Synopses & Reviews
Kenzie and Gennaro are private investigators in the blue-collar neighborhoods and ghettos of South Boston they know it as only natives can. Working out of an old church belfry, Kenzie and Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician: to uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline, a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential state documents.
Finding Jenna, however, is easy compared to staying alive once they've got her. The investigation escalates, implicating members of Jenna's family and rival gang leaders while uncovering extortion, assassination, and child prostitution extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of government.
A Drink Before the War, the first in Lehane's acclaimed series with Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, is a remarkable debut that is at once a pulsating crime thriller and a mirror of our world, one in which the worst human horrors are found closest to home, and the most vicious obscenities are committed in the name of love.
Review
"Newcomer Lehane shows plenty of promise in his first book about a PI duo from the mean streets of Boston.... A terrific first novel and, one hopes, the beginning of a superb series." Emily Melton, Booklist
Review
"The sure pacing, humor, and clear sense of place are unusually strong for a debut novel. Lehane's depictions of working-class Dorchester and the great divide between its Irish-American and African-American inhabitants are so on-target the reader could practically use them as a map and drive right into town." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Lehane's minimal use of literary references helps establish character, as do his frequent allusions to child abuse and wife battering. Rough and tumble action for a high energy, likable pair." Library Journal
Synopsis
The first in Lehane's acclaimed series with Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro is a remarkable debut that is at once a pulsating crime thriller and a mirror of the world, one in which the worst human horrors are found closest to home, and the most vicious obscenities are committed in the name of love.
About the Author
Dennis Lehane holds an M.F.A. in creative writing and is the author of Sacred; Darkness, Take My Hand; Prayers for Rain; Gone, Baby, Gone; and Mystic River, which has been made into a feature film directed by Clint Eastwood, due in theaters October 2003. He lives in the Boston area.