"Mystic River"-Dennis Lehane

Book Title: Mystic River
Author: Dennis Lehane
Version: Paperback
ISBN: 9780060584757
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Published: July 22, 2003
First Published: 2001
Genre: Mystery
Number of Pages: 416

SYNOPSIS: Three young friends, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus and Dave Boyle, are playing together when a car pulls up next to them. At first the two old men in the car look like cops. But when they take Dave away to have a chat with his mother the other two boys get scared. When they tell their dads what happened their fear only grows when the real cops show and everyone starts running around scared. When Dave finally shows up four days later everything is different, Dave is broken, and Sean and Jimmy feel to guilty too go on as before. From then on they are no longer friends and as the years go by they all go their own ways. 

Twenty-Five years later Sean is a homicide detective with a wife who's run away but calls him to say nothing, Jimmy is an ex-con who has a family and owns a small store and Dave is a father who struggles everyday with the memories of the "wolves" from his past. And though they all live in the same city they never see each other until one fateful day when their lives collide once more. One morning the car of Jimmy's daughter Katie is found by some kids, found abandoned and with blood in it. Sean and his partner are assigned to the case and as the search takes them further into the park hope begins to dwindle. When her body is found beaten and mangled their three separate worlds become one terrifying nightmare. 

As the investigation gets under way it comes to light that Dave was one of the last people to see Katie alive. The same night she disappeared Dave came home to his wife covered in blood and this makes his wife start to doubt his story about a mugger. Sean has to start digging into Dave's life to see if he had something to do with Katie's death. Jimmy an ex-con finds that when it comes to his daughter's life being taken he can't seem to stay on the straight and narrow. He begins his own investigation into the matter. As certain things begin to emerge through the haze of mystery everyone's life begins to crumble around them and they have to figure out where their loyalties lie.

REVIEW: I really and truly loved this book. I read it years and years ago, way before the movie was announced, and I couldn't put it down. I loved every page, every part, every little thing about this book. It was a truly great 'edge of your seat' thriller and I highly recommend it. 

Dennis Lehane is an incredible writer I have been blown away by his writing twice now and I have a feeling that I will be again and again. He has a way of getting into his characters's heads and making them so three dimensional it's hard to believe that they aren't walking around real somewhere. His writing is sharp and intelligent, full of wit and pain in equal measure. Mr. Lehane's writing is beautiful and raw and all around brilliant.

The story is dark and real and I love that about it. It doesn't shy away from the pain and darkness of abuse and murder, of all the darkness that is out there and in people. You won't get it completely unless you read the book, which you should do, but the story is amazing. There is just something about it that really reaches in and attaches itself to you. That is the mark of a great story.

The characters are awesome and strange and very real. The characters have kindness and love within them but they also have darkness and none of them have fairy tale lives. All of them are so real and raw and incredible that even if the story was no good these characters would be worth reading the book for. However we are in luck because they story, the writing, and the characters are all out of this world and worth reading. I highly, highly recommend "Mystic River" by Dennis Lehane this is a book that I don't think could disappoint.  

More Mystery:

"A Drink Before the War"               "And Then There Were None"