As richly complex and brutal as the terrain it depicts, here is the mesmerizing, darkly original novel that heralded the arrival of 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.
A cabal of powerful Boston politicians is willing to pay Kenzie and Gennaro big … Gennaro big money for a seemingly small job: to find the missing cleaning woman who stole some secret documents. As Kenzie and Gennaro learn, however, this crime is no ordinary theft. It’s about justice. About right and wrong. But in Boston, finding the truth isn’t just a dirty business… it’s deadly.
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Unexpected narrative on society, not what I expected but very entertaining and thought provoking
Lehane is always a good read!
This was the book that got me hooked on the series. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Two Private Detectives
I love this book, the first in the series, and have read all the others too, Lehane is a great storyteller. He belongs in the same company with Lee Child, Michael Connelly, John Grisham and James Lee Burke.
Great book! Dennis Lehane knows how to write.
…Dennis Lehane, read it!
Such compelling characters, and a gripping story.
One of my factors authors
The original LeHane duo. Still his best characters.
Great story and great characters, the start of a great series.
I believe this is one of his first works. I was hooked on the first sentence.
I loved this mystery novel! Or actually, it’s more accurately a PI novel, and about as close to hard-boiled as PI novels get nowadays. I’d read Lehane’s Mystic River and loved it, then I read Shutter Island and loved it. I hadn’t read any of his Kenzie-Gennaro books. A Drink Before the War is the first in the series. Don’t let the title scare you …