| Product: |
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane |
| Date: |
02/08/04 (83 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: thrilling, riveting, unpredictable
Disadvantages: may be too long for some people
1975 - three 11 year old boys Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus and Dave Boyle were friends. They hung around together and played in the streets. One day a car pulls up. Two men emerge, saying they are policemen and that the boys are causing a nuisance and they need to go home. Two of the boys lie and say they live in the street but Dave Boyle gets into the car with the men. Four days later he?s found at an Esso gas station, having escaped his kidnappers. Something terrible happened during that time but nobody knows what and they certainly don?t want to talk about it. Sean and Jimmy suffer guilt as their friend is now changed forever.
Roll forward 25 years. They?ve all gone their separate ways but suddenly a tragedy brings them all together once more. Jimmy Marcus?s 19 year old daughter, Katie, is found murdered. Sean is now a homicide detective and finds himself investigating a case which re-unites him with the friends he hasn?t seen for years. Dave Boyle, withdrawn since his abduction years before, went home to his wife covered in somebody else?s blood the night Katie died. Jimmy, an ex con, is determined to find his daughter?s killer, and will stop at nothing until the murderer is found. He thinks it?s Katie?s ex-boyfriend, Bobby O?Donnell. But Katie has been seeing Brendan Harris secretly, and they had been planning to go to Las Vegas to get married. Brendan becomes a suspect. He comes from a broken home, his mom?s unhappy at being left alone with two kids and his brother, Ray, is a mute.
As the investigation deepens, Dave?s wife Celeste has doubts about her husband. She doesn?t believe his story about being mugged on the night Katie died. Her cousin, Annabeth, is Jimmy?s second wife, and her loyalty to her cousin is questioned as her fears linger over whether
Dave is the killer. She sees Jimmy seething with grief and anger because he wants justice - in the most brutal way.
Dave remains silent and distant. Celeste never really knew what went on all those years ago, his memories are still locked away and demons haunt him. Parts of Dave are still missing as he 'didn?t fit in when he came back?. He keeps his feelings to himself and his unwillingness to talk is making their marriage founder. Is his inner anger enough to make him kill someone though? The cops think so. ?On paper, this guy should be in jail already?.
* What I thought *
Wow! This was my first Lehane book. And I was not disappointed! However, I have to say I had already seen the film, and this has probably affected my judgement somewhat. However, I shall try and treat the book separately.
From the start this grips you. The first part set in the past, a shared tragedy and then the three men reunited in the modern day. The friendship between Jimmy and Dave is still there, probably because their wives are related rather than any other kind of bond. Sean is the outsider, he?s the cop and his job?s made no easier by the fact that Dave is fast becoming the number one suspect.
At the cinema the ending made me feel ?flat?, a kind of disbelief as the last clues unfold. The conclusion IS somewhat unsatisfactory, it's not what the reader expects - which means that Lehane did a splendid job of laying down the foundations of a very clever storyline.
This is a fairly lengthy book at a little over 500 pages but the chapters are around nine to fifteen pages long, with breaks in between. I didn?t feel bored at all throughout the book, in fact the opposite. My train journey of 15 minutes wasn?t long enough to get stuck in and read as much as I wanted to!
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#84;he characters are very strong as we share in Devine?s solitary life and his ?silent? phonecalls from his wife, who has left him. We see Dave?s problems, never really uncovering the truth behind what happened on ?that? day when he got driven away, and we share Jimmy? frustration and hurt behind the grief of his bereavement, more so perhaps because he?d already watched his first wife, Katie?s mother, die of cancer at a young age. Life has been cruel to him but the character is still extremely likeable as he stands by his other family with Annabeth. His relationship with his wife is very strong. Annabeth is Jimmy?s rock, which is a good comparison to Dave?s marriage - the weakness of his wife leads to a betrayal.
* Overall *
So to the awarding of the stars. You may be able to guess that I rather liked this, so of course it will be a very large 5 stars, top banana, glittery gold award for this book! I read a lot of crime stories and most are sadly predictable. This one isn?t. Its poignancy will leave you feeling sad, perhaps annoyed. The ending is necessary but unnecessary. To find out what I mean, read this book!
* Extra info *
Dennis Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He has written seven novels, A Drink Before The War, Darkness, Take My Hand, Sacred, Gone Baby Gone, Prayers For Rain, Mystic River, and Shutter Island.
Mystic River was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award and won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel as well as the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction given by the Massachusetts Center for the Book.
RRP is £6.99, always worth checking Ebay and Amazon (mine was a Chris
tmas present sent from Australia so it was free!).
Published by Bantam books
527 pages
ISBN 0553-81616-0
Mystic River is described on the front cover as ?enormously impressive?. Yes, I?ll go with that.
Thanks for reading.
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