Sacred

Rating:
Summary: Sacred
Review: This is the 3rd book in the Kenzie/Gennaro series. In the investigation, they need to track down a billionaire's daughter along with the original detective who was hired to find her. This story takes some part in the Tampa Bay area. In the first books we only follow Kenzie and Gennaro in Boston surroundings.

Furthermore you read about Kenzie's past and you'll see the relation between Kenzie/Gennaro develop. It's a good book and might almost be called a comic caper, the Lehane way. 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Lighter-hearted, but not quite a "comic caper"
Review: I've seen this promoted as a "comic caper", and it rather starts that way. For Lehane, it is lighter and maybe it's as close to comic as he's capable of being.

Our two detectives are kidnapped and subsequently hired to trace down an obscenely rich man's daughter. It turns out that the last detective hired to find her, not so coincidentally the detective who originally trained Kenzie, has also disappeared. This leads the pair first through a phony counseling center which is tied in with a religious cult and then to Florida which state is lightly satirized, but no more so than Lehane's native Boston, and then after a couple of plot twists, back to Boston.

There are a lot of references to the previous book and some out and out spoilers, so I definitely advise you to read the first two books before you read this one.

I don't mind his lightening things up, nor do I mind his having a bit of fun at Florida's expense because he says nothing about it that my friends & relatives in Florida haven't said. But I do mind his going overboard in the final third of the book and handing us an ending that's too incredible to believe. And that ending is the reason for the three stars.

However, the ride through the first 2/3 of the book is indeed enjoyable, and I won't discourage you from reading it, but be prepared.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: Though this book is a little less off-the-wall funny than his previous 2, it's also less violent. His writing gets quite poetic at times and I enjoy the twists and turns of the plot. If you live in Boston, Lehane's books are even more enjoyable because he's dead-on accurate with his depiction of neighborhoods, people, and events. The religious group he's talking about has just got to be the Moonies. I live in North Dorchester almost in the same neighborhood he describes and believe me it all rings true.

Rating:
Summary: Lehane Just Keeps Writing 5 Star Books
Review: Private Investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are back. They've closed their office, because of what happened in the last book ("Darkness Take My Hand") and are adamant about not taking on any more cases. At least for a while. But dying billionaire Trevor Stone has different ideas. He has the pair kidnapped, so that they're forced to listen to his proposal. They don't want to, but he offers them twenty grand just to hear what he has to say. Then he tells them about how his darling daughter, who turns out not to be so darling after all, has gone missing in Florida. He's sent PI Jay Becker after her, the man who taught Patrick the biz, but he's vanished as well.

This book takes us out of the seamier side of Boston and isn't as dark as Lehane's last two novels. Though this one is a little lighter in tone, it's still full of the twists and turns we've come to expect from Lehane and, like his last two books, this one too is worth every one of those five stars.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Rating:
Summary: I'm worried -- I think Lehane is stuck on a gimmick
Review: I loved Lehane's first two books. "Darkness, Take My Hand" is one of the scariest books I've ever read. I was so looking forward to "Sacred," and I was so disappointed. It is as if he's read too much of his own good press. One of the things so terrific about "Darkness" and "A Drink Before the War" was the way he kept the reader off-balance with unexpected twists and turns.

Now, alas, it seems as if he has decided he must take every plot point and every character and twist them all 180 degrees not once, and sometimes not even twice. Halfway through the book, the "surprises" had become so predictable that what I'm sure was supposed to be a shocking ending was more, "Oh, give me a BREAK already."

I'll read his new one, which comes out in August '98. But I am so disappointed in "Sacred" that if he hasn't gotten his act together, it may be the last I read.

Rating:
Summary: great
Review: great book, hilarious, more so than his others, true its slightly more light than his usual books but its still good
also to the guy who says that dylan has no album called positively 4th street. The guy in the book said "look for songs, not albums". So when they found positively 4th street it is because they were looking for the names of dylan SONGS. And yes, dylan has a song called that.

Rating:
Summary: As noir as they get
Review: Dennis Lehane is great. His Kenzie/Gennaro series, of which "Sacred is the 3rd novel, is THE noir series of the decade. The writing is smoothe and sure, the jokes are funny, the heroes are sympathetic. Basically, this is an ideal private dick series.
Well, I've praised Lehane enough for one review, now more about the book itself. First of all, as the 3rd book of the series it's better to be read after "A drink before the war" and "Darkness, take my hand". It's not necessary, but it's better that way, at least 'cause some of the previouse events are mentioned and if you read those novels after this one it could ruin some strong plot surprises in them.
'Sacred' finds our heroes on a search for a missing heiress. Of course, when a lot of money is involved, nothing is what it seems, and nobody can be trusted. The plot of the book, while strong, is not very original, but Lehane's writing moves it up to a whole new level. You care for the characters, and that's a major point for the book.
Towards the end of the novel there are some scenes which ring a bit false for my ear, and that's what cost this book a star. Basically, coupled with the plot, it could've cost it two, but the way Lehane managed to use a religiouse cult as part of the novel, without putting it in the center of it, earned him one star back.
Bottomline: Not the best in the series, but still way above most other writers.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a trial if you are reading the entire series
Review: I am a lazy reviewer - forgive me for that! The Kenzie/Gennaro series is intriguing but this work is weak and more of a necessary read than an enjoyable one. Necessary because you need to read it to ensure you know what the characters are up to but the plot is predictable and transparent. Only for the dedicated or the undemanding.

Rating:
Summary: And the beat goes on.
Review: If you look at the 5 Lehane novels, "Darkness Take My Hand," "A Drink Before The War," "Mystic River," and "Shutter Island," "Sacred" is probably the weakest.

Based loosly on Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep," it sends Angie and Patrick off to Florida to track down the missing heiress of Billionaire Trevor Stone. She is not all that she appears to be and neither is the plot with numerous twists and turns common in Lehane mysteries.

Lehane maybe writing the best novels today and Sacred" is for now, the last of the Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gennaro duos. Perhaps there will be more. I myself was happy to see them go. Like others before them they seemed to have the same personal problems that surface repeatedly and I imagine that Lehane is too good of an author to have to rely on a formula. Read "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island " and you'll know what I mean.

But it's unfair to denigrate "Sacred" because of its company. It still remains a good novel

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Fast Paced
Review: A completely enjoyable read. I'm a sucker for the wise-cracking detective genre, so Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro really make me laugh. I'm reading the series in order, and they just keep getting better.