Prayers for Rain Review
This is an excellent ending to the Kenzie/Gennaro series. It would be interesting if Lehane ever writes another contemporary novel, unlike his two most recent period novels, to at least have Patrick, Angie and Bubba appear in cameo roles.
Here is my take on where they are now in 2010: Patrick and Angie close their private investigation business. They marry and have two kids, a boy and a girl. The kids attend Catholic school, despite Patrick's objections. Bubba discovered that he is a computer savant. After hacking into the IRS computer system and wreaking havoc, he is arrested. Instead of going to jail, he is hired by the feds as an anti-hacking expert. He is also married to Vanessa. Angie is head of campus security at Boston University. And Patrick, well, he is a nationally acclaimed novelist. His early books drew heavily from his days as a private investigator. Patrick, Angie and Bubba have not been shot, stabbed or beaten up since 1999. Okay, Bubba still punches Patrick when Patrick calls him Ruprect!
What I like most about this book is that Bubba is a major presence throughout the book. In previous novels, he only made brief, albeit spectacular, appearances. We learn about Bubba's childhood and young adulthood. This gives us at least a partial understanding of why he is the way he is now. Most importantly, we learn why he is so devoted to Patrick and Angie and it is heartbreaking.
Prayers for Rain Overview
Bestselling author Dennis Lehane is back with a vengeance in this noir mystery with a psychological edge.
Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's relationship has hit the skids. But despite their problems, they join forces to close down a predator whose modus operandi seems to put him beyond the law. This killer's insidious murder weapon is within his victim's mind: no smoking gun, no bloody knife, just merciless manipulation that drives his targets to kill themselves.
As Patrick and Angie attempt to identify and save his next victim, this sinister force turns on them, and thus begins a dangerous battle of wits: a tormenting, life-threatening game of psychological warfare where simple survival seems like a mixed blessing - because not even the winner will emerge unscathed.
Prayers for Rain Specifications
Prayers for Rain is Dennis Lehane's fifth installment in his intricately plotted, beautifully written, and much underacknowledged Boston mystery series. Lehane's books reflect our morally complex times, when the borders between right and wrong are somewhat blurry.
Private investigator Patrick Kenzie is in the middle of a personal crisis--he's lost his passion for the profession, and is tired of people with their "predictable vices, their predictable needs and wants and dormant desires." Angie Gennaro, his occasional sweetheart, lifelong friend, and fellow investigator has quit the business. She's still deeply resentful about Patrick's handling of the Amanda McCready case, the focus of Gone, Baby, Gone. Without Angie, private investigating has lost its fizz.
The suicide of a former client, Karen Nichols, gives Kenzie his investigative itch back. Six months earlier, Kenzie tracked down a stalker who had been harassing Nichols, and put an end to his heinous hobby. But Nichols needed more help than this PI could ever have imagined. "She'd been drowning, and I'd been busy." The successful, middle-class young woman had been sinking into a sea of drugs, alcohol, and prostitution, hitting the bottom when she jumped from the Boston Custom House. Her death consumes Kenzie--he is convinced that someone pulled her into the vortex, although her nearest and dearest simply call her weak.
Kenzie teams up with his explosive, loving, gun-toting friend Bubba Rogowski, and, after a boozy reunion, Angie Gennaro joins them. This fearless threesome must surely be the most original team in contemporary crime fiction. Good at the core--but seriously screwed up by various demons from their pasts--tact and decorum is hardly their style. They work their way across Boston, doing whatever it takes to question Nichols's family and acquaintances. By unveiling the real Nichols, tragic family secrets, betrayals, and conspiracies are also unmasked.
If you haven't experienced Dennis Lehane's world before, be prepared for an invigorating new reading experience. --Naomi Gesinger
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- Sacred: A Novel
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Customer Reviews
Insane - asthepalacesburn - tx
i love dennis. so glad he decided to create these cases with Patrick and Ange, cant forget Bubba too. Dennis takes something that may seem like a typical murder mystery and then adds a shot of cocaine to it. i cant get enough.
If you like this book... - J. Jolly - Wisconsin, USA
If you like this book, you may also enjoy the book False Memory by Dean Koontz. Both are very well written and I enjoyed the many plot twists and the suspense.
Interesting Story... - TheCommish16 - US
I had just read Shutter Island and decided I wanted more of Lehane's masterful suspense writing so I chose to order this book. It starts off with lots of action, some mystery, and it really gets the reader involved in the characters early on. However somewhere around the middle of the story the action got a little too complex. Many characters are introduced and it cause some distraction from what is happening in the story. I think if this was a SHORTER story that got more to the point it would have been more enjoyable. I appreciate the idea of leading the reader in different directions, but I found myself disinterested at some points. If you are a Lehane fan and enjoy his quick wit writing, then this is a good book, but I don't think it's his best. Shutter Island is hard to top.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 07, 2010 15:25:05
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