My very first Dennis Lehane…and I LOVED every gorgeous, kick-ass, page-turning word of it. I loved the writing...which paired genre grit and humor with a polished, emotive literary quality that you don’t often see in detective novels. I loved the plot...which had a duo of private detectives trying to locate some “incriminating” documents for a group of political mucky mucks, and ending up mired in a conspiracy of dark family secrets, gang warfare, racial tensions and the U.S. Senate. I loved the...

As a gang war looms on the horizon, private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired to find a missing woman who stole some documents from a senator. What they find could ignite a race war and burn Boston to the ground...When I recently got caught up on Robert Crais's Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, I wondered if I'd find an acceptable crime series to fill the void. Consider the void filled to the point of overflowing.A Drink Before the War stars PI team Patrick Kenzie and Angela G...

This is my first experience with a Dennis Lehane book. I've seen the movie adaptations of Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island but had yet to read something by him. Last night I figured I would remedy that. Thanks to the magic that is Minecraft and Audible, I was able to blow through it in one session of gaming. The audiobook is narrated by Jonathan Davis (no, not the lead singer of Korn), and Mr. Davis does a passable job. Nothing stellar, but he got the job done. The book itself is...

Sinead O'Connor sings "somebody cut out your eyes" in Drink Before the War. It is a very sad song. Basil Fawlty asks "would you like to eat first, or would you like a drink before the war? AHH! Er trespassers will be tied up with piano wire SORRY, SORRY!" It's a very amusing skit.If you could somehow combine these two into a book, you'd have A Drink Before the War.Denis Lehane's writing is very amusing, sometimes silly, often glib, yet with moments of poignancy. The world his characters live in

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are PIs who have been hired to find a woman believed to have stolen some possibly incriminating documents from a government official. Finding the woman is easy, but when she is gunned down in the middle of the street before Kenzie’s eyes (and before the documents have been recovered) the case gets a LOT more complicated.Dennis Lehane where have you been all my life????? If you think I’m going soft with

Posted at Shelf Inflicted Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are offered big bucks to find a cleaning woman who made off with some confidential documents. It sounds like a simple case, but there’s a lot more to those documents than just state secrets. Kenzie and Gennaro both grew up in blue-collar Dorchester and even though they’re tough, dealing with sleazy politicians and dangerous gangs takes all their energy, resolve and determination. The detectives have their own issues to deal with too. An...

Actual rating : 4.5 starsDark and addictive, A Drink Before the War is probably one of the best thrillers I've ever read, and I can't wait to get my hands on the other books in the series. With none of the stereotypical crap I've learnt to dread, the characterization constitutes the greatest achievement of A Drink Before the War. Indeed I'm so tired of the one-dimensional archetypes which are often served to us on a silver platter. None of that here, but more nuances : none of them can be descr...

Dennis Lehane - from Boston Magazine A noir touch, complete with nifty madcap dialogue and a dark sense of humor makes this a fun detective tale. It begins when two politicians come to PI Patrick Kenzie and employ him and partner Angela Gennaro to retrieve some documents purloined by a cleaning woman. What follows is a large scale gang-war between two of the most notorious lowlifes in Boston, two who share a surprising connection. Depravity, turf, shame, revenge all figure in this dark tale of e...

My friend Kelly recently read the fourth book in this series and clued me into it. I read Mystic River and Shutter Island by Lehane and they were both okay reads. This one I LOVED. You have Angie Gennaro who is tough as nails except for where it comes to her abusive husband. Then Patrick Kenzie. Kenzie has lots of daddy issues. Kenzie might just have lots of all kinds of issues. My gun is, as Angie would say, "not a fuck-around thing." It's a .44 magnum automatic-an "automag," they call it gl...

"L.A. burns, and so many other cities smolder, waiting for the hose that will flood gasoline over the coals, and we listen to politicians who fuel our hate and our narrow views and tell us it's simply a matter of getting back to basics while they sit in their beachfront properties and listen to the surf so they won't have to hear the screams of the drowning." ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/4 Initial Thoughts Although I'd never read Dennis Lehane before, he was someone I was well aware of from sensational movies li

A crime drama set in '90s Boston?! Yes and thank you! I came of age in the 1990s just 45 minutes outside of Boston. So much of this book speaks to me.What didn't feel as intimate was the race relations/strife plot. There was one black family in my sleepy little suburban hometown when I grew up. I'm sure we had racists, but racism wasn't a thing because there weren't races, just a bunch of whities. The subject didn't come up unless it was in the newspapers. The city had its problems, has had its

Came across this series when looking for some good crime fiction (which is not cooked up by ghost writers and doesn't bear a name of James Patterson on its cover) to bind me over until the next Tana French's and Gillian Flynn's releases. I think I am going to stick with it.The main characters of this series are Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, Boston PIs. In A Drink Before the War they get hired by an influential state senator to locate a woman who, according to him, stole some sensitive docume...

Action-packed, philosophical and written with wit. A lot of good material in 320 pages.

Before he wrote Mystic River, Shutter Island or was part of the crime novelist dream team that worked with David Simon on The Wire, Dennis Lehane was just another writer trying to establish a private eye series. Of course, they’d end up being some of the best books of their kind because Lehane is just that damn good.Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro have been friends since their childhood growing up in a blue collar Boston neighborhood and now they’re partners in a detective agency. They’re more...

this was surprisingly good.

A Drink before the War by Dennis Lehane was re-released by William Morrow on April 6, 2021 and was first published in 1994. It was also the debut novel by this author and the first book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series.Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are private detective partners as well as childhood friends. They’re hired by some powerful Boston politicians who are willing to pay a lot of money for them to find a missing cleaning woman who is accused of stealing some documents. What seem

Terrific first half of this book (4-star), but what a disappointment in the last half (2-star), and the ending was awful (1-star)Lehane shows great promise in the beginning, with tight dialogue and action sequences, some great humour, and interesting characters and plot.By the end of Chapter 4, he finds his true voice: Patrick and Angela are talking and flirting after the first day’s work. Wonderful. Then Phil arrives and silently spars with Patrick over Angela’s attention, then they leave and P...

This debut novel by Lehane re-issued by William Morrow in 2021, introduces us to the gritty noir writing, unique to the author. His command of dialogue and captivating characters, keeps the reader engaged throughout. The plot is more mystery than thriller. Thank you to HarperCollinsPublishers for providing a complimentary trade paperback copy.

Private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are hired on to do what seems like a simple job - find a black cleaning lady that disappeared with some important documents. But suddenly they find themselves caught up in something more. Something that could kill both of them.I picked this up because I enjoy Dennis Lehane's writing and was looking for a new series since I just finished the last published book in Tana French's series. This completely fit what I was looking for: flawed character...

*3.5 Stars* Once that ugliness has been forced into you, it becomes part of your blood, dilutes it, races through your heart and back out again, staining everything as it goes. The ugliness never goes away, never comes out, no matter what you do. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive. There have been so many books I've read and fallen in love with, lately. I'd love to say I'm just that good at picking out books and taking extraordinary leaps to try new and exciting genres and different authors....