Shutter Island

Rating:
Summary: dreadful
Review: Why does anybody like this dreadful novel? I thought Mystic River was completely engaging, marvelously written, a crime novel that stepped well beyond the formulaic boundaries of its genre. Shutter Island reads like an acrostic. The writing is hurried and flat, the dialogue is stagey and improbable, the ending is silly and overwrought. I hope Lehane returns quickly to the territory he staked out so skilfully in Mystic River.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane's latest and greatest, tells the intriguing tale involving a terrible storm on an island that houses expirmental psychiatric patients. It is the storm that sets off a number of twists, turns, and unexpected pleasures.

This book is very different from Mystic River, which is a good thing. Mystic River is just about as perfect as can be written, so Lehane had to go in another direction.

I couldn't set this book down and it was an awesome read. I highly recommend Shutter Island.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable
Review: I rarely read mysteries but I'd heard so much about the shocking ending of "Shutter Island" I just had to see what the fuss was all about.

This book is definitely a page turner and it is very well-written. I have to admit, I was engrossed. Now, about that shocking ending: I was pretty sure I knew what it was all about before I was even one-third of the way through the book and, I was right. This didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book, though. Shutter Island is a very quick read and I don't think anyone could complain that they've wasted their time with this one.

Those who don't guess the book's ending will probably be very surprised. I felt more than a little manipulated by it but I'll say this: Lahane plays fair. There are clues aplenty strewn all through the book. The reader only has to fit the pieces into the puzzle and it's really not difficult to do at all.

"Shutter Island" is by no means great literature and it sure didn't convert me into a lover of mysteries but it is a darn good read and one that will keep some readers biting their nails until the very last page.

Rating:
Summary: The unexpected!
Review: Never read this author before, but was pleasantly surprised. The writing is vivid enough to picture most of this story. The story was quite good. I certainly didn't expect the story to turn down that path. Very creative and something different to read. Much better than those tired old "formula" novels. I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Great.... but what happened?
Review: This book - Shutter Island - was riveting from beginning to end.
I happen to like Dennis Lehane's dark "take" on reality. He is brilliantly adept at creating complex and humorous characters.
This book hooked me in from the beginning and kept me interested - actually obsesed. I couldn't put it down!
It had one slight problem: the ending! What happened? I loved the book but I felt so let down by not getting what he was getting at! Can someone help? Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Good build, but ok finish
Review: Some folks have written about the (allegedly) earth shattering conclusion, but I felt the first half of the book was better than the second. The very first chapter, in my opinion, basically ruins ending (in that it isn't coherent/consistent with it, in my opinion). I very much like how the story was built. Also enjoy the concise language and tension. It's a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Unrelenting suspense..unbridled fear..expect this and more
Review: from Lehane's long-awaited latest novel. The story line carries us along at break-neck speed, even to the point of careening out of control; and making this a 'white-water' ride that will remain in the reader's memory a long, long time.

The setting is a fog-shrouded island on which is housed an insane asylum. The doctors, if they are indeed doctors, shed an eerie light on the goings-on and the warden with his pasty-white face and questionable demeanor; far from put the reader at ease.

We come to the island with Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule, U.S. Marshalls who have been called on assignment to find an escaped inmate. However, in their investigation they discover she has escaped from a locked room and somehow gotten past numerous hospital employees and card-playing attendants all of whom would have blocked her escape route.

Ted is actually thrilled to be here at Shutter Island, as dreary and dreadful as the surroundings are because he has learned that his wife's killer has been moved to the Shutter Island asylum from another facility. No matter what he tells others; his intent is to kill him when he finds him...and he does all in his power to do just that. Find the inmate and return her to her cell....find the murderer of his wife and kill him.

This novel is a well constructed maze. The reader's mind becomes entangled and ensnared in the lives and emotions of the Marshall Daniels and of his partner Chuck. We are tossed and turned like a bottle on the sea trying to sight landfall.

When we finally land..exhausted, confused, but exhilarated by the inexplicable challenges we have been thru with this gallant duo.....well...the landing is a hard one. It is unexpected...it is breathtaking...it is startling...it is spectacular!!!One reviewer said if he had just read it slower he would have known the conclusion. There are two things wrong with that statement.

First....you cannot read this insightful work at a slow pace...you are pushed along and have no control.

Secondly, unless you took up residence in Lehane's head at the time it was written there is no way to 'figure it out'...just no way anyone could know to what end all this will lead!

And that is what makes Lehane a genius at what he does and does so very well. A Gold Medal and a laurel wreath to Dennis from a fan who appreciates his thought processes and revels in his expertise!!!!

Rating:
Summary: ridiculous!
Review: Another ridiculous story by an over-rated writer. The audio version is read by David Strathairn who swallows one third of every sentence, so be prepared to turn your volume on HIGH. Who is friend in this story, who is foe? Who cares!!!

Rating:
Summary: Are the inmates running the asylum?
Review: Dennis Lehane's psycho thriller Shutter Island is set in the 1950's around the Boston area. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, a tough hard boiled WWII veteran is ordered to Shutter Island along with his new partner Chuck Aule to investigate the disappearance of an inmate of the Ashecliffe Hospital which located on the island. Ashecliffe is a mental facility for the criminally insane.

Daniels soon learns that the patient, Rachel Solando, a triple child murderess has inexplicably vanished without a trace. The hospital staff lead by a brilliant but mysterious Dr. Cawley is less than helpful in aiding the marshals. As a hurricane bears down on the island stranding Daniels and Aule, the marshals make some startling discoveries. They suspect that Ashecliffe is secretly being used for both surgical and pharmacologic experimentation on the inmates.

Daniels, who was an intelligence agent in the war, finds and deciphers clues apparently left behind by Solando to unravel the mysteries of Shutter Island.

Lehane's novel progresses along fluidly until it makes an abrupt and somewhat clumsy twist into a "I can't believe he ended it like this" conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: this one will grab you
Review: I enjoyed Shutter Island because it provides suspense in a quick pace without a lot of unnecessary junk. There's enough in the book to keep you guessing but not so much that you begin to fall out of where Dehane has taken you. Mental illness, dealing with grief, dealing with war and violence, Cold War paranoia, and government treachery have all been written about before. But Dehane mixes these nicely in an engaging tale with a very engaging main character, a US marshal sent to find a missing patient on an island fortress which houses a hospital/prison for the criminally insane.