Rating: 
Summary: AN EXTREMELY DEPRESSING STORY by a Very Talented Writer
Review: This is a book that I had trouble finishing despite the writing talents of Dennis Lehane. He is an author withj an ear for dialog, the ability to capture a mood with wonderfully descriptive prose, and in addition can capably develop a complex plot. Unfortunately, all these talents combine in MYSTIC RIVER to tell an overly long story of tragic proportions but without any of the offsetting heroic characters or acts that can turn tragedy into great literature. This is a very ambitious book; it has multiple storylines woven together and raises many serious and interesting issues. However, the dark side of these characters' lives dominates the story. Fate inevitably seems fate to totally eliminate the possibility of redemption for almost all the characters involved despite their best efforts to build meaningful lives for themselves.The storyline has been described in detail in many previous reviews, so I will offer only a brief summary. Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were eleven year old boys who lived in East Buckingham, MA, an old penitentiary town on the banks of the Mystic River. Sean was from The Point, where people "owned", Jimmy and Dave lived in The Flats, where people "rented". One day Dave is abducted by some perverts; after the townspeople celebrate his escape, the incident is only occasionally whispered about in the future. The story then skips ahead twenty-five years, and the three boyhood friends have become three men with nothing in common except their past. But a brutal murder causes their lives to intersect with tragic consequences none of them could have predicted. So the themes are epic and cry out for examination - childhood sexual abuse and the effect of repressed memory, class struggle as gentrification threatens to change The Flats, the power of love (and hate) to totally dominate the existence of someone, and the interelationship of predestination and free will. Unfortunately, the author continuously chooses to opt for a descriptive story rather than an analytical one and loses the opportunity to turn this into great literature. I actually had to read the book in instalments, which I practically never do with fiction. I would keep hoping that one of the themes would come to dominate the book and some hope would offset the tragedy in these characters' lives, but instead it was written as a mystery with some clever plot twists but a preordained conclusion. No matter what the characters did, their attempts to earn redemption were repaid with occurrences that provoked additional despair or death. The quality of Lehane's writing saved this story from a one star rating, but I highly recommend that if gritty stories with tragic elements interest you that you instead read SHUTTER ISLAND by Lehane (Amazon review 5/7/03). It does not have the depth of MYSTIC RIVER but is a much better plot with an extremely clever although equally depressing conclusion. Another book which in many ways mirrors the elements that Lehane has included in this book and with an equally engaging style by the author is the underappreciated THE BARBED WIRE KISS by Wallace Stroby (Amazon review 4/30/03). In contrast to MYSTIC RIVER, I had trouble putting Stroby's book down. The story is told with much sparer prose and less character development and the plot is somewhat less complex; however, the conclusion is infused with hope and the redemptive power of love rather than despair.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent account of the psychology of murder
Review: How does one cope with one's inner demons? This is the central theme of Mystic River. I picked this book up because I'd heard great things about Dennis Lehane, and also that Clint Eastwood has just made a movie of this novel starring Sean Penn playing the character of Jimmy. In fact, he's being tipped to win the Oscar for Best Actor next year for his role in this film. What a slick and well-oiled piece of writing this is. I think that the characterizations of the three main protagonists - Jimmy, Sean and Dave - are just "spot-on." Lehane really takes us into the psyches of these men and shows us their strengths and insecurities. When Dave gets into that car with those men, Lehane is showing that just one mistake, just one wrong move, and just one lapse of judgment can have such far reaching consequences. His writing is just gorgeously fluid and roles across the page - such accomplished command of the language! The story is generally very tightly plotted, and moves along at a brisk pace. There are lots of universal themes at work here - love, loyalty, betrayal, small town life, family relationships and the criminal justice system, and I see this book as far more than just a slick mystery thriller. The story is all about the ties that bind men and the expected loyalties that come with these ties. I'm looking forward to the movie, and I'm also looking forward to reading more of Lehane's work. Good stuff! Michael
Rating:
Summary: Great Detective Page Turner! WOW!
Review: Purchased this book on Friday and finished it on Sunday. Couldn't put it down. Definitely an A+ pager turner. Lehane develops his characters with wonderful detail, giving full attention to the intricacies of their minds so that you felt their emotions in your own soul. This story never lagged and played a whodunnit guessing game throughout the entire book. By the novel's end, I kept wanting more! Keep em coming!
Rating: 
Summary: Dark Dismal Depressing
Review: When this book first came out, I passed it by because of the subject matter. But then I read Lehane's Shutter Island and liked it very much. I took a look at all the glowing reviews and heard that Clint Eastwood was going to make a movie of Mystic River and decided to give it a try. Big Mistake. I just don't understand why dark, dismal, depressing stories pass for artistic writing these days. When one of the characters (Dave Boyle) recounts his take on how baseball fans react when their team looses, it was so far over the top I had to wonder at the author's sanity. I struggled through to the end hoping for an uplifting resolution, but I didn't find it. I realize I am in the minority here. I can not think of a single reason to recommend this book. I was not enlightened and I was not entertained. I feel like I wasted my time.
Rating: 
Summary: The Ending
Review: I agree with the writer from Dorchester that the ending left a lot to be desired. I did not find the ending believable, and I was expecting an interesting, thought-provoking ending based on the storyline, but I don't think the author knew how to do it.
Rating:
Summary: kinda slow oil burning.
Review: the writing is fine if not as too pretentious as jeffery deaver. the tempo is somewhat too slow and the time span might be too long to cast any effect or influence on these three characters who actually had their own life styles around 36 years. the progress is kinda too slow and too zigzagged. i could imagine that how clint eastwood would direct this new film, an even slower going and he might fall from his director chair again during the shooting simply couldn't help himself from dozing off. trying too deep in nostalgia sometimes is very tiresome, a format that your childhood experience and memory might play a major and heavy part of your adult life may not be so true with so many things happening around you daily and changing so fast, people might have to live on a day to day basis, even a moment to moment basis. with so many and so much financial burdens, your childhood might not has the speed to catch you up on the ever-jammed freeway, the gated community, the cable, your home mortgage, your anxiety of your job security. anything else might not be so important than those due dates of your payments. those ghosts from your childhood might not haunt you if you got a plasma tv and home theatre. they only look so important and so heavy only in a novel that author wants it to be heavy and grim. when the traffic light turns green, you just move on, man, and move on quickly, otherwise the people behind you would blare their horns like crazy. if other people would and should move on, you should too, unless the author won't let you.
Rating:
Summary: DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE..
Review: This is a tremendous book...regardless of its flaws (which are few), or its grim outlook, it nonetheless is a thought-provoking, beautifully written tale of just what secrets, lies and pain can do. Katie Marcus' murder is the juggernaut that sets the story rolling to a tragic ending, but solving the murder does not seem to be Lehane's focal point. The richly drawn characters' reactions to this and their sad, tragic past are the true catalyst.
In 1975, three boys playing in the street are approached by what they believe are two cops. When the "cop" orders the boys into his car, only one, Dave Boyles, gets in. He disappears, and after four days, Dave returns. But a new Dave that ultimately destroys the friendship of the three boys, and asks the question: what if all 3 had gotten into the car.
Fast forward to 2000, and we meet these boys again in their adult lives: Sean Devine is now a state trooper; Jimmy Marcus, after a life of crime, has settled down into married life, with his second wife, Annabeth (his first wife died while he was in prison), and he has three children: Katie (by his first wife); and two younger girls. And we have Dave, with his wife Celeste and son, Michael. It is Dave whose inability to reconcile what happened to him after he got into the car, that emerges as the most tragic of all the characters. It is his lie to his wife that pushes her to believe the worst of the man she loved; Jimmy's grief over his murdered daughter carries him into a rage that eventually leads to more tragic death; and it is Sean, whose own marriage has failed, who must confront the truths about his old friends.
Atmospheric and moody; chilly yet warm with some of the character's relationships, "Mystic River" is the kind of novel that deserves to be remembered in years to come. It is a whale of a read!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: Well Written, Disappointing finale
Review: Dennis Lehane wrote an excellent book about the physciological effects of child molestation. Many people have acclaimed this book as a murder myster, yet the criminal aspect of this book is disappointing. The real story is between David Boyle, Jimmy Marcus, and Sean Devine. This is a story about them, and how their lives have changed since Dave was abducted when he was 11, and his life and how his friendship with Jimmy and Sean was never the same.I am assuming anyone reading this knows the basis plot of the story (How Jimmy's Daughter was murder, and Dave is the suspect), yet as I was reading it I couldn't help but begin to predict a stunning and moving finale but I came away stunned with a lack of creativity. While Lehane was revealing who was Jimmy's Daughters killer I hoped it was just Lehane misleading you (like he does so much),although it was true, the killer and the finale was disappointing. Lehane is one of the best young writers today, however the ending was not predictable, rather stupid and uncreative. However, I may be alittle bias, since I rarely read anything fiction and I came in knowing the book has received nothing but great reviews. Read the book, but it might not be as good as you expect
Rating: 
Summary: A harsh, gritty crime novel
Review: This works better as an insightful look at people who are affected and infThis works better as an insightful look at people who are affected ected by a poverty level environment as The Flats is represented here, than it does as a mystery. The emphasis is on the people, and the mystery is more of a framework than the meat. The difficulty here, to me, is the absolutely fatalistic flavor of the book. It's been mentioned that the mystery is obvious, and just maybe the author meant it to be in order to create the feeling of a tragic roll of events. There's a literary feel here. I do recommend it, but be warned that it is rather heavy, and it will make you think.
Rating:
Summary: Lehane Breaks out
Review: Dennis Lehane has been writing detective novels of the Private eye variety for about 8 or 9 years now. His first five books were part of a series, with a pair of detective solving crimes. There were shootouts, clues, and wonderful dialog, and you wondered how long he was going to keep with the detective genre. The prose was so polished, the characters so carefully drawn, the plots so carefully contrived. Well now it's happened. Dennis Lehane has moved on to the big time, writing a different sort of novel. It's a crime drama, certainly, with murder and mayhem, but it's not a detective novel like his first five books. Instead, it's more of a character study, and much fuller of drama and richer in texture. Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle are friends as little kids. When they are 11 or so, Boyle gets molested, returning to find that his world has changed and he can't change it back. Marcus and Devine drift apart, one going into crime while the other moves into law enforcement. Twenty-five years later, the killing of the daughter of one of them brings all three together. How this plays out, and how the molesting that occurred when they were all kids affects what happens later, is the subject of the book. I generally enjoyed this book, and frankly I think Lehane's going to be happier writing this type of novel. It's a shame, though, in that his earlier detective novel stuff was very fun. Given that, I would recommend Mystic River.
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