When a former client commits suicide, Patrick Kenzie goes digging into her background to find out why. What he finds is a blackmailing stalker that anticipates his every move. Even after being reunited with Angela, can Patrick put a stop to the blackmailer's reign of terror?Wow. After Gone Baby Gone, I assumed the Kenzie and Gennaro series would be on the decline. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong.Prayers for Rain starts with Patrick at his lowest point and sees him clawing his way back to th...

I don't have many regrets, but one that I do have is having watched Mystic River when I did.I had been very familiar with Dennis Lehane at the time, and the opportunity came to see the movie even though I hadn't read the book yet. Call it a weak moment, but I went ahead and watched it. I loved it, and only later realized it is considered his best work.Of course, I can't read it now, at least until I've totally forgotten the movie.So until then, I'm picking through his work, and I've very much en...

Actual rating : 4.5 stars After Gone, Baby, Gone, Prayers for Rain was like a breath of fresh air. "You wanted to play? Well, hide-and-seek is over. Let the real game begin, motherfucker." ➊ You were baffled to see how out of character and - yes - boring his behavior was in Gone, Baby, Gone? Good news, people! PATRICK IS BACK, and that's for the best. Welcome sarcastic descriptions, infuriating and hilarious comments, smartass answers! "Twenty miles, and it took us only an hour and fifteen...

Patrick and Angie have gone up against a lot of very bad people in their time as detectives. They’ve tangled with gang members, serial killers, the Irish and Italian mob, a religious cult, corrupt politicians, child molesters, and a variety of other evil sons-of-bitches. In Prayers for Rain, they meet their most sadistic and diabolical villain yet.Angie has gone to work for another detective agency, and Patrick is operating solo. Without Angie around, he’s losing his taste for the job, though. H...

Dark, Depthless Diversion(Funereal Fun, Oversexed Hun)3.5 stars (4 for Lehane fans; 3 for those who haven't read his work yet)I enjoyed this 5th in Lehane's Kenzie & Gennaro series, this one involving the unraveling of the sordid past of a seemingly prudish young woman, and finding her stalker. The main characters, Kenzie and Gennaro, seemed genuine, their dialogue charged with liveliness and undercurrents of sexual tensions, and Lehane kept the action suspenseful throughout. Yet, I found the su...

Private I, Patrick Kenzie, has a client who is being targeted by a stalker and she asks for help. Kenzie confronts the stalker and seems to be successful in discouraging him from continuing, case closed. But six months later when he learns that she has jumped naked to her death he wonders whether he was not as successful as he thought and decides to look into it. What follows is match with a unknown and diabolical monster has hounded her to jump and is soon trying the same things on Kenzie as he...

You wanted to play? Well, hide-and-seek is over. Let the real games begin, motherfucker. I can't say this is exactly what I wanted it to be....because it wasn't. But not for one minute did I not enjoy it. Is that weird? This book took me a week to read, which doesn't bode well for what I thought of it-But then I take into account how busy, tired, meh I've been and it about evens out with my mood. The verdict?? When I felt a distance at the beginning, I should have stopped. I drank s

After finishing the fifth in his exploits of Kenzie & Gennaro, I can confidently say that Dennis Lehane doesn't just have my number- dude's straight up got me on speed dial. What's more, I had my defenses up this time around. I don't forgive easily, and (to my own detriment) part of me* was still feeling petulant about my Gone, Baby, Gone -induced melancholia. I don't trust myself to say much about this one without ruining surprises (pleasant or otherwise). There will be more Bubba...

Poor to follow.I did not complete.

I took a Lehane break after Gone, Baby, Gone. I needed to read lighter books with stories that didn't make me feel like breaking down or getting angry because of stupid laws that make children's lives miserable.But I decided to read the next one when I saw that I need to return the Lehane books I had at home to the library. I could return them and then borrow them again but I thought what the heck lets at least read this one! Anyway, this book was a lot easier to read, the story is good, really

First read: 4.5 stars.Really enjoyed this one. Lots of action, lots of bad to very bad people, though sometimes it was hard to know who the bad guys actually were. I was a little disappointed at times when Patrick Kenzie seemed to make somewhat dumb or naive errors, but I suppose it makes it more real when the heroes aren't perfect. He's pretty good, though, and I enjoy his wisecracks, along with some of the other characters. I also like his childhood friend, Bubba, who is a good friend to have

Patrick Kenzie is approached by a woman named Karen Nichols who asks him to scare off a stalker. After Kenzie, along with the always terrifying Bubba Rowgowski, put the fear of God into the guy, Patrick considers the matter settled. About four months later, Karen leaves a vague message on Patrick’s phone asking for help with something. In a rush, Patrick deletes the voicemail and promptly forgets about it. Not long after, Karen is found dead after an apparent suicide. Kenzie’s guilt over ignorin...

I must confess... I am not a fan of the hard-boiled American "Private Eye", who relies more on his physical prowess than mental powers to catch criminals. Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells, and the cosy drawing-room British murder mystery where violence almost always takes place backstage, is more to my taste. Given my usual predilections, I might never have discovered Dennis Lehane, had Martin Scorsese not made a movie out of Shutter Island. I wanted to see the movie; and since I make it...

One of the best in a long while.So, Kenzie became really weird in the previous book and now he's back to his old self - thank fuck!Gennaro is back, I thought we lost her!!, so it's all nice and cozy to solve some weird suicide which is obviously not one.Bubba rules and without giving anything away has a really good storyline in this one.The plot in itself is about a young woman who commits an apparent suicide which Kenzie starts to investigate and gets mixed up with some really creepy people. I

4.5 starsLehane has produced an almost-final Kenzie and Gennaro story that refrained from outright stupidity, and continued to surprise us in small ways. The plotting is good, after a bit of a slow start, and moves along well, dragging us happily with it as usual. This was much better than I had feared. The tragedy of Karen's death is presented so well. I felt the pain and loss, as I always do when bright young people are hurt or lose their way. Patrick's sense of honour is keen, as usual, and s...

Awesome penultimate offering ; featuring the reunion we wanted. If you want to read a series you can enjoy over and over again, with great characters and characterization, then Lehane is your guy. He is the definition of being readable. If you wanna check out contemporary fiction but the typical route is not your thing, then this series is perfect in between. So enjoyable. So enjoy.Codicil: I remember reading this book back in 2009. And I remember rereading it in November of 2016. I fondly recal...

I love Dennis Lehane’s Boston duo— I remember devouring them after reading my first Lehane novel (Mystic River— read the book, then watch the movie). So I was pretty shocked to discover that I missed the last few books of the series. After downloading this entry, I worried it might have been too long, or maybe I wouldn’t like the characters anymore. What was I thinking? It didn’t take more than a chapter in abs so kept announcing to any one passing by (my poor Mister since we’re empty nesters no...

What started off as another excellent Lehane book was ruined by the last couple of pages for me, unfortunately. Still, up until then, it had been great. The mystery is convoluted, thought-provoking & keeps the suspense going strong. We get to see a lot more of & find out more about Bubba. That right there makes it worth reading. I got a little tired of Kenzie's flashes of brilliance. I would have preferred he just reason it out soundly.Unfortunately, Lehane had to take the case an extra step. In...

8.5/10 After enough time had passed from reading “Gone, Baby, Gone” and the sun was seeming to shine once more and the sound of children playing with puppies didn’t make me curl up into a ball and rock away until the wee hours, I decided to pick up the next Lehane novel in the Kenzie & Gennaro series to make all that misery come rushing back like it was a long lost friend. I was actually a little surprised in this novel though as there wasn’t as much misery and depression. I mean don’t get me wr...

Dennis Lehane - from The Boston Globe - photo by David L. Ryan In the fifth entry in Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie & Gennaro series, Karen Nichols comes to PI Patrick Kenzie when she is being harassed by a known rapist. After Patrick succeeds in suggesting to the fellow that he would survive longer if he left her alone, the situation quiets down. Six weeks later, as he is leaving town for a vacation with fuck-buddy Vanessa, Karen calls Kenzie asking for help. Patrick decides to call her back when he re...