Nobody pokes his nose into the crummy apartments and seedy bars and trash-packed alleys and emotional messes of lower-class life with more observational rigor than Lehane. . . . Moonlight Mile flies at you fast and sinks its hooks into you for keeps. . . . Lehane’s writing, as always, is tight, vivid and brilliantly assured.
What…keep[s] Moonlight Mile from heading down an overly well-trodden path…[is] the conviction with which Mr. Lehane breathes life into these characters. Unlike the usual sequel writer who simply puts old creations through new paces, Mr. Lehane registers a deep affection for the Kenzie-Gennaro team and a passionate involvement in their problems. And he treats each book in this series as an occasion for wondering what kind of world can produce the depravity that each new plotline describes.
—The New York Times
Lehane's writing mixes the streetwise and the lyrical…In the decade between the last Kenzie-Gennaro book and this one, Lehane has made quantum leaps as a craftsman…In returning to his old private eye series now, Lehane has narrowed his scope a little: The social commentary is less nuanced, more direct, and plot twists are more prominent than deep moral predicaments. Still, Moonlight Mile should hardly be considered a step back. Instead, Lehane is a writer bringing new confidence and an easy prowess to a new chapter in an epic story—the Kenzie-Gennaro saga.
—The Washington Post
Nobody pokes his nose into the crummy apartments and seedy bars and trash-packed alleys and emotional messes of lower-class life with more observational rigor than Lehane. . . . Moonlight Mile flies at you fast and sinks its hooks into you for keeps. . . . Lehane’s writing, as always, is tight, vivid and brilliantly assured.” — Chicago Tribune
“Unlike the usual sequel writer who simply puts old creations through new paces, Mr. Lehane registers a deep affection for the Kenzie-Gennaro team and a passionate involvement in their problems. And he treats each book in this series as an occasion for wondering what kind of world can produce the depravity that each new plotline describes. . . . So Patrick and Angie follow the bread-crumb trail of clues and suspects, giving Mr. Lehane many occasions to write acid-etched dialogue and show off his fine powers of description.” — New York Times
“In many ways, the novel is an homage to happy family life. It’s a deft delivery system for a story that mixes guts, betrayal and the importance of good values. It’s also a sublime love story about what really matters in the grand scheme of things.” — USA Today
“Throughout, Lehane’s writing mixes the streetwise and the lyrical. . . . Elsewhere, an extended metaphor aches with confusion and loss - not just the core characters’ but that of a larger community, perhaps America itself. . . . Lehane has made quantum leaps as a craftsman. . . . Lehane is a writer bringing new confidence and an easy prowess to a new chapter in an epic story—the Kenzie-Gennaro saga” — Washington Post
“For fans of the Boston-based detective couple—a blue-collar Nick and Nora Charles, putting their relationship to the test in the face of thugs and bums, ethical dilemmas, and a balance-challenged checking account—the return is more than welcome. . . . The plot of Moonlight Mile—a title taken from the Jagger/Richards song—is mapped out with Hammett-like precision, but as with Hammett (and Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald and Charles Willeford), when Lehane’s on his game, it isn’t the plot that matters. It’s the characters, and the smart, hard-boiled prose.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
In many ways, the novel is an homage to happy family life. It’s a deft delivery system for a story that mixes guts, betrayal and the importance of good values. It’s also a sublime love story about what really matters in the grand scheme of things.
Unlike the usual sequel writer who simply puts old creations through new paces, Mr. Lehane registers a deep affection for the Kenzie-Gennaro team and a passionate involvement in their problems. And he treats each book in this series as an occasion for wondering what kind of world can produce the depravity that each new plotline describes. . . . So Patrick and Angie follow the bread-crumb trail of clues and suspects, giving Mr. Lehane many occasions to write acid-etched dialogue and show off his fine powers of description.
For fans of the Boston-based detective couple—a blue-collar Nick and Nora Charles, putting their relationship to the test in the face of thugs and bums, ethical dilemmas, and a balance-challenged checking account—the return is more than welcome. . . . The plot of Moonlight Mile—a title taken from the Jagger/Richards song—is mapped out with Hammett-like precision, but as with Hammett (and Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald and Charles Willeford), when Lehane’s on his game, it isn’t the plot that matters. It’s the characters, and the smart, hard-boiled prose.
Nobody pokes his nose into the crummy apartments and seedy bars and trash-packed alleys and emotional messes of lower-class life with more observational rigor than Lehane. . . . Moonlight Mile flies at you fast and sinks its hooks into you for keeps. . . . Lehane’s writing, as always, is tight, vivid and brilliantly assured.
Throughout, Lehane’s writing mixes the streetwise and the lyrical. . . . Elsewhere, an extended metaphor aches with confusion and loss - not just the core characters’ but that of a larger community, perhaps America itself. . . . Lehane has made quantum leaps as a craftsman. . . . Lehane is a writer bringing new confidence and an easy prowess to a new chapter in an epic story—the Kenzie-Gennaro saga
In many ways, the novel is an homage to happy family life. It’s a deft delivery system for a story that mixes guts, betrayal and the importance of good values. It’s also a sublime love story about what really matters in the grand scheme of things.
A modern master of suspense revives the series that initially earned him a hard-core following.
Before Lehane attracted a lot more attention through the film adaptation of hisMystic River(2001) and then made a major literary leap withThe Given Day(2008), the author had built a loyal fan base through a series of detective novels featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. In this sequel toGone, Baby, Gone(1998), they are no longer partners as Boston private investigators but a married couple with a four-year-old daughter. Patrick freelances for a venerable firm that caters to the city's power elite, where he wrestles with the morality of his work but hopes for a full-time job. While Angie finishes grad school, they are all but broke. Twelve years earlier, they'd been racked by the case of a kidnapped four-year-old, Amanda McCready, when they rescued her from a couple who only wanted the best for her and returned her to her unfit mother. Now Amanda has disappeared again, and Patrick must decide whether to revisit a case that had caused his estrangement from Angie for over a year, and which now could threaten their domesticity and their daughter. As a return to earlier form for Lehane, the novel lacks the psychological depth and thematic ambition of his recent work, but its wise-cracking dialogue, page-turning (though convoluted) plot and protagonists who are all the more likable for their flaws extend the addictive spirit of the series. "When your daughter asks what you stand for, don't you want to be able to answer her?" Angie challenges her husband. To do so, he becomes enmeshed with the Russian Mob, shifting allegiances and a wise-beyond-her-years, 16-year-old Amanda, who rubs his nose in the aftereffects of his earlier involvement with her. By the breathless climax, it may appear that this book is the last in the series. But Lehane has fooled us before.
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