that I wanted to read and I'm in the lucky position to have never read nor watched anything that has come from his mind. I am determined to read his books in order and to watch his movies only after I've finished reading the book it came from. Again, I'm glad to be me.
This first book was fantastic. It took a little while to get hold of the characters and, more interestingly, where they keep their office. (The bell tower of a church. Go figure.) But by the second half of the book Patrick Kenzie and his partner Angie Gennaro came to life. These are a couple of tough characters who live in the toughest parts of Boston. They are hired by some powerful politicians to find a cleaning lady who, they say, stole some sensitive documents. Simple enough, until they find her and discover what is contained in these documents. Bodies start to pile up quickly and characters who seem to have nothing to do with each other are connected in surprising ways.
All of the twists and turns at first seem wild but then make absolute sense once Kenzie and Gennaro dig into the case. The book is deeply three dimensional with Lehane's descriptions of South Boston and the relationship between Patrick and Angie. By the end of the book I had the satisfying feeling of being grateful for having had the experience.
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