Not all-time favorite books but literally something I genuinely love. This series one of my all-time favorite things. This is gritty, dark, crime noire at it’s finest and some of the subject matter will shock. These books are not for the faint of heart. Both are fantastic reads but Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennero series is so underrated that it’s criminal, so readers need to know what they’re missing here. Dennis Lehane is mostly known for his later works, like Mystic River and Shutter Island. Today I’m stepping away from romance to dish on a series very close to my heart. But in Boston, finding the truth isn’t just a dirty business. It’s about justice, about right and wrong. As Kenzie and Gennaro learn, however, this crime is no ordinary theft.

The light tone and whipsaw banter, however, can't carry the pace when the action later slows in this mystery that starts with a bang and goes on shooting-but doesn't hit the bull's eye.The mesmerizing, darkly original novel that heralded the arrival of now New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane, the master of the new noir-and introduced Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, his smart and tough private investigators weaned on the blue-collar streets of Dorchester.Ī cabal of powerful Boston politicians is willing to pay Kenzie and Gennaro big money for a seemingly small job: to find a missing cleaning woman who stole some secret documents. Lehane leaps right into the action more gradually, we learn about Pat's abusive father, Angie's abusive husband and the attraction smoldering between the two principals. While helping Patrick, Jenna is gunned down in a hail of Uzi fire gang war is quickly declared, and the two detectives aim for a plan that will avenge the innocent and punish the guilty. She does have a son and a husband who lead rival black street gangs, an angry sister and a photo of one of the pols with her husband in a hotel room.

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, two young, smart-mouthed Boston PIs, are hired by a trio of prominent macho politicians to find a State House cleaning woman who may have purloined some important ``documents.'' The pair quickly learns that Jenna Angeline has no documents.

Lehane's assured debut avoids several common first-mystery flaws before stalling on a less ordinary one.

A drink before the war