Overview;
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.
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;
Dennis Lehane’s A Drink Before The War is an expertly
crafted neo-noir mystery set in contemporary Boston. Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie the novel’s
narrator and main investigator is a descendant of Spade and Marlowe. A justifiable cynical observer of human
nature with a clear distain for those he is forced to work for.
Kenzie’s partner Angie Gennaro is a terrific supporting
player, not fitting the mold of most female characters, and is a fully
developed equal of Kenzie. Beyond the
great depths of A Drink Before The War’s investigators is the simple
matter of fact brutality, of the Boston area they inhabit. Lehane’s tale weaves through domestic
violence, racial animosity, poverty cycles, sexual assault and plausible political
corruption(none of this conspiracy to assassinate the president shit) without
ever proselytizing. Lehane allows the
inhumanity of man to stand alone, and force the reader to reconcile the
reflection of the world they live in. In
this Dennis Lehane is the true successor to old detective pulp masters, who
were very clearly dismayed with the world beyond their window, yet unable or
unwilling to look away.
The mystery itself, concerns a group of powerful political
men in search of an ex-employee who absconded with their property is simple and
masterful in its composition. Lehane
does not ask his reader for large leaps of logic, and keeps the mystery simple
and human in its elements.
Lehane’s action sequences are well constructed and give the
reader a clear sense of fluid movement (even in a car chase sequence, which I
always find quite difficult.). However
toward the end of the novel the gun battles come a bit too frequently for my
taste.
In the End;
Dennis Lehane’s A Drink Before the War is a noble successor
to the classics of detective pulp.
Lehane has crafted an excellent mystery with fully formed characters, in
the muck of the world today. Highly recommended.
