Mystic River

I enjoyed this book. Some times it was slow, but then it took off towards the end. It definitely was a shocker at the end!!

There are authors and then there are GREAT authors. MYSTIC RIVER just proves that Dennis Lehane has risen to the "great author" category. I'm familiar with Lehane's work having already read four books in his Patrick and Angie series. But nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for the greatness of MYSTIC RIVER.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.

0230 hrs Monday 12 Feb 2001Mystic River by Dennis Lehane is not due out in the UK until March 7th, but on Thursday I was at Manchester Airport collecting some guy's for a Conference. I was early so I went for a browse around WH Smiths, and shrieked when I saw the trade paperback of it inside.After a difficult week, I read the book in two sittings, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday night.I am sitting writing this review at 0230 hrs, knowing that I have to work tomorrow, but still needing to put some words down, about the searing reading experience that is `Mystic River'.It is one the finest pieces of fiction I have read in absolutely years, a dark tale of crime, family, love, loss and revenge in the Irish Blue Collar Boston. Complex and densely plotted, this is no ordinary crime thriller, but far more, and Lehane's insights into the human condition and characterization truly remarkable.I can not reveal the plot, as it was such a joy to watch it unravel like a Venomous Cobra, hypnotizing, whispering, and finally resolving the tale, as only Lehane can.It is one of the most moving books I have read, and despite it's darkness, it has a warmth and appreciation about the flaws in the human condition, and how we live with our demons and our pasts, and how everything we do is somehow connected, and yet detached from a distance, but up close and personal, these strands are as cold and strong as steel, but from the hill, they are invisible to an outsider.It is February, and I have a bittersweet feeling. Joy at having been deeply involved in the thoughts and workings of Dennis Lehane's world, but sad it has finished, and that in the start of a year, I have read one of the most remarkable books, and one that is still bouncing in my mind, and will for a long time to come.I urge you to seek this book out, and learn the thoughts and demons that plague us all.A wonderful book, and my highlight of this year, and a stark and welcome departure that shows that Lehane's literary talent is something for me to watch, as I grow old, like the river that this tale is about.

Dennis Lehane has done it again! I started to read this book on a U.S. to Canada flight, and could scarce tear my nose out of it to clear customs and pick up my bags. Thank heavens we arrived late evening so I could head for bed to finish one of the most exciting, delightful and satisfying reads I've ever enjoyed. I read several books a week and I can't remember when I've been so transported and enthraled. Now, in case you haven't guessed I'm a big fan of Lehane. Since his first book, Shamus Award winner, A Drink Before The War to last year's Prayers For Rain I love everything he's written and he just keeps getting better and better. Mystic River is different than his previous books in that it is not part of his Boston P.I. Patrick Kenzie series. But don't worry. The magic that makes Dennis Lehane such a powerful writer is all here in Mystic River and it is here in abundance. Lehane gets inside the characters' minds and with masterful twists and turns persents a psychological thriller that is second to none. This alone would qualify Mystic River as a must read. But, as always, Lehane presents, like a Shakesperian play, a story that can be enjoyed on many levels, and like the best masters of the English language he does so in prose of seemingly effortless beauty. Just reading a Lehane paragraph is a delicious, sensious experience! And yet language and image never get in the way of the characters and the story. Above all, Lehane is a story teller. Mystic River begins in Lehane's familiar back yard of Boston where we meet three children. Friends whose childhood will mark them forever. They will meet again and even knowing what we know, we don't know how deep the darkness runs. As the dust jacket says, this is an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family. To tell you more would tip the master's hand.I can tell you one more thing, however. Hit the Add To My Cart button and buy this book now. I expect my email box will soon be full of letters from grateful strangers thanking me for alerting them to this exceptional novel. Matter of fact, I suggest you buy two. One to read and re-read. The other to put away carefully wrapped as a prized first edition. Mystic River is that good.

In the Boston area, Jimmy Marcus, Dave Boyle, and Sean Devine are best friends, playing together like preadolescents do everywhere. Their friendship and perhaps childhood ends when eleven-year old Dave enters the car of two strangers claiming to be cops, who sexually molest him. When he escapes and finally returns home he is not the same carefree child. Twenty-five years later, homicide detective Devine investigates the murder of Marcus' nineteen-year-old daughter. His prime suspect is Boyle, whose own wife believes he is more monster than human being. Marcus, an ex-con, conducts his own inquiries because the grieving father plans to provide his own brand of justice to the culprit. These three former friends appear heading towards a bloody deadly collision. Dennis Lehane, known for his Kenzie-Gennero series, has written his best novel to date. MYSTIC RIVER contains a who-done-it, but that is a subplot of the theme that centers on the impact on adults of their broken childhood relationships. This psychological suspense tale works because the three key players and several support members like Boyle's wife appear genuine and consistent so that their actions feel right for them. Though his Kenzie- Gennero series is very good, readers will demand Mr. Lehane take further sabbaticals from it so that he can concentrate on more stand alone novels like this excellent book.Harriet Klausner