Rating: 
Summary: Excellence
Review: The reviewer who wrote that this story does not stay with you must have gotten their reviews mixed up. I have read 2 pretty good books since reading Shutter Island and I still cannot get the story out of my head. Not only is the story great, the ending is...well just read the book. I went out and picked up a few copies for some of my friends who do not read quite as much as I do just to have people to talk to about it. Lehane's 2 year publishing absence actually was disapointing, but man was this novel worth it. If I was to aspire to write like someone it would be Dennis Lehane. His command of the language is unsurpassed in the genre, and when you add this to everything else he does very well it puts him right near the top of the game. I think I will do something I rarely do, that is to go back and read it again just to see how he set this bad boy up.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best thrillers I've read in a while
Review: "Shutter Island" is the first book by Dennis Lehane I've ever read. I heard about this book from a movie Website. Apparently Wolfgang Peterson (director of Air Force One, and In the Line of Fire) has optioned this book to be turned into a movie. Reading this book, I can say it would make a FANTASTIC movie. But I digress...Dennis Lehane's prose is very well paced; secrets behind every corner. Plot twists abound, but I can't say the whole book surprised me because I thought of just about every scenario Marshals Daniels and Aule could get into. At first I thought the premise of two US Marshals looking for an insane, escaped murderess on an island during a hurricane was a little to zany to work, but man, I'll tell you, the whole book is so well done! And I was TOTALLY satisfied with the denouement. The dialogue really grabs you. Its funny at times, heartbreaking at others and completely true to life. Kudos to Dennis Lehane! Now I'm gonna have to go back and read his previous works, and I can't wait!
Rating: 
Summary: A Foreboding, Depressing Story with a Five Star Conclusion
Review: It is Hurricane Season 1954 and U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule have arrived on Shelter Island in Boston Harbor shortly before the arrival of a killer hurricane which is almost as menacing as the events which they are sent to investigate. The island houses a former civil war installation (and lighthouse important to the story) which has been transformed into Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. They are there to investigate the escape and disappearance of Rachel Solando, an inmate patient at Ashecliffe who murdered her three young children. There are cryptic codes to be unraveled and bizarre and unexplained happenings that are very unsettling to Teddy and Chuck. Furthermore, Teddy has a personal agenda to pursue while on the island and his own demons to confront. The medical staff seems very secretive at times, and Teddy and Chuck soon conclude that they are being manipulated and that a substantial portion of the truth is being withheld from them. They also becomes concerned about the possibilty of secret experimentation being performed at the facility. The book is set at the time when controversy was rampant regarding the effectiveness of different treatment modalities for the mentally disturbed - traditional psychotherapy versus physical methodologies (lobotomies and electroshock) versus the newly emeging experimentation with psychotropic drugs - and discussion of these alternatives is an integral element of the plot. Unfortunately, this discusion was quite limited and superficial, probably in an attempt to maintain the fast pace of the action but at the expense of the possibility of a much richer and more nuanced although somewhat lengthier story. The book is a very fast read, it contains a lot of dialogue and with the exception of Teddy most of the character development is limited to the minimum necssary to advance the narrative. Given the nature of the patients' and the staffs' personalties, often caricatures were sufficient in any event. Until the conclusion, I was wavering in my rating between two and three stars, but the shocking (althogh still depressing ) conclusion completely changed my view of the story and the author's technique. It also led me to believe that some of his storytelling methodology which I disliked was integral to the mood which he had been trying to create. (This is my first Dennis Lehane novel so I had no preconceptions.) In retrospect, the ending is foreshadowed, but as a reader caught up in the story the misdirection certainly worked on me. The closest analogy I can give is to the movie SIXTH SENSE, which you need to see again to reinterpret all the clues. This book is not nearly as well done, and the final chapters actually review a lot of the misdirection for you, but the impact for me was the same. Interestingly enough, a perusal of the thirty ... reviews available as I submit this review indicates that a clear majority of readers came to my conclusion but the reaction of a significant minority ranged from lukewarm to very disappointed. There are twenty-one five star ratings and in a real oddity no one until now has rated it four stars; the other nine reviewers came to the conclusion that it deserved only one to three stars. I definitely recommend the book but felt that the depressing nature of the subject matter and my desire for a more detailed story with more deeply drawn characters kept it from deserving the unqualified endorsement that five stars implies.
Rating:
Summary: I really didn't see that one coming!
Review: Shutter Island is a sneaky one, I have to tell you from the start. Two US Marshalls arrive at the isolated mental institution to find the missing patient and things go in strange directions from then on.
Obviously, I won't tell you how it ends, but I didn't see it coming!
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner from Lehane
Review: This was a great book! I loved the setting--1950's insane asylum on an island during a hurricane. I see that other people are complaining that this isn't Mystic River. No, it's not, but that's what makes Lehane great. He is a versatile writer that doesn't just write the same book over and over like other authors. Mystic River was completely different from the style of his series. And Shutter Island was a completely different style than Mystic River. All of his books are well-written and absolute gems.
Rating:
Summary: Dazzling..
Review: but difficult to review. So much of Lehane's latest, "Shutter Island", is tied up in the twists and turns of plot, that to write a review that summarizes the plot is tantalizing -- but will spoil the book for the next reader. Lehane apparently became an afficianado of old Sinatra, causing him to write the noir-ish "Shutter Island", set in 1954. The book is about the handling of psychiatric patients in those days, terrifying as THAT is. Lehane's two main characters are U.S. Marshals, sent to investigate the disappearance of a woman "patient", who'd been held in the Island hospital for the criminally insane. Although Lehane truly develops only one character in the novel, Marshal Teddy Daniels, his deft ability to describe the motivations of others, and to electify with descriptive phrase of his setting leave you feeling that he just may be the best novelist in America today. "The lights went on above them in a series of liquid cracks that sounded like bones breaking underwater. Electric charges hummed in the air and were followed by an explosion of yells
and catcalls and wailing...." -- it'll be tough for you to get much sleep with Shutter Island in tow. It was a fast read and I sat up far into the night to finish it...and then could not rest. Like in his characters, Lehane sets up a momentum and a fear in you that won't let you forget this book for days. I'm not surprised to see the wide variety of ratings given the book -- the best generally are controversial. Read it and judge for yourself!!
Rating:
Summary: Twisted Ride
Review: Dennis you may continue to stay at the head of the class. What a twisted ride. Loved every minute. May I suggest that it be read in the daytime. Different from Mystic River but well worth the wait. You have an unique ability to keep one on the edge of their seats. Looking forward to future works from you. Whomever the master of your mind, keep up the great work. Twisted ....
Rating:
Summary: Thinking man's page turner!
Review: Fear, obsession, paranoia...Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island" is the stuff nightmares are made of. It is noir psychological suspense at its finest. An isolated island, a raging hurricane, a locked room, secret codes, a mental hospital, rumors of mysterious medical experiments frame the story. It is a scary, deceptive, disorienting, complex story grounded in the reality of the times...cold war USA in 1954 ("I like Ike"). Mr. Lehane weaves many threads throughout the unpredictable plot. The set up is thorough and the characters are fully developed. The twists and turns play havoc with your mind. The unexpected is the norm...a couple of times I was able to figure something out a page and a half before it was revealed, but that was rare. The ending is unguessable. Immediately upon finishing, I reread the prolog and final chapter...and will read this book again. I have not been so dumbfounded by an ending since William Diehl's "Primal Fear." "Shutter Island" is etched in my memory.
Rating:
Summary: GRABS YOU BY THE THROAT AND WON'T LET GO!
Review: Shutter Island is the kind of book that hooks you on the first page and doesn't let you go until the last page.
It starts out with to U.S. Marshalls going to a mental instituition to locate a patient that escaped. The mental instituition is on and isolated island, and there is a hurricane headed toward the island. Once on the island it is revealed that one of the cops has an ulterior motive for wanting the assignment. As the story progresses he begins to think that someone is trying to drive him insane.
The book does have the same plot hook of several recent movies, I had a feeling I knew where it was heading after about 150 pages, but Lehane's writing style keeps it fresh and interesting.
I'm a big fan of Dennis Lehane. He never fails to write great thrillers, although Shutter Island and his last book Mystic River are great books, I hope he hasn't retired the Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gennaro series. Those characters are still my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the best novel of 2003, so far.
Review: All the reviews I've read are talking about the huge surprise ending. Forget about that. I figured it out pretty early on in the novel. What makes this novel so right are the characters and the emotion. Teddy's journey is one of the most wrenching journeys I've ever read. I read the final two chapters with a knot in my stomach. And I've never done that. Hugely suspenseful, hugely exciting. A great, great novel. Too bad we'll probably have to wait two years until the next one. -Dave
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