Dennis Lehane

Dies ist das erste Buch von Lehane das ich - dem Zufall sei Dank - in die Finger bekam, aber vermutlich nicht mein letztes.
Im fünften Band der Reihe um den Privatdetektiv Kenzie läuft diesem die junge unschuldige Karen über den Weg, die ihn um Hilfe bittet. Diese Bitte ist schnell zu ihrer Zufriedenheit erfüllt, doch sechs Monate später stürzt sich Karen vom Dach eines Hochhauses, drogenabhängig, kurz vor der Obdachlosigkeit. Niemand kann sich diese Wesensveränderung erklären und show more Kenzie, der ein schlechtes Gewissen hat, da er ihre erneute Bitte um Hilfe vier Monate vor ihrem Tod vergaß, beginnt mit seinen zwei Freunden Angie und Bubba zu ermitteln. Sie finden heraus, dass ein Unbekannter Karens Leben systematisch zerstörte bis sie nur noch eine Lösung sah. Und dieser Unbekannte beginnt nun, Kenzies Freunde ins Visier zu nehmen...
Die Charaktere sind wunderbar klischeefrei, Orginale die einem schnell ans Herz wachsen. Die Sprache ist herrlich schnoddrig und frotzelnd (aber auch vulgär), egal ob untereinander oder mit ihrer Klientel. Obwohl relativ schnell festzustehen scheint, wer für all das 'Unheil' verantwortlich ist, bleibt die Spannung bis zum Schluss erhalten, wofür eine Reihe unerwarteter Wendungen mit verantwortlich ist.
Kleine Negativkritik zum Schluss: Manche der aufgenommenen 'Erzählfäden' enden im Nirgendwo bzw. lassen einen aufgrund der Unlogik doch etwas den Kopf schütteln. Doch dies kommt nicht allzu häufig vor, sodass man ohne große Problem leicht darüber hinweg lesen kann. show less

Listening to this story was like having Carla from Cheers talking at you. Set in Boston in 1974, specifically, the notoriously tough Southie, there is a public side to the story and a personal side to the story and both converge with a big explosion. Historically, Southie schools were to be integrated in the Fall of '74 by busing black students in from their neighborhoods, and Southie might as well be the Deep South for the explosive reception that edict had among the white, working-class show more Irish. Protests and other forms of unrest were happening all over the area in the preceding summer, and that is what Mary Pat Fennessy finds herself in the middle of. Her 17-yr old daughter Jules will be at one of the schools that is impacted, so the whole neighborhood is mobilizing. When a black boy ends up dead at the local subway stop and Jules doesn't come home that night - or any thereafter, Mary Pat knows something is up and begins her own investigation. To say she is a tough broad is an understatement - she is lethal - and will stop at nothing to get to the truth of what happened to Jules. The boy is Auggie Williamson, son of a co-worker of Mary Pat. So much bad stuff for a kid to get mixed up in around there - there's basically an Irish mob that runs the area with the usual problems that go with it: drugs, trafficking, intimidation, bars and strip clubs - all under the veneer of solid Irish Catholic families. I'm always a little shell-shocked at the seedy underside revealed in books and movies. Detective Michael "Bobby" Coyne gets assigned to the case-both the potential murder of Auggie - though it 'looked' like he fell and got hit by a subway train - and the disappearance of Jules. Great gritty crime story - Lehane's specialty - and following Mary Pat as she gets answers - and vengeance - is very suspenseful and also very satisfying. This would definitely be a Godfather caliber/vibe if made into a movie - just starring Carla from Cheers. show less

Desegregation of the Boston Public Schools takes effect on Thursday morning, September 12, 1974. Surrounding this historical moment is the story of a mother, Irish-born Mary Pat Fennessy, a Southie from the projects of Commonwealth, who finds the strength to avenge her daughter’s death against the local gang. Raised in a world where racism is passed from generation to generation, Mary Pat’s daughter, Jules, commits a heinous crime of mercy and pays for it with her life. Not that Jules is show more innocent, far from it. But after having lost her son to drugs, Mary Pat can’t let her daughter’s death go without retribution. This story, told in Dennis Lehane’s straightforward style, is powerful and hits home in every parent’s heart. It brings the pain, guilt, and responsibility of raising children in a far less-than-perfect world front and center in a time that was a powder keg of hate and violence. ‘Small Mercies’ will haunt your thoughts long after you’ve read the last page. show less

The human spirit is layered in contradiction. Capable in the same instant of honor or evil, little portends which path any of us chooses from second to second. The rich, gray space in between these extremes of human behavior is what makes life interesting and informs great story-telling. Dennis Lehane understands that gray world better than most any modern-day author.

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro reluctantly agree to investigate the disappearance of four-year-old Amanda McCeady from show more their gritty South Boston neighborhood. Amanda’s mother, Helene, left the child alone in an unlocked apartment to numb herself with alcohol and television in a neighbor’s place. With no ransom message from kidnappers and no evidence of a sexually motivated abduction, Amanda seems to have simply vanished. Local drug dealers and an odd conspiracy of child sex offenders seem good potential suspects, but something is always tilted slightly out of square. In the end, Amanda’s fate challenges Kenzie and Gennaro’s most basic understanding of right and wrong.

Lehane can throw moral certainty into chaos quicker than anyone writing these days. Any well-settled value, no matter the origin, is at risk under his gaze. After two installments in the Kenzie/Genarro mystery series focused more on slick plot and shock value, [Gone, Baby, Gone] marks Lehane’s return to uncovering the thinly veiled ambiguity and contradictions of social custom with solid story-telling and realistically conflicted characters. There are no pat answers, no happy endings here, like in life.

Bottom Line: Lehane at his morally ambiguous best; he challenges everything you think you believe in. [Gone, Baby, Gone] fulfills the promise of the debut in this series.

Five bones!!!!!
A favorite read for the year. show less