Mystic River (Hardcover)

Everything in this book is real -- so real that you actually feel like you're living in the "Flats" even though you've never set foot anywhere near that part of the United States. Perhaps growing up in Brooklyn enabled me to relate to the people living on the so-called "opposite side of the tracks" because I was friends with many of them. Every city has this section. Those who live in it want to get out and those who live outside of it would like, in some small way, to be a part of it. It's a place where the residents look out for their own, sometimes having to take justice into their own hands to see that it is properly served.

We meet the three main characters, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus and Dave Boyle, when they are young boys playing together in the streets. When we meet them again, they are grown men -- one a homicide detective, one an ex-con who has lived the straight life for fifteen years and one a husband and father plagued by demons.

Lehane explores the "what if" scenario by reminding us that "if" it had rained in Dallas on that fateful day, Kennedy would not have been in a convertible. The big "what if" in this book centers around an occurrence that happened when the boys were not yet twelve years old and one of them was taken away in a car by pedophiles posing as cops. The big "what if" was how life would have been for the other two had they also gotten into the car. The bigger "what if", however, is how different this story might have been if NONE of them had gotten into the car. Because the boy who left in the car that day is not the same boy who returns four days later having escaped from his captors. As a result of this incident, all three boys will carry around the demons of that day into manhood until the tragic death of one of their daughters will bring the three of them face-to-face again.

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that this is one of the finest books I've ever read. While there's a mystery going on, and it certainly is a page-turner, it is so much more. It is a journey into the psyches of all the characters so neatly drawn out by Lehane and so knowingly admired by the reader. You can understand each and every movement; each and every motivation. While you might not always agree with their choices, you can see that they are real and not something contrived by the author.

I just can't imagine anyone not liking this book and, while I long for another Patrick and Angie episode, I am content to read whatever this author writes. As long as he keeps writing, I'll keep reading.