A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Drink Before the War
Book Review: NOT RIVITED HERE
Summary: 3 Stars
This book did not inspire me to continue the series. I found it readable but just another detective novel. Are these people reading the same novel ? This is just another detective thriller. I can not understand all the RAVES it's getting. Maybe you have had to grow up in Boston ? MAYBE IM STUPID ? I found this book just pretty good and quite readable. Nothing special NO Chandler NOT Hammett. BUT it's pretty darn OK and YMMV. So try it you will either LOVE it or kinda like it.Book Review: (4 1/2) The Sins of the Fathers
Summary: 5 Stars
Dennis Lehane is that rare author who manages to combines the ability of a masterful wordsmith with interesting plots and storylines that raise significant issues. I first read SHUTTER ISLAND (review 5/7/03) and was so blown away by the conclusion that I immediately decided to read more of his work. I next chose MYSTIC RIVER given the wonderful reviews that it generated; while it fully confirmed his incredible talents as an author, it was so unrelenting dark and depressing that I literally had trouble completing the book (review 6/27/03). My conclusion was that Lehane's view of the human experience (at least in regard to the subjects of his novels) could almost be summarized by the well known admonition "abandon hope all ye who enter here". I recently decided that I would attempt to read his acclaimed debut novel A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR since I am an avid reader of the genre (detective series). I knew it was the first of five volumes in a series with Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro as the central characters, and I was interested in reading his original work in order to see how his style and talents had evolved since then. I am very glad that I decided not to abandon his books after MYSTIC RIVER, since I found this a wonderful read despite my reservations described later in this review. This is a dark story involving a group of Boston politicos who hire Patrick Kenzie and his associate and high school friend Angela Gennaro to retrieve some documents purportedly stolen by a cleaning woman who has subsequently disappeared. However, their assignment quickly becomes complicated by violence directed against Patrick and by a subsequent murder; they realize that a simple case whose solution would ingratiate them with the wielders of political power in their city (and thus the dispensers of meaningful favors on occasion) involves much more than a few missing documents. Thus begins a powerful story that foreshadows many of the themes in Lehane's later books, especially the theme of abuse so powerfully examined in MYSTIC RIVER. Sin and redemption, hate and love, the continuation of hope in the face of overwhelming odds and the possibility and role of forgiveness in human relationships all figure prominently in this story. Numerous instances of both child and spousal abuse (physical and psychological) are central to this story; they are gradually revealed very skillfully by the author as we get to know Angela and Patrick. In addition, there are significant racial overtones and the threat of gang warfare is omnipresent as one of the many personal battles and turf conflicts to which the title refers.
The conclusion is somewhat predictable and certainly foreshadowed, but the pleasure in this story is in the wonderfully descriptive passages which Lehane provides and the psychological depth of the main characters counterposed with the well recognized caricatures of many of the peripheral actors in this drama. My caution concerning this book and the indecision which I have about reading more of Lehane's work stems from the extreme amount of brutality and violence graphically depicted. While most of the violence is essential to the storyline, there is one torture scene so shockingly detailed that I recommend that the squeamish not read this book. However, my enjoyment of the author's narrative skills combined with an ending ambivalent enough to provide hope for the future that I decided that despite my qualms the book deserved a five star rating. AND THE TWO PAGE OPENING IS ONE OF THE BEST THAT I HAVE EVER READ, it provides a great hook and accurately sets the tone for the reading adventure that you will experience.
Tucker Andersen
Book Review: Outstanding first novel by today's best detective writer
Summary: 5 Stars
For a first novel, this one truly delivers the goods. Few veteran writers have produced tenth novels as polished and as gripping as this one. The characters are all very well drawn, the situation well developed, and the complex situation resolved in satisfying fashion. My lone complaint is that the sexual chemistry between Kenzie and Gennaro seems forced in this one. Not all writers handle all aspects of a tale equally well. Lehane excels at violence, darkness, and suspense, not romance.One of the great things about this book is the almost tactile feel you get for Boston. One of the complaints that I have had with Robert Parker is that his Boston doesn't feel all that uniquely Boston. Substitute other street and place names, and you could have Chicago or Detroit or Philadelphia, or wherever. But Lehane absolutely nails the local scenery in Boston, the attitudes of locals in the neighborhoods.
Occasionally you will see blurbs describing Lehane as the heir to Hammett or Chandler, but this does a tremendous disservice to all three. Lehane writes in no way like either of those two. He does not possess either's scintillating prose style, nor does he structure his stories in anything like the way that they did. The true comparison is with the third master of the American hardboiled detective story: Ross MacDonald. In nearly all of his novels, MacDonald works on a Biblical theme: "The sins of the fathers will be visited unto the second and third generations." In a typical MacDonald plot, someone dies or is abducted or commits a crime, and as he uncovers the evidence he learns that the root cause lies fifteen or twenty or even thirty years in the past. Lehane writes in precisely this manner, also focusing on the psychological damage that the past can inflict on innocents.
Since the publication of A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR, Lehane has been the most interesting writer of detective fiction in the United States. He is still quite young, and it will be fascinating to watch his career in the future.
Book Review: Good first start.
Summary: 4 Stars
If you like hard boiled, fast paced and sarcastic dark heros, this is right up your alley. A great introduction to a series of compelling and often morally challenging detective noir thrillers.Book Review: Outstanding Five Star Debut
Summary: 5 Stars
Patrick and Angie, best friends since they were kids, are all grown up and are PI partners working out of a church belfry in Boston. Their ties from the neighborhood, that have carried on into their present lives, add more believability to this story than you'll find in most mysteries.They've been hired by some heavyweight politicians to find a cleaning lady who supposedly stole some government documents, but what she has taken is something else altogether. They find the woman and find out she's connected to not one, but two gang leaders, and they also find bodies piling up, one after another, and soon they're the target of both gangs.
This book is a shocking ride though the dark side of racism, gang violence and poverty as it asks the question, is the right thing to do always the moral one. This first effort by Lehane is worth every one of five stars, would that I could give it more.
Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne