Mystic River

Rating:
Summary: "Please welcome warmly . . . . ."
Review: Mystic River is a brilliant novel. It is sad with the palpable pain of the helpless. Its heroes carry with them the limp of painful beginnings. It's villains are often visionaries; its protagonists, short sighted.

Meet Sean, growing up in the poor section of Beantown, the most gifted of a band of 11-year old vagabonds, secretly jealous of Jimmy, born on the wrong side of the tracks, if there is such a place when you're already downtrodden. And finally there's Dave, the most severally emotionally crippled of the three, born into poverty and confusion, journeying into middle age and alcohol because he couldn't think of anything better to do.

Jimmy ends up with his own crime crew and does hard time in prison. Sean ends up as a decorated Statie Officer who confuses love with ownership and loses his wife. And Dave never survives the crimes against him as a child.

It's an amazing book. Kudos to Lehane, who temporarily put aside the on again off again lovers of his Pentology. What else could he have them do? But if you briefly thought Lehane lacked vision, grace and courage, read this novel. He takes chances and reminds us of his most-valuable-rookie-of-the-year awards. He's not running the sprint races. Settle back for the marathon.

Sometimes those who are cowards in the face of ignorance are punished. Sometimes those on the path of righteousness are rewarded with justice, albeit in a different direction. And evil is always punished. We hope. Eventually. If you are a mystery novel fan, put aside the hip talking, super sensitive, "I'm into cross gender issues and saving the planet" accidental Horatios, and get your hands dirty.

This is the real deal. This is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: A thinking person's mystery
Review: If you're looking for a formula mystery where you don't know the culprit until the final page, you might be disappointed (even though that's here). If you're looking for a character-driven story that's haunting, sad, ironic but--yes--still a "mystery," you'll enjoy Mystic River. Think out-of-the-box. It's what I would call "mystery-literature"...and you'll find this book a thoughtful riff off the mystery genre. It's still a page-turner. Just let it just take you where it (Lehane)wants to go. And you'll be rewarded by remembering this book long after you've finished.

Rating:
Summary: Sleepy, boring surprise
Review: I was excited to see a new Lahane. Though never did one need to be Einstein to read his books, I always really enjoyed reading the last few books. This was just boring, way to long and I really just wanted it to end. If I were an author I would want to write different things too but this did not work.

Rating:
Summary: ONLY FAIR!!!
Review: Seems like I am a minority of one as I read some of the other reviews. I nearly put the book down after about 80 pages because I thought it was so bad. I kept plugging and it did get better. I still skipped over several pages as I read because they just droned on and on really about nothing. Sean Devin, Jimmy Marcus and Dave Boyle have an experience when they are young that changes their live forever. The book then skips 15 years and starts with them as grown men. Katie Marcus, daughter of Jimmy, is killed. Sean Devine is a state trooper and working on the case. Dave ends up being a suspect. Who did commit the crime? That will be a little surprise, or was to me. But, who pays for the crime? Without saying to much, lots of people pay. A so-so book.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a drag
Review: If you are looking for an exciting, relaxing mystery novel, you should skip this one. Lehane shows the grief and suffering caused by murder, but there is little payoff. For much of the novel, you are manipulated into thinking a particular character has committed the murder, but the narrator is rather overtly playing games with you, setting you up, in a way that feels intrusive. At the same time, you spend more of your time feeling depressed along with the victim's family members than you do following the process of discovering whodunit. The characters are carefully drawn, but the only insight this book tries to offer is that sometimes a person commits murder because they've been made to suffer themselves. After putting up with Lehane's lugubrious style and long passages that urge you to feel depressed, this is not enough to justify the pain. Not a very fun read.

Rating:
Summary: I bow before the Great Lehane
Review: This cinches it! Dennis Lehane is now on my "Buy as soon as I see list". He has an ear for dialogue and a sense of reality that makes you think that he might almost experienced these situations himself. I don't know what it takes to make a movie from a book, but I like those that feel like this. The ending is bittersweet; however, there may be a clue that these characters and or this story may not be over. I had a hard time making it to work on time, going to sleep at night, and normal activities once this book took hold. Get his stuff!!!!

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Summary: Gritty, intense and depressing
Review: Dave, Sean and Jimmy were friends when they were little. Dave was kidnapped by child molesters and managed to escape. Now, the kids are all grown up. Sean is a cop, Jimmy was a criminal who has gone straight, and Dave is married with a child, but still struggles with his past. Jimmy's daughter Katie is violently murdered and Dave came home the same night covered in blood. Sean gets to try and solve the case.

That is the plot in a nutshell and can basically be learned by reading the jacket of the book or the Amazon review or the first 100 pages or so. So I thought I had the plot figured out, but Lehane takes us deeper into this world where each character has strong personalities and flaws. Mystic River doesn't really have any plot twists or turns. Instead, Lehane reveals a little bit more to us as Sean and his cop buddies find out the information themselves. If the cops had known some things sooner, the ending might have been different.

Mystic River is a strong book because of the characterization. Still, at the beginning I had myself trying hard to find someone to root for. In the end, there are really no good guys to care about, but the story is still exciting.

I did have one complaint. Lehane does a great job of portraying the horrible world these people live in. It is full of guns, drugs, alcohol, abuse, poverty and neglect. Then when Sean solves a crime at the end, Lehane pawns off blame on a totally unrelated part of society. It seems Lehane ignores what he had written the entire novle. The abuse, neglect, alcohol, crime, drugs and poverty were what shaped the criminal's behavior, not the cause he gives.

Anyway, I enjoyed this novel and had never read Lehane before. I'm now starting A Drink Before the War, his first novel, and hope to read the rest if they are close to as good as Mystic River.

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Summary: lehanes's best' a chilling psychological thriller
Review: Lehane's won many fans with his noirish Kenzie and Gennaro mystery series, but this new book takes his artistry to a whole new level.
To call this a "thriller" actually does it an injustice.This standalone tale of the dark secrets that surround three boyhood friends in Boston, and the secrets that haunt them, and follow them into adulthood, is masterfully written. Lehane's understanding of the dark spaces in all of us makes for a searing read that you'll not soon forget.Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Bummer
Review: This book is such a downer. I hated it. Could have been written in 400 less pages and been just as good.

Rating:
Summary: Lehane's best, not to be missed
Review: "Mystic River" represents a new high-water mark for Dennis Lehane. While his earlier works have been somewhat hit-and-miss (hearty bravo for "Gone Baby Gone," but only faint praise for the likes of "A Drink Before the War" and the wobbly "Sacred"), "River" is Lehane's fullest and most rounded book to date. The writer has confidence almost from word one, showing almost unerring instincts (although his prose does occasionally stray towards purplish, he never quite loses control)in telling the story of three childhood friends, their alienation from each other, and the crime that brings them back together. The climax is inevitable but no less powerful for it; Lehane shows an uncanny ability to get into his three main characters' heads, taking the reader down the path that they take to their own mistakes, making even the irrational understandable. "Mystic River" is almost unremittingly grim, with little uplift, but thoroughly engrossing and well worth your time. Perhaps the best news is that Lehane has written his best book while still only in his thirties; if his voice continues to mature, readers could have a lot to look forward to.