Dennis Lehane is a terrific writer and this is a gripping suspense/mystery novel, and ultimately, a heart-breaking story. So very well written. ( )

I’m not a big fan of inner city police procedurals. Sometimes gritty realism just gets me down. And brutal murders and child molestation are not themes I enjoy. But Dennis Lehane is one hell of a writer, and this work transcends the genre so much that I’ll make sure I read more of his work. All his characters have real depth, and real flaws, and Lehane’s descriptions of their inner turmoil are often so eloquent that I frequently found myself reading paragraphs two or three times -- not for comprehension, but because they were so well written.

The mystery itself was not that spectacular. I pretty well knew who did what and how things would end. Lehane’s quality writing made it worthwhile to read on until the tragedy reached its inevitable conclusion. There are flickers of redemption at the end of the book, at least for a couple of the characters. Whether they are deserved is left up to the reader. ( )

Definitely a great story - but not a great book. Lehane just doesn't know when to put down his pen. There are too many self-consciously "literary" passages that are not well enough written to pass muster. Take out 50-100 pages and this would be a classic. ( )

Lehane is a writer who can conjure up powerful, evocative, unusual images in a very succinct way. This gift makes his characters, settings and story ring very true, and that – plus an underlying theme of hopelessness and the bitter taste of life – imbue this novel with power.

The story begins when three boyhood friends – Sean, Jimmy and Dave – are fighting in the street. They are interrupted by a car driving up, and a man who pretends to be a police officer persuades Dave to get into the car. The boy who comes back four days later is no longer Dave but a damaged soul. Fast-forward 25 years, when Jimmy’s daughter is brutally murdered. Sean is the police officer investigating the case, and Dave, for reasons connected to that fateful day when he got in that car, is the prime suspect.

Everything is connected, this book says. The future events of your life completely depend on whether you did or did not get into a car when you were eleven years old. That’s why this story seems so bleak – none of these characters can escape their fates, and eventually Jimmy and Dave stop trying. Only Sean holds out some hope by trying to overcome the cynicism that his job has engendered in him and reunite with his family. ( )

This is a haunting, powerful book. There is action aplenty (two major crimes and many imagined ones), but basically it is the story of the things that shape us for better or for worse -- neighborhood, friends, family, love, memory, work (everything as in real life but faith). Three friends forever changed by something that happens when they are 11 years old. What is going on in the characters' heads and hearts is the main story; watching the movie, makes you realize it is Lehane's depiciton of the inner workings of the characters that make the novel so powerful. The action grows out of that. This book stays with you. ( )