Review: A Drink Before the War

[a_belletrist]

A Drink Before the War by Den­nis Lehane

My rat­ing: 4 of 5 stars

I think the Boston Sun­day Globe said it best, “Harsh and chill­ing … an absolutely ter­rific story.”

This is the third Den­nis Lehane story I’ve tucked away and I have to say, the man can write. I only put the book down to get some sleep, and fin­ished it as soon as I could the next day. The story is solid, his char­ac­ters deep and never dull, the loca­tions as defined as his char­ac­ters. And even if I was pretty sure how the end­ing would come out-and I was right-I still wanted to know Ken­zie and Gen­naro would get there.

This was writ­ten 15 years ago, and yeah, I know, I’m behind the times.  Hap­pily, for a reader who doesn’t know much about the cur­rent Boston, the story has weath­ered very well.  I don’t know how much has changed locally in the bet­ter part of a gen­er­a­tion, but the top­ics Lehane hits go well beyond local, and well beyond our own neigh­bor­hoods, and they still seem as ram­pant today as they ever were.

I’m look­ing for­ward to Ken­zie and Gennaro’s next case, which I’m going to start … right about now.  Time for some more of Mr. Lehane’s excel­lent storytelling.

Has any­one else on my FL read much of Lehane?  If so, what did you think of him?  If you haven’t, what has stopped you from read­ing his work?

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Originally published at Ink in the Veins