 "Very satisfying" | 2009-06-29 |
| - Reviewed By thomasveil |
While I don't think Prayers for Rain is the best of the Kenzie/Gennaro books, I found it thoroughly satisfying.
Like its predecessors, Prayers for Rain takes us through the darker side of Boston, as viewed through the eyes of an appealing, well-drawn set of characters. In part, this book coasts on the solid characters established in its four predecessors, but it still has altogether amusing dialogue. The book is worth reading simply to find out how Patrick and Angie interact after the events of Gone Baby Gone.
The plot works reasonably well, though I think some developments are telegraphed in advance. The villain is particularly devious and despicable, and there are some solid twists thrown in. Perhaps the climax was a bit rushed, but the ride through most of the book is pretty suspenseful. While the book clearly benefits by standing on the shoulders of its predecessors, it remains a worthwhile, charming, suspenseful read. Let's hope that Lehane is not done with these characters. |
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 "DENNIS LEHANE" | 2009-05-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2V3HY21N5O56L |
I have all of Dennis Lehanes books in paperback and recently ordered them all in hardback. "Prayer for Rain" was the first book of his I read. A friend loaned it to me. I loved it and read it again then went out and
bought all of his books (available in paperback only)!! I naturally had to read the series in order then, starting with "A drink before the war". Recently I started shopping at AMAZON.com and I have ordered all of his books in hardback. I have read them all at least twice. I am an avid reader and like to re-read my top authors. I also recommend David Rosenfelt, start with "Open and Shut" if you can, it is his first in the Andy Carpenter series. |
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| "A story with sizzle and suspense - where nothing is what it seems to be. " | 2009-02-04 |
| - Reviewed By ac20837 |
Mr. Lehane is one of my favorite writers as he can tell a story with sizzle and suspense. He paints his characters such that you feel like you know them, feel their emotions, and causes you to have a definite feeling about each one. He is one of the best storytellers out there today and this 5th book in the Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gennaro series grabs your attention and keeps it until the last page.
Patrick, a PI, is surprised when he reads about the suicide of a young woman that hired him six months ago when she was being stalked. This young lady was the epitome of the innocent, naive, sweet girl next door and now she has jumped naked from the 24th story of the Custom House Tower in Boston. She had left him a message about a month after he quickly handled the "stalker" problem - he had forgotten to return the call when he arrived back in town. Patrick is curious and started asking questions. Everyone, even her own family says her death was a suicide - that her boyfriend's death, just weeks before, was an unfortunate accident. With no paying client, Patrick starts peeling back the layers of this twisting mystery where nothing is what it seems to be.
Author al-Qaeda Strikes Again |
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| ""We need stuff. Illegal stuff."" | 2009-01-21 |
| - Reviewed By maryginny |
Never one to be deterred by legal "technicalities" when he solves his cases, Patrick Kenzie, a Boston private detective, is up to his eyeballs in his own problems when Karen Nichols asks him to stop a stalker. Kenzie and his long-time partner/sometimes lover Angie Gennaro have worked together in four previous Dennis Lehane novels, but they have now split, and Kenzie is at loose ends. After solving Karen's problem, he ignores a later phone call, then reads six months later that she has jumped to her death. Thinking that she must have had a new problem that he was too "busy" to investigate, he wonders if he might have contributed to her death and feels honor bound to find out why she jumped.
As Kenzie investigates Karen's background and family, he turns up what may be the most dysfunctional family situation ever created. But he also discovers that Karen led a totally different life at the time of her death than the seemingly innocent and vulnerable life she led just six months before. Her mother and stepfather are unfazed by her death--and no one misses her or mourns her--except Kenzie, who is more curious than mournful. Teaming up once again with Angie, who helped him with an early aspect of the case, he continues his investigation, eventually calling upon Bubba Rogowski, another old friend, for help. Rogowski, a Vietnam War vet with "lobster tails" of scars on his chest and hidden shrapnel within his chest, has even bigger scars and "shrapnel" within his psyche.
As Kenzie uncovers Karen's long-time psychiatric problems and their origin within her family, the suspense ratchets up. Karen's little half-sister died at the age of four, and her stepbrother Wesley has had no contact with the family for ten years. Kenzie's insatiable curiosity about the family leads to new information that complicates what might have been a relatively straightforward case of family dysfunction and turns it into a case of manipulation, psychological warfare, and emotional torture.
Lehane, an absolute master of suspense, juggles plot lines and complications with aplomb, in the process creating intense scenes filled with local color and oddball details. As his characters face (and create) scenes of stomach-turning violence (and even sadism), the focus remains on people, not violence for its own sake. Though no one can claim that these are all rounded characters, they are usually unique, so fascinating that the reader always feels their behavior to be at least plausible--for them. As the plot lines converge, the novel winds up to a wild conclusion, filled with violence and several big surprises. One of Lehane's early (1999) novels, this one shows all the promise that he continues with Mystic River and Shutter Island. n Mary Whipple
The Given Day: A Novel
Darkness, Take My Hand (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)
sacredSacred
A Drink Before the War
Gone, Baby, Gone (Harper Fiction)
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| "last of the series" | 2008-11-28 |
| - Reviewed By msmoby |
Prayers for Rain had been in my TBR pile for quite a while--several years at least. Surely not since 1999, though my copy is a new, non-remaindered hardcover, so probably since 2000. I don't feel that bad about leaving it there, because there are still no new Kenzie/Gennaro stories, and it's a bit sad knowing I've read the last one in my TBR pile.
The series is about PI Patrick Kenzie, his complex professional/romantic relationship with his partner Angie Gennaro, and their psychotic but extremely loyal pal Bubba Rogowski.
This 5th book in the series starts with Kenzie & Gennaro split up, both personally and professionally, and Patrick's not taking it well, reevaluating his life as Angie had. A young woman comes to him for help with a simple stalker, and he solves the problem without breaking a sweat, or even seeing her again.
Six months later, the same young woman, who'd been the epitome of "sweet girl next door", has committed suicide. The fact that she'd called him 3 months earlier and he'd forgotten to get back to her makes Patrick curious, so he starts to check things out. The more he learns, the more curious he becomes.
Before long, he's enlisted Angie & Bubba's help, and they find themselves afoul of the local mob, and embroiled in a case that's looking more sinister by the minute.
It's dark, with no easy answers, and Kenzie's brand of solution is always satisfying--violence when necessary, but always with a psychological angle, never pointless brute force. There's also humor in the darkness, like Bubba complaining when he doesn't get to just blow something up.
What grabs me about this, and the other books in the series, are the complex characters. We get the motivations of everyone, not just the main characters, and they all ring true. And yes, I've really enjoyed the ups and downs of the Kenzie/Gennaro relationship. It's not a sweet, happy ever after one, but it sucked me in.
I guess I'll have to break down now and get Lehane's non-series books. I'm assured they're just as good, though having seen the movie version of Mystic River, I'm a little wary of reading it. |
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| ""We need stuff. Illegal stuff."" | 2008-10-08 |
| - Reviewed By maryginny |
Never one to be deterred by legal "technicalities" when he solves his cases, Patrick Kenzie, a Boston private detective, is up to his eyeballs in his own problems when Karen Nichols asks him to stop a stalker. Kenzie and his long-time partner/sometimes lover Angie Gennaro have worked together in four previous Dennis Lehane novels, but they have now split, and Kenzie is at loose ends. After solving Karen's problem, he ignores a later phone call, then reads six months later that she has jumped to her death. Thinking that she must have had a new problem that he was too "busy" to investigate, he wonders if he might have contributed to her death and feels honor bound to find out why she jumped.
As Kenzie investigates Karen's background and family, he turns up what may be the most dysfunctional family situation ever created. But he also discovers that Karen led a totally different life at the time of her death than the seemingly innocent and vulnerable life she led just six months before. Her mother and stepfather are unfazed by her death--and no one misses her or mourns her--except Kenzie, who is more curious than mournful. Teaming up once again with Angie, who helped him with an early aspect of the case, he continues his investigation, eventually calling upon Bubba Rogowski, another old friend, for help. Rogowski, a Vietnam War vet with "lobster tails" of scars on his chest and hidden shrapnel within his chest, has even bigger scars and "shrapnel" within his psyche.
As Kenzie uncovers Karen's long-time psychiatric problems and their origin within her family, the suspense ratchets up. Karen's little half-sister died at the age of four, and her stepbrother Wesley has had no contact with the family for ten years. Kenzie's insatiable curiosity about the family leads to new information that complicates what might have been a relatively straightforward case of family dysfunction and turns it into a case of manipulation, psychological warfare, and emotional torture.
Lehane, an absolute master of suspense, juggles plot lines and complications with aplomb, in the process creating intense scenes filled with local color and oddball details. As his characters face (and create) scenes of stomach-turning violence (and even sadism), the focus remains on people, not violence for its own sake. Though no one can claim that these are all rounded characters, they are usually unique, so fascinating that the reader always feels their behavior to be at least plausible--for them. As the plot lines converge, the novel winds up to a wild conclusion, filled with violence and several big surprises. One of Lehane's early (1999) novels, this one shows all the promise that he continues with Mystic River and Shutter Island. n Mary Whipple
The Given Day: A Novel
Darkness, Take My Hand (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)
Sacred
A Drink Before the War
Gone, Baby, Gone (Harper Fiction)
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International Available
