Title: Moonlight Mile
Author: Dennis Lehane
Publisher: William Morrow & Co.
ISBN: 978-0-06-183692-3
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 324
Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)
Why I Read It: Starting reading Lehane right from the beginning, and so I was happy to see a new Kenzie and Gennaro book.
Where I Obtained the Book: Got it at my library.
Synopsis: Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl-only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.
Now Amanda is sixteen-and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once more knocking on Patrick Kenzie's door, fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman-a woman who hasn't been seen in weeks.
Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It's a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal.
In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today could end their lives.
Review: We all grow up; it just takes longer from some people than others. Remember in the beginning when the guys on Jackass would propose some crazy, extremely dangerous stunt and then they would all be jumping to be the one to do it. Time goes by and we get to Jackass 3 and the stunts are milder, preparation time actually exists, and then they complain about their aches and pains afterwards.
Kenzie, and his partner Gennaro used to be in the trenches tough guys who weren’t afraid to mix it up, whatever the cost. Now, 15 years later, they are a settled married couple with a kid; one retired and the other on the verge of a corporate version of his job. During a mugging the criminal diagnosed him pretty much as a tough guy who had lost his edge.
Now fifteen years on from their most famous case (the subject of the book and movie titled Gone Baby, Gone), the one where Kenzie did the correct thing, but not the right thing. The same girl is missing again and only the Aunt seems to care. Dragged back in out of a sense of duty, and a innate desire to finally get it right this time, husband and wife team up once again to find the girl. They are desperately trying to fix their mistakes.
What I love most about this book beyond the sense of redemption, is the closure. Typically a young mystery writer will start out writing a series and then feel the need to explore their abilities with the big standalone book. For Lehane that first breakthrough novel was Mystic River, which was leaps and bounds beyond his previous work. This was closely followed by several other fantastic works; the whole time Kenzie and Gennaro quietly fading from existence., never to be heard from again.
With Moonlight Mile we get to see our heroes one last time, fixing past mistakes, and given a future worthy of their characters. Two kids who have grown up, matured, and are ready to move forward. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Please Note: If you are going to read this book read Gone Baby, Gone as a minimum first, if not all 5 books in the original series.
Author: Dennis Lehane
Publisher: William Morrow & Co.
ISBN: 978-0-06-183692-3
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 324
Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)
Why I Read It: Starting reading Lehane right from the beginning, and so I was happy to see a new Kenzie and Gennaro book.
Where I Obtained the Book: Got it at my library.
Synopsis: Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl-only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.
Now Amanda is sixteen-and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once more knocking on Patrick Kenzie's door, fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman-a woman who hasn't been seen in weeks.
Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It's a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal.
In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today could end their lives.
Review: We all grow up; it just takes longer from some people than others. Remember in the beginning when the guys on Jackass would propose some crazy, extremely dangerous stunt and then they would all be jumping to be the one to do it. Time goes by and we get to Jackass 3 and the stunts are milder, preparation time actually exists, and then they complain about their aches and pains afterwards.
Kenzie, and his partner Gennaro used to be in the trenches tough guys who weren’t afraid to mix it up, whatever the cost. Now, 15 years later, they are a settled married couple with a kid; one retired and the other on the verge of a corporate version of his job. During a mugging the criminal diagnosed him pretty much as a tough guy who had lost his edge.
Now fifteen years on from their most famous case (the subject of the book and movie titled Gone Baby, Gone), the one where Kenzie did the correct thing, but not the right thing. The same girl is missing again and only the Aunt seems to care. Dragged back in out of a sense of duty, and a innate desire to finally get it right this time, husband and wife team up once again to find the girl. They are desperately trying to fix their mistakes.
What I love most about this book beyond the sense of redemption, is the closure. Typically a young mystery writer will start out writing a series and then feel the need to explore their abilities with the big standalone book. For Lehane that first breakthrough novel was Mystic River, which was leaps and bounds beyond his previous work. This was closely followed by several other fantastic works; the whole time Kenzie and Gennaro quietly fading from existence., never to be heard from again.
With Moonlight Mile we get to see our heroes one last time, fixing past mistakes, and given a future worthy of their characters. Two kids who have grown up, matured, and are ready to move forward. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Please Note: If you are going to read this book read Gone Baby, Gone as a minimum first, if not all 5 books in the original series.
Author Biography: Dennis Lehane was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Eckerd College and the graduate program in creative writing at Florida International University. He has written several mystery novels including Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; and Shutter Island. A Drink Before the War won the 1995 Shamus Award for Best First Novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. Mystic River won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction, and France's Prix Mystère de la Critique. Three of his novels, Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone; and Shutter Island were made into feature films.
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