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Summary: prayers
Review: Dennis Lehane is a bad man. An awesome storyteller. His strength is his consistency in all of his novels. I don't feel that any one story is better than the other. In all of his novels, the new characters he creates stay in your memory long after you read one. And I don't just mean the villians. It may be a guy or two in the department, an agent at the bureau, or a friend in the press. All of his characters, likable or not, good or bad, ring with originality and all have their own voice. And when it comes to bone-chilling violence and eye watering dialogue, Lehane has no peers. End of story. Go buy his.
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Summary: A Super Read
Review: PRAYERS FOR RAIN Dennis LeHane Harper Torch - May 2000 ISBN: 0380730367 Buy a Copy Karen Nichols is a very pretty young lady who has a problem with a stalker, so she turns to Boston P.I. Patrick Kenzie to solve her problem. Kenzie and his sociopathic sidekick and guardian angel, Bubba Ragowski, solve Karen's problem very quickly and he figures that he has heard the end of Karen Nichols. But six months later he hears that she has jumped naked off the observation deck of Boston's Custom House and that she was drugged up when she jumped. The fact that this did not fit in with his impression of Karen and that she had called him shortly before her death and he never returned her call made Kenzie feel compelled to look into what went wrong in the last few months of her life. With the help of Bubba and Angie Gennaro, they uncover that Karen was into drugs, prostitution, had some dreadful family secrets, and a madman that knows how to manipulate the minds and lives of his victims until suicide was a welcome relief. As the plot twists through layers of old deceit and current corruption, the victims multiply while the killer remains elusive, protected by the terror he inspires. Prayers For Rain is well written with dialogue that is gritty and true to life. The scenes are so vivid that the hair on the back of your neck will stand straight on end--a real page-turner from the beginning to the outstanding ending. This book has graphic violence and the darkest of dark humor. The villain in this book is one of the slipperiest and most evil characters you will ever read about. Pam Stone
Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Review: Just outstanding--his best yet and I loved all of his others. I find it amazing that Lehane can write of blood and guts and yet define such likeable characters--my heart even went out to Bubba, the killing machine, in this one. A great plot with the best kind of ending--a surprise.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tremendously Fun Read!
Review: This is my first Dennis Lehane book but it won't be my last. As a lover of crime fiction, especially Michale Connelly and James Lee Burke, I simply devoured Prayers for Rain. The dialogue is so snappy, and often so humorous, you don't realize an entire chapter has passed. It took me no time at all to get a sense of Kenzie, Bubba and Ange. These are characters you quickly get to know and care about. Kenzie has a love for the Marx Brothers, and I imagine that comes from Dennis Lehane himself, as the banter between the principals can be very funny. Despite the breezy and punchy style, there's enough darkness to satisfy the hard-boiled. And there is some effective writing here. There were several passages I made note of so that I could relay them to friends, the description and dialogue was that good. If you're going to the beach this summer, or even spending a weekend on the couch, you'll eagerly consume the zero-calorie treat that is this book.
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Summary: Cartoon Characters
Review: Dennis Lehane has to lose Bubba, a homicidal maniac with the depth of a cartoon character. And while Lehane may know Boston, it sounds like he's never been beyond Route 128. No one in Western MA refers to Boston as 'downtown' (as the amputee at the motel does). I'm not a big fan of detective fiction, but I followed this up with Robert Parker's 'Small Vices', another detective yarn set in Boston. I found Parker's book to be superior in execution and pacing.
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Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I have been reading much crime fiction lately & I have to say that Dennis Lehane is a sensational writer. This is my first Lehane novel & I finished it in a couple of hours as I couldn't wait to get to the ending..it kept me captivated the entire time. Lehane draws the reader in immediately with his excellent dialogue between the characters and brilliant openings. He doesn't waste time on details like the colour of trees etc etc but gets on with the story. I have read many crime fiction novels lately and when you read something like this, you realise that everything else you have been reading is quite mediocre. I cannot wait to get my hands on another Lehane novel!
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Summary: WOW!
Review: Wow, I loved this book. Never before have i ever finished a book in under a week, but i finished Prayers for Rain, and another Lehane book called "Sacred", In under five days together. Prayers for rain has everything a good book should. Well developed characters who seem very down to earth and yet almost superheroes the same time, Short chapters (God knows I HATE putting a book down in the middle of a chapter! ), and plots that although you pray could never happen, keep you thinking "yeah alright maybe this could happen". I really liked Bubba, a soft bubbly, hardcore steel hard gun toting, criminal. In this book Patrick Kenzie is hired by a young woman to try to set her stalker straight, but is quickly wrapped up in the games of a sick twisted genius who evades patrick at every turn. A great book with many twists and turns. I Recomend this to EVERYBODY!
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Summary: A great book, but I was let down.
Review: Prayers has all of the successful elements of Lehane's other books: the chemistry between the characters, the plot twists, the sharp dialogue. It all works...but the end product is just not as satisfying as the other Lehane books. The mystery this time around involves a former client's apparent suicide. It troubles Kenzie because he failed to return a phone call from her shortly before her death. The circumstances of her life and the people in her life who sought to ruin it are the focus of the rest of the book. Let nothing in this review stop you from reading this book. It's great! One very important point: DON'T READ THIS BOOK BEFORE READING "GONE, BABY, GONE." The "bad guy" and several other plot points of that other book are mentioned several times in this one. You have been warned.
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Summary: Lehane's Best
Review: Good plot, excellent characterization, compelling prose. What more can you ask for? I have read each book in the series (except Sacred) but in my opinion this one is the best. The setup reminds me a bit of Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" with a PI stubbornly unwilling to betray some unwritten loyalty towards his long gone client. The remainder of the book reminded me of "Cape Fear". There are aspects of many good plots molded into a seamless unity. The reading is easy and compelling. If you like PI novels, you will like this one.
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Summary: Another Winner From Lehane
Review: I read a lot of detective fiction and for my money this series by Lehane is the best currently out there. Great characters and very involving plots are the strengths here. I'm giving Prayers for Rain four stars instead of five only because I didn't find it quite as good as his previous book Gone, Baby, Gone which is the best novel in this genre I've read in years. One more thing, if your new to this series, read the books in order. Lehane seems to get a perverse pleasure in revealing the outcomes of his preceding novels in subsequent ones.
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