Rating: 
Summary: Add Dennis Lehane to your must-read list!!
Review: I ordered this because Amazon recommended it - this one was a bullseye! Great characters, great dialog, great plot. I always enjoy realistic, less-than-holy protagonists. Darkness, Take My Hand is just as good. Can't say enough good things about Mr. Lehane and his work.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning book about politics, pushers, and agenda.
Review: Having been a social worker in Boston, working with inner city offenders and gang members I can attest that Mr. Lehane writes a gripping truth which would shock many readers. "A Drink" is tough, charming, emotional, outrageous novel which is loaded with truth.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent thriller/character study
Review: Dennis Lehane's debut novel featuring the PI team of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro is a solid, well written thriller about buried secrets and those who like to keep them buried. But in telling the tale, Lehane offers us a view inside the SOUL of his main characters, and their own reactions to the kind of evil and prejudice they uncover. I read the second Kenzie/Gennaro novel (Darkness, Take My Hand) first, and this is equally well-done. Miles ahed of the rest of the run-of-the-mill Chandler wannabes, Lehane is a writer who entertains us, and makes us think. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: James Lee Burke: MOVE OVER AND MAKE ROOM FOR DENNIS LEHANE!
Review: Wow! A GREAT READ in the style of James Lee Burke. Super characters! Terrific plot! Marvelous prose! This author doen't know how good he is. Treat yourself and read this thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Smart, fast, complex, and compelling
Review: Lehane flirts with all the major hardboiled clichés and then turns every one inside out, pushing the reader to examine the assumptions behind them. Compelling characters and a plot with no easy answers make this a sharp, sophisticated, exciting novel. And the really good news is, this is the first in a series.
Rating:
Summary: One Hell of a Good Book
Review: This was one of the best first novels that I have ever read. The characters are very well written and the action is first rate without going over the top. Bubba is one very scary guy. Hope I never meet him.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This is just how I like a detective story to be. Fast, gritty and just enough twists and turns. Patrick is an intelligent, wise cracking and tough detective (no wimps here)with a decidedly large soft spot for his partner Angela. Angela is also tough, smart and sassy. Together they close an intriguing and nasty case. Taking down the bad guys on the way. I hope this is a long series!
Ree-views
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific First Novel
Review: Tough, tender, and unexpectedly funny, this book leaves you wanting more.The characters are well drawn, the action tense -- a great read.Spencer on the wrong side of the tracks
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I became a fan of this author after reading Mystic River. Looking for more I then read Prayers for Rain, which is the most recent in the Kenzie-Gennaro series. Liking it (but not in the Mystic River class) I figured I should go back to the first in the series and work my way forward. Frankly, I found this effort to be disappointing and not up to the standards that the author is capable of. Kenzie and Gennaro are big into the wise cracks and dark humor, but the matter they are dealing with is both serious and deadly. Both are in a position to be killed in the book, yet the yuks and remarks keep flowing along with a lot of very violent action, including the cold blooded murder of a gang leader who truly deserved it - by Kenzie and Gennaro. There is some telling social commentary about the type of justice that one gets in Boston based upon skin color and a fairly accurate description of the kind of politicians who populate the Golden Dome on Beacon Hill. There is also a pretty good puzzle to be solved, but the way the story is told didn't ring true to me.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic debut for guttsy and witty detective duo
Review: Set a seemingly simple find-and-deliver task by odious politicians, eminently likeable private investigator duo Kenzie and Gennaro have more on their hands than it first seems. With their superior detection skills, tracing the woman comes relatively easily: delivering her and the documents and untangling the maelstrom that erupts once they find her are much more complicated. Thrown into a scenario involving gang war, drugs, child abuse and blackmail they can only rely on their wits and wit, and a friendly sociopath, to get them out in one piece. Along the way the pair have to battle their personal demons of unrequited lust, a violent spouse and a dead but not forgotten abusive father in a frantic race to emerge with their lives intact, but not without blood on their hands. Written with style and wit, a solid, fast-moving plot and an eye for interesting supporting characters, this first in the Kenzie and Gennaro series proves that our heros are two to watch.
| 
