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Sacred by Dennis Lehane  (10)  £5.49

Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane  (13)  £5.49

Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane  (1)  £5.49

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane  (15)  £5.49

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane  (7)  £5.49

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Cheese Olamon, "a six-foot-two, four-hundred-and-thirty- pound yellow-haired Scandinavian who'd somehow arrived at the misconception he was black", is telling old high school friends, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, why they have to convince another mutual chum, dealer Bubba Rugowski, that Cheese didn't try to have him killed. "You know I'm clean when it comes to what happened to him. You want me alive. Okay? Without me, that girl will be gone. Gone-gone. You understand? Gone, baby, gone."

Of all the chilling, completely credible scenes of sadness, destruction and betrayal in Dennis Lehane's fourth and possibly best book about Kenzie and Gennaro, this moment stands out because it captures in a few pages the essence of Lehane's success.

Private detectives Kenzie and Gennaro, who still live in the same working-class Dorchester neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, where they grew up, have gone to visit drug dealer Cheese in prison because they think he's involved the kidnapping of 4-year-old Amanda McCready. Without sentimentalising the grotesque figure of Cheese, Lehane tells us enough about his past to make us understand why he and the two detectives might share enough trust to save a child's life when all the best efforts of traditional law enforcement have failed. By putting Kenzie and Gennaro just to one side of the law (but not totally outside--they have several cop friends--a very important part of the story), Lehane adds depth and edge to traditional genre relationships. The love affair between Kenzie and Gennaro--interrupted by her marriage to his friend--is another perfectly controlled element that grows and changes as we watch. Surrounded by dead, abused and missing children, Kenzie mourns and rages; Gennaro longs for one of her own. The choices made by both of them in the final pages of this absolutely gripping story have the inevitability of life and the dazzling beauty of art.

Other Kenzie/Gennaro books available in paperback are: Darkness, Take My Hand, A Drink Before the War, Sacred. -- Dick Adler

Book Description
A top-class thriller that sizzles with sex, violence – and humour. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Sacred by Dennis Lehane  (10)  £5.49

Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane  (13)  £5.49

Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane  (1)  £5.49

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane  (15)  £5.49

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane  (7)  £5.49

› Explore similar items : Books (30) DVD (1)

10 Reviews 5 star:  (8) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review (10 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: "What crime had we committed in the woods of West Becket?", 26 May 2006 By  Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews    Investigating the kidnapping of four-year-old Amanda McCready, daughter of a neglectful single mother/druggie/barfly in Dorchester, Massachusetts, private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro get caught up in one of their most challenging cases. The fourth in the Kenzie/Gennaro series by Lehane, this case is not "just" a kidnapping on their home turf. The pair also investigates Cheese Olamon, a Scandinavian giant they knew when they were growing up--now a drug dealer with serious underworld connections, a convict and enforcer. Amanda's mother has been involved with Olamon and may have lucked into a $200,000 payoff meant for him, within moments of Cheese's arrest and incarceration. No one knows what happened to the money or whether it is related to the kidnapping of Amanda. Investigators Kenzie and Gennaro, who live together, become emotionally involved in this wrenching case, tracking down clues that suggest that Amanda is dead. They are also forced to deal with renegade members of the Boston Police, who do their own enforcing, which is faster and easier than dealing with the justice system. Some of these renegades have their own secrets to hide, and Kenzie and Gennaro soon prove to be dangerous to them. Meetings in the woods at night, shootouts, executions, crosses and double-crosses leave Kenzie and Gennaro no closer to finding Amanda, and time is running out. Always adept at creating characters, Lehane creates new conflicts here between Kenzie and Gennaro as they deal with their discoveries and try to agree on their actions. Do they follow the book, or do they do what is "just"? Can they even agree on what justice is? Throughout the novel, their past relationships with people from Dorchester whom they have known all their lives provide additional complications, at the same time that they create great reader identification as the two private investigators operate in their home neighborhood. As characters, one by one, meet their deaths, the tensions and sense of forboding rise, until Kenzie and Gennaro are close to the breaking point, both personally and as a couple. Combining snappy and realistic dialogue with outstanding description, Lehane shows Kenzie and Gennaro dealing with people who live on the fringes, those who do whatever it takes to get by and never second guess their choices. Often as violent as the criminals and police with whom they are engaged, Kenzie and Gennaro face crises here which test their relationship, endanger their lives, and force them to decide what is right--one of their best cases.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: Brilliantly written - pure class, 22 Mar 2002 By A Customer Gennaro and Kenzie are yet again on a multi-faceted trail involving some of the most disturbing sides of humanity. This time we are on the trail of a missing child, lost drug money; all disappearing in to thin air. Although there are references to other books - the forward pace of the storyline is maintained throughout. I love Bubba (wouldn't want to be on his wrong side though!) and Lehane manages to weave deep emotions throughout; in fact, this one made me cry. If you've never read Lehane before, buy this one, read it, and they buy the rest. You won't regret it. Hope he doesn't take too long writing the next one.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Awe Inspiring, 29 Sep 2001 By  "itchick" - See all my reviews I cried when I read parts of this. I think a key part of Lehane's writing abilities are how the characters are human - flawed and realistic. Even the good guys have off days or less than noble thoughts - and the bad guys occasionally surpise you with deeds that you'd expect too noble for them. And as for Bubba - he's in a class of his own. Read all of these books - he deserves to be a star in the UK.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all 10 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews Heartbreaking. 4.5 stars. As with all of Lehane's novels that I've read so far, I raced through this at lightning speed. His writing is as addictive as any I've ever come across. Read more Published 2 months ago by Chintan Nanavati Dark and Believable, Frightening When they are asked to take the case of a missing four-year-old girl, private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angelo Gennaro are reluctant to take it, but because it's a child they... Read more Published 4 months ago by Katie Osborne Clever plot, great writing Lehane's stor