Rating: 
Summary: Hauntingly Unforgettable
Review: This was my first Lehane book and i have to admit i was captivated. Not only did i feel i knew the town inside out, I felt like i knew all of them. Dave,Sean, and Jimmy have a common bond,and it torments them. I
couldn't wait to find out how this book would end. I highly recommend it. The story stays with me even now and will for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: The best mystery I've read in a long time!
Review: This is a great book. It kept me turning the pages long into the night. It was worth the lack of sleep though. This is about 3 main characters forever linked whether they like it or not. Keeps you guessing and you're not sure about the outcome until the very end (which was quite unexpected). Probably one of the best books I've read all year.
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Classic
Review: i absolutly loved the characters. I cant remember the last time i read a books and felt so connected to the characters. I havent yet read any of the other books by this author but i cant wait to read more from him. He has such an ear for great dialogue, great pacing, great stories.
I loved the way how he introduced his characters. He would give their life story and easily blend it into the plot. Everything seemed to flow perfectly. I loved the line from jimmy about the threads and how it one event can affect our whole life.
They are making a movie about it with Kevin Bacon (Sean) , Tim Robbins (Dave), and Sean Penn (Jimmy) directed by Clint Eastwood. I cant wait for it to come out.
Rating: 
Summary: Hated it
Review: I read this book because for one, I had attended a writer's conference with the author and two, I kept hearing how great it was, though I was suspecting that it would depress me and make me want to kill myself and that I would absolutely hate it. While I was reading it, I found it be be very interesting and very well-written. Now, looking back (I tend to have different view of books looking back) I abhorr it and can't even stand to look at the cover. I hoped that the movie would not win any awards and cringed when I heard of its nominations because I just want to imagine as if the book, and the movie, never existed. I hate it so much, even though it's good, so I can't recommend it to anyone. The characters are all well-developed, it has a realistic feel to it and there are many parts that are just so profound, and many really witty lines of dialogue, but because of the incredibly bleak subject matter, I don't know if I can even stand wading through the deep, dark murky sewage just to be amused by the occasional passage. I was personally most bothered by Dave who SPOILER is not a child molestor, even though I seem to suspect some are identifying him as such. It is sad. END SPOILER. It seems as if media and literature single out sexual abuse as the only type of story people should read about, or watch. It seems to be a trap. You want to write about it because it supposedly can lead to all kinds of profound meanings, yet at the same time, (I'll use myself as an example) when I write, I feel repelled to the idea, it has become so overused, practically a mockery of itself, and I know that in the long run, a story that doesn't involve it will feel not only more original, but more rewarding. If any abuse story is going to successful, it has to be exceptional (those who take it on have a major responsibility) and I don't believe this book fully reaches its potential, or maybe I just don't want to think too much about it. It bothers me, yes. I have only read two of Dennis Lehane's books and both rely heavily on child abuse, to the point where it rubs it into your face and this is mainly why I detest both those books so much. I don't care how complex the characters and ideas are, any book that has more than two lines referring to sexual abuse in it is a lost cause to me, it is so overdone and it is the last thing I want to read about. Also, though a lot of what Lehane writes seems fresh, much of it is too over-the-top for me.
I would like to conclude though by saying that I liked the way the book ended (the explanation of what really happened and the culprit who committed the murder). It fit so well into the story. 3 1/2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A slight letdown
Review: This is my first Dennis Lehane book; a good read, but slightly disappointing. The book revolves around the lives of 3 main characters. Three characters who were childhood friends and are now brought together 25 years later because of a murder of one of the character's daughters. This clearly isn't a mystery book (and to be fair, I don't think it purports to be), as the climax of the book isn't the discovery of who committed the murder and the motive behind the murder. Instead, the climax is something else entirely. Admittedly, the unveiling of the crime was a pretty big letdown. Though plausible, it seemed somewhat absurd and hastily thrown together. Luckily, the *real* climax was much better. Lehane did a great job in making me feel like I could see the setting in my mind. Overcast, gloomy, wet, and depressing. I felt like I knew the characters. Every city and town in American must have people like that. The story, though supposedly revolving around this murder, is more a character study of the three main characters and the people in their lives. Since this is my first Lehane book, I can't compare it to his other work. And although, I'm giving the book 4 stars, I don't know if I would really recommend this book. It's sort of depressing and isn't the real psychological thriller as I was led to believe because there aren't many twists--if any--and the climax, though good, is somewhat predictable. However, Lehane has a good way with words and made me feel like I was in the setting of the book feeling as gloomy as the weather there.
Rating:
Summary: A Great New American Novel Noir.
Review: Dennis Lehane is a master at creating mood. With "Mystic River" he paints a portrait of a bleak working class neighborhood, Boston's East Buckingham Flats, and its inhabitants, who are doomed to spend generations stuck in the dark, brooding environment, just a breath away from exploding into violence. I used to think of Dennis Lehane as an excellent writer of mysteries. After reading "Mystic River," I consider him to be one of America's great new literary novelists. His characters are real, rich and complex; his dialogue is as true as the characters who speak it. The narrative is spare and elegant. And the plot is edge-of-your-seat suspenseful, always developing a new twist. The book opens with three angry eleven year-old boys, Jimmy Marcus, Sean Devine and David Boyle, pushing each other around on one of the neighborhood streets. A car pulls up and two, (apparently) plain clothes cops aggressively order David into their car. Terrified, David admits he doesn't live on that street. One man says they're going to drive Dave home and tell his Mom he's been fighting. Then the three drive away, leaving the other two boys with sick feelings in their guts. These feelings of fear, and something gone terribly awry, will remain with them all their lives. The two men were not cops. And Dave never reaches his mother that day, nor for many days afterward. This incident will link the lives, and the destinies, of these three boys forever. Twenty-five years have passed, and the boys are men now, living in the same neighborhood, not far from where they spent their childhood. The events of a seemingly innocent Saturday night on the town, turn violent. Murder most vicious is the outcome, and it brings all three, inextricably, back together. This tale of friendship, family, loyalty and revenge is just plain brilliant in its intensity. The unsettled feelings the novel evoked in me, stayed with me for days after I completed it. This is one of the best, well-crafted novels I have read in a very long time. Kudos to Dennis Lehane!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect...
Review: Best book I've read in years. Young kids, forever marked by a terrible kidnapping, separate and go their own way in life. They are drawn back together by a terrible, tragic incident. One that changes everything for everybody forever. Once you start reading this book, you cannot put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Lehane is a truly great writer
Review: Three eleven-year old boys from East Buckingham are tussling in the street when a car pulls up, one boy gets in, and their lives change forever. Twenty-five years later, they lead separate lives - One is a cop whose wife just ran away on him, another has removed himself from a life of crime and runs a neighbourhood shop to support his wife and 3 daughters, and yet another is married with a son, but is mainly just trying his best to keep his secret demon, "the boy," under wraps. When tragedy strikes one of the families in the neighbourhood, they are, by chance, drawn together once again, and must confront a past they were all doing their best to forget. This was an absolutely brilliant novel - a work of great writing, amazing characterization, delving into complex issues, and a sense of place and setting that you might find in the most literary of novels. Here, it just happens to surround a murder mystery. I read a lot of suspense mysteries, and without a doubt, this is the best book of the genre that I've read. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Life in the City
Review: Lehane captures the essence of life in a small, quickly gentrifying Irish neighborhood of a big city. The 1970's working stiffs who worked in the local factories while trying to raise their families. Three boys, street wise kids whose lives take them in different directions only to be brought together again years later following the vicious slaying of the teenage daughter of one of them. A dark secret from their past cannot be shaken loose from their now adult memories. This story is real. It's a reality show with real cops, real criminals, and real live characters who, while fictionalized, are the friends and neighbors of those of us who have ever lived in a big city.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to the hype
Review: I'm not much of a mystery fan; I was drawn in by the promise that Lehane wrote prose that was as much literature as genre fiction, drawing comparisons not merely to Elmore Leonard and Springsteen but even Hemingway. Those raves must have come from the easily impressed. What I found was overwritten (so much for Hemingway and Springsteen), hard-boiled bluster from the life-stinks-and-then-you-die school. The problem isn't that the worldview is dark and depressing; it's that Lehane hits you over the head with this revelation over and over again, and the attitude is coming not so much from the blue-collar characters as an author who, despite his pose of understanding, is looking down on his creations. A good editor could have shaved this by at least 100 pages, and an author less impressed with the sound of his own voice might have plotted a mystery that contained a surprise or two. If you're looking for a literary mystery, keep looking.
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