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: Lehane is smoking
Review: The only problem with Dennis Lehane is that he writes so well, that his books just fly, and you regret that its over so soon. I started this book and finished in the same day. I can't remember the last time I read a book in one day, and believe me I read a lot. The reason this only gets 4 stars is that comparing it to "Darkness Take My Hand" it would be hard not to fall a little short. That book was so good it gave me chills. Now on to this book, once again Kenzie and Gennaro are drawn into an intriguing case, where nothing is what it seems. There are plenty of twists and turns that jump out at you. The dialogue and action don't miss a step. While I state this isn't as great at the previous book in the series, it is still very good and well worth the read. While it is true that you don't need to read the other books prior to "Sacred", there are however references to the events in those books that give away their endings, so I encourage you to read in order. Lehane has quickly become one of my favorite authors. He is right on par with Harlan Coben, but with a darker edge. If you haven't read Lehane or are yet to read this book, you are missing out. Pick it up now, so you aren't the last one in on this great author.
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: 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.
Rating:
Summary: "Black as White, Up is Down"
Review: In the third installment of Dennis Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro series, Patrick Kenzie and his partner Angie Gennaro take a trip to Florida to track down the depressed and grieving daughter of a dying billionaire named Trevor Stone. They end up taking the job after being drugged and kidnapped by Stone's henchmen. Quickly, the job becomes more than they had originally bargained for. First, they discover that Desiree, Stone's daughter, got mixed up in a shady counselling center that is tied to an equally shady church. Kenzie's mentor, Jay Becker, managed to disappear while pursuing this case himself. To top it off, one morning Kenzie wakes up to find all his credit cards cancelled, his bank account frozen, and the IRS on his back. Things start to get personal for Kenzie and his partner, on more than one level. This book is notably different than its predecessors in the series. Unlike 'A Drink Before the War' and 'Darkness, Take My Hand,' the events of the book are not limited to the greater Boston area. Kenzie and Gennaro track Desiree and Becker down to Florida. It is in Florida that most of the twists and interesting events take place. Another difference in this novel is the lack of Bubba. Bubba is a gun running mountain of a man that is extremely protective of Kenzie and Gennaro. He appears for about three chapters before heading to prison to serve out a one year sentence on weapons charges. The third difference is the atmosphere. Lehane still manages to sneak in political commentary concerning wealth and power, but it is less pointed. The novel is not as dark. If 'A Drink Before the War' was the urban gangster novel of the series, and 'Darkness, Take My Hand,' was the serial killer novel of the series, then this was the surreal "what is going" on novel. As Gennaro says, "black is white, up is down." The book is full of plot twists. Nothing is as it seems, and things continually change up until the last four or five chapters of the book. I highly recommend 'Sacred.' It probably deserves five stars, but I felt it wasn't quite on par with the previous two novels of the series, so I gave it four. Lehane is one of the best crime novel authors out there. I recommend reading this series from the beginning in order to understand some of the details and back story that are alluded to, but you could start with this novel if you wanted.
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