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Summary: You will be discussing this book for quite some time!
Review: Readers approach an established author with expectations. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Those expectations help keep readers familiar with the author, while recommending the author to friends and attending book signings --- all of those good things. So what does one do when a favorite author not only steps away from established characters, but also takes a familiar genre... and tinkers with it a bit, and thus transforms it into something else?This is precisely what Dennis Lehane does with SHUTTER ISLAND, a book very different from what he has done in the past and also different from what others laboring mightily in the mystery and suspense idiom have done. Lehane made his bones with five novels featuring the duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. His last novel, MYSTIC RIVER, was a departure from those characters but still covered the same territory that Lehane has demonstrated an intimate familiarity with, that being modern-day, working class Boston, through the prism of the detective novel. SHUTTER ISLAND is a totally different animal. SHUTTER ISLAND takes place not in 2003 but in 1954 and not in Boston but in view of it --- in Ashecliffe Hospital --- located on Shutter Island, an island with a history dating back to the Civil War. The tale is told through the eyes of U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, the son of a fisherman, a man whose life has been marked by tragic violence and sorrow suffered in quiet silence. When we meet Daniels, he is on his way to Ashecliffe Hospital to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, one of the patients. Her disappearance is significant because Ashecliffe is not an ordinary hospital, but a treatment and holding center for the criminally insane. The island is accessible only by ferry and there is simply nowhere that Solando could have gone. However, as Daniels and Chuck Aule, his newly acquired partner, begin their investigation, it is immediately apparent that all is not right. The doctors who run the hospital are not entirely cooperative, the assistant warden seems to be more obstructive than not and the warden is an enigmatic character who, within the brief period in which the reader makes his acquaintance, is quite frightening. But to say that nothing or no one on SHUTTER ISLAND is as it or they seem to be is an understatement. And when Solando reappears as suddenly as she vanished, it is a signal that the mystery is only beginning. But SHUTTER ISLAND is more, far more, than a mystery novel. The last chapter of this book will cause you to read it again and again, and then reread the entire novel. All is revealed, yet all remains obscure. SHUTTER ISLAND is a genre-bending novel that is as absorbing a book as you are likely to read this year, combining the best elements of Agatha Christie, Eric Ambler, Philip K. Dick and Dennis Lehane. Readers will be discussing this novel --- and its ultimate revelation --- for quite some time. Very highly recommended. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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Summary: excellent mystery
Review: Dennis Lehane does it again!! He draws you in, and he gets you with the old twisteroo. This is a must read.
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Summary: great historical police procedural
Review: In 1954, US Marshals Teddy Daniels and his new partner, just in from Seattle, Chuck Aule take the ferry from the Massachusetts mainland to Shutter Island where Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane dominates the landscape. The law enforcement officials are assigned to investigate the disappearance of a convict (patient to Dr. Cawley) Rachel Solando, the Berkshire killer of three children she first drowned then "shared" breakfast with them in her kitchen. Teddy and Chuck wonder how the woman could escape from a locked room on the third floor with guards all over the place and no hideaways on the island itself and swimming the distance to the nearest land in the treacherous Atlantic seems monumental. A hurricane is coming, which when it hits will totally isolate the island from the mainland. They begin to find evidence of illegal drug therapy and surgery, but little about the vanished Rachel. As they uncover more proof of wrongdoing Teddy and Chuck wonder if they will get off the island alive. Highly regarded Dennis Lehane may have written the best police procedural and thriller of the year. Plenty of action, several mysteries that feels like a Moebius string as each sub-mystery seems inside one another, and strong characterization including flashbacks to Teddy's tragically deceased spouse make for a great read. On top of a powerful story line with a deep cast and a feel for how society dealt with mental illness during the early Eisenhower red scare era, the climax is as good as a novel gets. If a reader can afford one book, SHUTTER ISLAND is a terrific choice. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: This is a shocking, twist-filled , MUST read thriller.
Review: U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, and his partner Chuck have been given an important assignment, find a young woman who has disappeared. The woman is Rachel Solando and she is a prisoner/patient at a hospital for the criminally insane. It seems Rachel vanished into thin air...the hospital is secluded on a small island with no viable means of escape, and the hospital is crawling with nurses and orderlies but somehow Rachel has managed to get out. Teddy and Chuck begin questioning everyone at the hospital, only to come up empty-handed until the absence of a certain doctor and the discovery of a hand-written riddle found in Rachel's room become their first clues in a strange case that's as twisted and violent as the criminals on Shutter Island. With a storm hitting the island, Teddy and Chuck race to find the violent woman who went missing and uncover the secrets harbored on Shutter Island, but the closer they get to the truth is that much closer they will be to their own madness, as someone plans on keeping the pair on the island for good. WOW! 'Shutter Island' is so good that I'm at a loss for words to describe how good it is. The main mystery of the missing woman grabs you on page one, and pulls you deeper into the web of lies and murder that surrounds it with each turn of the page. The characters are rich and colorful, and each development in the plot ratchets up the tension until you reach the explosive climax. Dennis Lehane has-done-it-again...another page-turning bestseller that further proves him a master storyteller. I have loved all of Lehane's novels, but 'Shutter Island' is one of his, if not THE best he has written, and that's saying a lot considering all his books are among the best crime novels out there. This is definitely a MUST READ! Nick Gonnella
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Summary: A great dark mystery
Review: Teddy and Chuck, two US Marshalls are assigned on a case involving a missing mental patient/inmate from a mental institution on Shutter Island. On their way to the island, Teddy gets seasick, and the reader is already sensing that something is wrong with Teddy. And true enough. While searching for the missing patient, we learn that Teddy has some almost disabling migraines and that he is trying to deal with the horrors of World Was 2, where he was involved as a code-breaker. Teddy and Chuck suspects that there is more going on at Shutter Island than what just meets the eye, and this novel is masterly written. The ending is very surprising, and the author has managed to give the whole story and overall dark feeling, which just makes the story more intense. There are many things and happenings to think about in this book, and my guess is, that this is one of those books that will be better second time you read it.
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Summary: Eerie, disturbing, well-written treat
Review: Having read all of Lehane's previous novels I looked forward to Shutter Island with anticipation, and I was not disappointed. This is a very different sort of book than either the Patrick & Angie mysteries or Mystic River. It is just as well-written though, and just as difficult to put down. The story begins as a classic "locked-door" mystery--how did child-murderer Rachel Solando escape from her room in the hospital for the criminally insane on isolated Shutter Island? Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule arrive to try to answer that question just as a major hurricane is bearing down on the island. The hurricane provides a suitably threatening and violent backdrop for the action. Nothing is as it seems. No one can be trusted. Threats to both mind and body lurk around every corner. Events take on an eerie, hallucinatory quality that is as disturbing as it is irresistable. Yes, the ending is definitely a twist (or twisted?) but it isn't a cheat or a trick. Lehane earns every gasp of shock and shudder of horror. This is a book that will stay with you for a long time...at least until Lehane's next is released. ;o)
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Summary: Glorious Non-stop Scary Fun
Review: Just read this book. I picked it up at the airport. I've never read any of Mr. Lehane's other books. I COULD NOT STOP READING IT. I read it on the plane from Vancouver to Los Angeles. I read it until I couldn't see anymore. What else do you WANT from a book for God's sake? It's FABULOUS. It breaks your heart and pulls you in and makes you THINK. It's just good writing and there is no substitute for that.
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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!
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Summary: My first Lehane
Review: This was my first Lehane book and I must say I'm not impressed. I found it a bit formulaic, recalling bad memories of Dallas. I would think any avid mystery reader would have this story solved just by reading the back of the book.
It wasn't a total waste of my time. I liked the character development and found Teddy's love for his wife endearing. However, it does have loose ends and the ending is left up for interpretation.
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Summary: Interesting, but confusing.
Review: I have to admit, this was a page-turner, but I expected more. By the end, I was rather confused and, when I finished, I felt as if there should have been more to the story. Otherwise, I think it was a great idea and it wasn't one where you can guess what is going to happen before you get to the end.
Also, he didn't proofread it very well. There was one very long run-on sentence that was rather annoying. Not a very big deal, but still annoying.
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