"Gone, Baby, Gone" by Dennis Lehane
I've read a couple of Lehane's books ("Mystic River" after I saw the movie and "Shutter Island" before the movie) so I decided to grab a Kindle copy of "Gone, Baby, Gone" and see how it read.
This is actually the fourth book Lehnae wrote about private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. Here we have Amanda McCready, a four year old girl, left alone in her house in Dorchester as her mother drinks next door, who disappears. Knowing that time is critical in such cases, the two take the case after being begged by the girl's aunt. They join with two Boston cops, Poole and Broussard, and find a tangled case with a drug lord ("Cheese" Olamon, who sits in jail), missing money and a trio of sexual predators.
I was surprised that the violence in the book, with numerous shoot outs (many involving automatic weapons), but the strength of the book is about the violence against children, and it's effect on both the children and the adults. There are choices made by the two detectives, now lovers after a long partnership, that are heart breaking, but right for both of them.
I enjoyed the book enough that I went ahead and ordered the first novel about the two before I finished this one.
I will admit it took me a little while to really get into this book but once I did I was hooked. I even had to read it in the car, knowing I would feel sick from doing so. Lehane is a true master of the written word who knows how to make your heart jump with suspense or ache with compassion. He doesn't sugar coat a thing. I also enjoyed the way he described Boston in all its glory and gore.
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