Gone, Baby, Gone

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Any voracious reader will occasionally find themselves playing what I refer to as "the library lottery"--stand in the middle of the library's fiction section, let their gaze drift over the amassed titles, and just grab a book at random, hoping that their choice will be, at the very least, a few hours' diversion. So it was one spring afternoon for me when my eyes fell upon "Gone, Baby, Gone." Dennis Lehane? Hmm, never heard of him. The cover blurb looked relatively interesting, and I do try to break out of my rut from time to time, so I brought it home.

Three pages into the book, I knew I had hit the literary equivalent of the jackpot.

"Gone ..." is the third Lehane novel to feature private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, who are struggling with both their personal and professional lives together while they work to find a missing child. As with Lehane's other Kenzie/Gennaro books, it's not necessary to have read others in the series to follow Patrick and Angie's past, although enough references are made to make the reader want to seek out what came before. Lehane has one of the best feels for dialogue in modern fiction, and his plots are tight without being predictable. To the best of my knowledge, I'm one of the few who discovered Dennis Lehane with this particular book (the book I most often hear cited is "Darkness, Take My Hand," his second novel, which is also great). If you've never read Dennis Lehane, you will not go wrong with this or any of his novels. He's one of the best out there right now, and he's on the verge of becoming huge.

Rating:
Summary: The Emperor Has No Clothes
Review: I have reached the point of mystification with Dennis Lehane.

After reading "Mystic River", I was very excited, thinking that I had found a great new American author. For someone like me who can literally read a book in just a few hours, this was a happy feeling, because I am rapidly running out of books to read!

However (you knew there was going to be a however, didn't you?) ...

"Shutter Island" was so-so, and THIS book was, well, just awful. How in the world did this guy write "Mystic River", which is a masterpiece and is technically flawless, yet crank out a limping book like "Gone, Baby, Gone"?

At first, I enjoyed this book, as the pacing was fast, the story was fresh, the characterizations were right on, and the writing was technically tight. Then, around the time that the female sidekick breaks into a criminal's place to wire it (ummm .... OK), the story simply fell apart. I could no longer tell what the heck was going on.

Then, even worse, the book started tasting dated, as Lehane threw in mid-90's and even early-90's references galore, such as references to Ren-N-Stimpy. What the ... ? I know he wrote the book mid-90's, but as every author knows, unless you are writing a historical novel, you don't put in pop references unless you want your work to age like brie from K-Mart. That is one reason why "Mystic River" will be around for centuries. There are no cheap pop references in it whatsoever.

Then, Lehane gets on his VERY high horse about "save the children" or whatnot and the suspension of disbelief is wrecked. I agree with his sentiments but not with his heavy-handed writing technique. It just doesn't work.

THEN, and IMHO worst of all, the female detective gets the baby-rabies, and starts moaning on and on about "creating a beautiful baby with love energy" or some such claptrap. It just made no sense at all. A hard-boiled private detective acting this way, with no warning whatsoever? Maybe if he had worked it into the story a little more, but as it stands, it's not plausible. Maybe if she was cracking up or something; I just don't know. He never explains or justifies it, and that's why I finally put the book down.

I think this book may have been part of some MFA project of Lehane's, as it screams, "I have an MFA in creative writing!" I dunno about that though. All I know is that this book does not live up to the hype, and does not live up to the talent level Lehane displayed so beautifully in "Mystic River".

If you like good writing, avoid this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not soon forgotten
Review: Of the three Kenzie/Gennaro novels I have read, this was the most entertaining, if one can describe kidnapping of a child and abuse of kidnapped children by some of the most twisted people in our society "entertaining." Amanda McCready, a four year old, has been kidnapped and her aunt and uncle have sought out the dynamic duo to see if she can be found. They work out a tenuous and sometimes tense relationship with the detectives who are in charge of the investigation, yet little or no progress in finding the little girl occurs. At the half way point in the book, Patrick summarizes what they have accomplished (or not). "This was one of the most infuriating cases I'd ever worked. Absolutely nothing made sense. A four year old girl disappears. Investigation leads us to believe that the child was kidnapped by drug dealers who'd been ripped off by the mother. A ransom demand for the stolen money arrives from a woman who seems to work for the drug dealers. The ransom drop is an ambush. The drug dealers are killed. One of the drug dealers may or may not be an undercover operative for the federal government. The missing girl remains missing or at the bottom of a quarry."

As it turns out, the answers are hiding in plain sight, yet it takes time, lives and luck to eventually come up with them.

This is no Mystic River (few are) but, it is a good story, well told.

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Well Written
Review: Well I have found a new favorite author. I picked up Dennis Lehane's newest book "Prayers For Rain" at the bookstore, and up until that day I had never heard of him before, well thats changed and i finished the last of all his books last night. Gone, Baby, Gone. Follows Patrick Kenzie and Angela Genarro around the Boston area (as usual with all Lehane books) This time in search of a young girl named Amanda McCready who has seemingly disappeared into thin air. With more plot twist's and changes of direction thand a snake this book will have you turned around backwards in no time. This book was well written with beleivable heros who grew up with little money, and even less of secure families, everything a good mystery should be but it is not for those with weak stomachs, with Kenzie and Genaro in the heart of the missing childs department of the Boston p.d., there are more stories of child creulty and neglect than you may want to hear. I suggest that everyone read Lehanes second book "Darkness, Take My Hand" before anyother books, i made the mistake of reading it last, and I already knew the outcome from all of the other Lehane books.