Rating: 
Summary: A major disaster!
Review: The worst type of "mystery"--where you're not sure what to think at the end and don't care. Horribly cliched dialogue and plotted like it was written in a weekend to meet a publishing deadline.
I can't believe the author of "Mystic River" would stoop to this.
Rating: 
Summary: Never has this happened before....
Review: After finishing it two weeks ago, I still think about it. Is there anyway to know what Mr. Lehane intended as the true ending?Mr. Lehane has, in my opinion, created the perfect mystery. I would like to thank him for leaving me with the question of what the truth is. Is it what we are told? Or is it something else....
Rating:
Summary: One of his best
Review: Until I read Shutter Island, I thought Mystic River was his best. But Shutter Island wowed me. The ending was brilliant, and as someone said earlier, I spent at least an hour re-reading parts of the book to pick up the hints and clues so I could say, "Aha". I really have enjoyed all of his books, but Mystic River and Shutter Island have kicked it up several notches.
Rating:
Summary: Don't start this book until you have time to read it ALL
Review: Some other reviewer said they could have seen the ending to this one coming if they had just read more carefully and that the only reason they *didn't* see it coming is because it was such a "quick read." One of the marvels of Lehane's book is that even though the ending shocks you, once you get there you realize that it was there all along in plain sight. However, the one thing the ending is NOT is predictable. Besides, it's a quick read only because it grips you and doesn't let go! I started reading Shutter Island one evening and stayed up until I finished it, well into the morning hours -- because I just couldn't put it down. The ending hit me right in the gut. After (finally) turning out the light I lay there for another hour just thinking about it. The next night I was up late again, looking back through it, tracking all the signs, and clues, and explanations, and still shaking my head, trying to digest it. This book is a really great read. This book is extraordinary!! Somebody else said that it's not for the faint-hearted. Probably not. But if you want to read something with incredible power, what are you waiting for?! THANK GOODNESS for Dennis Lehane and his powerful gift for writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointed
Review: I've been a big fan of Lehane's since the very beginning, but I have to say that this book was extremely dissapointing. I've endorsed his work to many friends and family over the years and, unfortunately, could not for this subpar effort. I've haven't NOT finished a novel since I can remember, but almost did with this one. Another small peeve of mine: he's got to get off of the overused superfluous metaphor kick. He's too good of a talent for that.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Written, Deeply Disturbing Psych Thriller!
Review: With "Shutter Island" Dennis Lehane departs radically from the blue-collar, noir fiction of "Mystic River," and the Boston PI series that initially marked him as a superb storyteller. As always, Lehane's prose is powerful and well crafted, but "Shutter Island disturbed me in a way that his other novels did not. Lehane explores the dark side of man in his fiction, the suppressed brutality lurking beneath the civilized surface. I somehow always knew where I stood while reading his other novels, although he frequently traveled new terrain, I had no problem staying with him. I found myself disoriented, at times, reading "Shutter Island." This is no dark mystery thriller from Boston's working class streets, nor is it the powerhouse masterpiece that is "Mystic River." This is a disquieting, multilayered, psychological thriller that deals with mental illness in a way that makes the disease palpably real. Lehane takes us on a journey into the heart of psychopathology, and the feeling of total disorientation is so strong that it is most disturbing. I was left with a downright creepy feeling when I finished the book, but I believe this is exactly what the author intended. U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, take the ferry to Shutter Island, one morning in late summer, 1954, to investigate the disappearance of an inmate of the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Ashecliffe, the island's only facility, has a long and dark history. It is almost a gothic presence, looming over the island. Rachel Solando, a WWII widow who murdered her three children during a major episode of depression, has been a longtime patient at Ashecliffe. She somehow vanished from her locked and well guarded cell during the night. Daniels and Aule investigate the mysterious disappearance, with very little cooperation from the hospital staff, and decide that Rachel Solando must have had assistance in escaping, since she obviously couldn't make herself invisible and walk through a locked door. Lehane's tense, minimalist narrative, combined with the plot's twists and turns, leave the impression that no matter what evidence the marshals turn up about the patient, or about the hospital itself, nothing is ever really discovered. There is a feeling of foreboding that the investigators are not in charge of the case that brought them to the hospital, but are rather being led through a series of scenarios, planned in advance for their benefit. Then a violent hurricane breaks over Shutter Island, prisoners escape, and Mrs. Solandos is discovered during the chaos. The men are free to return on the next ferry out after the storm. But Teddy Daniels is not ready to leave. What has been a mystery now turns into a psychological thriller. Daniels lost his wife in an arsonist's fire two years before and still mourns her deeply. The arsonist who caused his wife's death, Andrew Laeddis, is imprisoned at Ashecliffe Hospital, and Daniels has known this for a long while. He had been waiting for the opportunity to travel to Ashecliffe and meet Laeddis face-to-face. And this investigation provided him with the ideal opportunity. He is not sure if he will kill the man he believes murdered his wife, or if he will just accuse him, but Daniels does not want to leave the island without resolving the issue that has plagued him for so long. He knows in his gut that something is seriously wrong at the hospital. He mistrusts the hospital's administrators who have behaved in a suspicious manner since he and Aule arrived. He has doubts about the veracity of all the information they have been given. Daniels also believes that illegal surgery and experiments are being conducted on the most violent patients - experiments reminiscent of those performed on the concentration camp prisoners he saw during the war. He feels the hospital administrators may view him and his partner as a dangerous threat to their operation. Then Chuck disappears and Teddy Daniels realizes that he may never leave the island alive. This is a superbly constructed novel that is filled with suspense and dark turns at almost every corner. The entire narrative is told from the point of view of Teddy Daniels. A sympathetic and well fleshed-out character, Daniels is an intelligent man, who appears very much in command and in control of himself. He has suffered much, during the war and with the death of his wife and the life he hoped they would have together. His dark dreams are vividly depicted and provide more clues to the mysteries on Shutter Island than do all the codes and pieces of evidence acquired during the four day duration of the story. This is a novel that haunts, long after the last page has been read. It is, at times, chilling and definitely not for the faint of heart. Dennis Lehane proves, yet again, that he is one of America's best living novelists, who long ago surpassed the title of genre writer. Highly recommended!
JANA
Rating:
Summary: dreadful
Review: Why does anybody like this dreadful novel? I thought Mystic River was completely engaging, marvelously written, a crime novel that stepped well beyond the formulaic boundaries of its genre. Shutter Island reads like an acrostic. The writing is hurried and flat, the dialogue is stagey and improbable, the ending is silly and overwrought. I hope Lehane returns quickly to the territory he staked out so skilfully in Mystic River.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane's latest and greatest, tells the intriguing tale involving a terrible storm on an island that houses expirmental psychiatric patients. It is the storm that sets off a number of twists, turns, and unexpected pleasures. This book is very different from Mystic River, which is a good thing. Mystic River is just about as perfect as can be written, so Lehane had to go in another direction. I couldn't set this book down and it was an awesome read. I highly recommend Shutter Island.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable
Review: I rarely read mysteries but I'd heard so much about the shocking ending of "Shutter Island" I just had to see what the fuss was all about. This book is definitely a page turner and it is very well-written. I have to admit, I was engrossed. Now, about that shocking ending: I was pretty sure I knew what it was all about before I was even one-third of the way through the book and, I was right. This didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book, though. Shutter Island is a very quick read and I don't think anyone could complain that they've wasted their time with this one. Those who don't guess the book's ending will probably be very surprised. I felt more than a little manipulated by it but I'll say this: Lahane plays fair. There are clues aplenty strewn all through the book. The reader only has to fit the pieces into the puzzle and it's really not difficult to do at all. "Shutter Island" is by no means great literature and it sure didn't convert me into a lover of mysteries but it is a darn good read and one that will keep some readers biting their nails until the very last page.
Rating:
Summary: The unexpected!
Review: Never read this author before, but was pleasantly surprised. The writing is vivid enough to picture most of this story. The story was quite good. I certainly didn't expect the story to turn down that path. Very creative and something different to read. Much better than those tired old "formula" novels. I highly recommend.
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