Dennis Lehane - Author
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About the Author
Dennis Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He has written eight novels, A Drink Before the War, Darkness, Take My Hand, Sacred, Gone Baby Gone, Prayers For Rain, Mystic River, Sutter Island, The Given Day and a short story collection, Coronado. Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone have both been made into oscar nominated films.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Mr Lehane worked as a counsellor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar. He lives in the Boston area.
Author photo © Gaby Gerster
Featured books by Dennis Lehane
World Gone by
Maxim Jakubowski's May 2015 Book of the Month. Set during WW2 in Florida, this is a an epic recreation of Mafia life witnessed through the eyes of an Irish mob 'consigliere' whose loyalties are caught up in the territorial wars of the Italian gangs he once presided over. Although the main character is as much a ruthless killer as the thugs he now advises, Lehane wonderfully manages to draw the reader into evoking sympathy for Joe Coughlin's meticulous planning and strategy and his protective feelings for his own partly orphaned son as a ferocious net closes around him that leads to a bloody conclusion. A gallery of vividly-etched characters embraces kingpins and henchmen alike and strikingly brings the protagonists and the period to life, together with the vivid southern landscape that extends to Cuba and beyond. Not just another version of The Godfather from a different point of view but an acute vision of the mechanisms of evil and Lehane's best and most exciting novel since Mystic River and his Kenzie and Gennaro series. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
World Gone by
Set during WW2 in Florida, this is a an epic recreation of Mafia life witnessed through the eyes of an Irish mob 'consigliere' whose loyalties are caught up in the territorial wars of the Italian gangs he once presided over. Although the main character is as much a ruthless killer as the thugs he now advises, Lehane wonderfully manages to draw the reader into evoking sympathy for Joe Coughlin's meticulous planning and strategy and his protective feelings for his own partly orphaned son as a ferocious net closes around him that leads to a bloody conclusion. A gallery of vividly-etched characters embraces kingpins and henchmen alike and strikingly brings the protagonists and the period to life, together with the vivid southern landscape that extends to Cuba and beyond. Not just another version of The Godfather from a different point of view but an acute vision of the mechanisms of evil and Lehane's best and most exciting novel since Mystic River and his Kenzie and Gennaro series.
World Gone by
Maxim Jakubowski's May 2015 Book of the Month. Set during WW2 in Florida, this is a an epic recreation of Mafia life witnessed through the eyes of an Irish mob 'consigliere' whose loyalties are caught up in the territorial wars of the Italian gangs he once presided over. Although the main character is as much a ruthless killer as the thugs he now advises, Lehane wonderfully manages to draw the reader into evoking sympathy for Joe Coughlin's meticulous planning and strategy and his protective feelings for his own partly orphaned son as a ferocious net closes around him that leads to a bloody conclusion. A gallery of vividly-etched characters embraces kingpins and henchmen alike and strikingly brings the protagonists and the period to life, together with the vivid southern landscape that extends to Cuba and beyond. Not just another version of The Godfather from a different point of view but an acute vision of the mechanisms of evil and Lehane's best and most exciting novel since Mystic River and his Kenzie and Gennaro series. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
World Gone by
Set during WW2 in Florida, this is a an epic recreation of Mafia life witnessed through the eyes of an Irish mob 'consigliere' whose loyalties are caught up in the territorial wars of the Italian gangs he once presided over. Although the main character is as much a ruthless killer as the thugs he now advises, Lehane wonderfully manages to draw the reader into evoking sympathy for Joe Coughlin's meticulous planning and strategy and his protective feelings for his own partly orphaned son as a ferocious net closes around him that leads to a bloody conclusion. A gallery of vividly-etched characters embraces kingpins and henchmen alike and strikingly brings the protagonists and the period to life, together with the vivid southern landscape that extends to Cuba and beyond. Not just another version of The Godfather from a different point of view but an acute vision of the mechanisms of evil and Lehane's best and most exciting novel since Mystic River and his Kenzie and Gennaro series.
The Drop
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. Begun as a wry story of low level crime set in Boston, Lehane's short novel is a rich mix of humanity, compassion and sudden violence. Animal Rescue was the tale of a lonely and deceptively harmless barman who finds a dog, adopts it and quickly finds himself wrapped in conflict with local hoods and confronted by a terrible dilemma; Lehane has now also expanded it into a movie script (with Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini) which has relocated the action to Brooklyn but is otherwise remarkably faithful to the book. Small-time crime, badly emotionally bruised but utterly believable characters, crime at its most basic, the ordinary poetry and camaraderie of bar life: no one does this better than Lehane. Low key but indispensable. The film version of The Drop is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14 November 2014. Click below to view the trailer.
Moonlight Mile
Featured on The TV Book Club on More4 on 3 Jul 2011. Moonlight Mile sees the return of the much-loved characters Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. Lehane, author of Shutter Island among others is one of the best crime writers around, not surprising then that he's also been busy writing scripts for the TV drama, The Wire. If you're looking for a well written strong plot with real world characters and dialogue then Lehane is your man.
The Given Day
A big novel in every way, packed with action, in a time of huge social upheaval, for this is Boston 1918-1919. With strikes, poverty, racism, corruption, anarchist bombs, riots on the streets and the arrival of the world flu pandemic, the book builds to the most violent part of a violent book, the police strike. It’s terrific. Comparison: R J Ellory, Nelson DeMille, Mario Puzo.
Gone, Baby, Gone
The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. A territory defined by hard heads and even harder luck, its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, dreams. Now, one of its youngest is missing. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro don't want the case. But after pleas from the child's aunt, they open an investigation that will ultimately risk everythingtheir relationship, their sanity, and even their livesto find a little girl-lost.
Since We Fell
'Complex, tense, compelling' Lee Child 'Hitchcockian...with characteristically twisty action and crackling dialogue' Guardian Best Crime & Thriller Books of 2017 On a Tuesday in May, in her thirty-fifth year, Rachel shot her husband dead. He stumbled backward with an odd look of confirmation on his face, as if some part of him had always known she'd do it. Rachel's husband adores her. When she hit rock bottom, he was there with her every step of the way as she slowly regained her confidence, and her sanity. But his mysterious behaviour forces her to probe for the truth about her beloved husband. How can she feel certain that she ever knew him? And was she right to ever trust him? Bringing together Dennis Lehane's trademark insightful and emphathetic characterisation, razor-sharp dialogue, stunning atmosphere and breakneck twists and turns, Since We Fell is a true masterpiece that will keep you in suspense until the very end.
Other books by Dennis Lehane
The Drop
New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane's The Drop is a crime story, a love story, and ultimately a journey of faith, set in Boston's underworld. [A] gritty gem...a stark and moving short novel. - Publishers Weekly Two days after Christmas, Bob Saginowski, a lonely bartender looking for a reason to live, rescues an abused and abandoned pit bull puppy from a trash can and meets a damaged woman named Nadia Dunn looking for something to believe in. As their relationship grows, they cross paths with the Chechen mafia, who have taken over his cousin Marv's bar and use it as a money drop; Marv himself, who has grown dangerously desperate with age and thwarted hopes; two hapless stick-up artists who make the mistake of robbing the bar; a very curious cop; and the original owner of the puppy, a psycho named Eric Deeds, who wants his dog back. . .
Since we fell
Dennisa Lihehjna nazyvali "e;naslednikom Dzhona Stejnbeka i Rehjmonda CHandlera"e;; ego romany, v kotoryh perepletayutsya ehlementy detektiva, trillera i dramy, stali mirovymi bestsellerami i perevedeny bolee chem na tridcat' yazykov. Po mnogim knigam Lihehjna snyaty hudozhestvennye fil'my, naprimer "e;Tainstvennaya reka"e; (2003) Klinta Istvuda, "e;Proshchaj, detka, proshchaj"e; (2007) Bena Affleka, "e;Ostrov proklyatyh"e; (2010) Martina Skorseze s Leonardo Di Kaprio v glavnoj roli - i ehto lish' verhushka ajsberga. Itak, poznakom'tes' s Rejchel CHajlds. Byvshaya zhurnalistka, ona ushla iz professii posle skandal'nogo sryva v pryamom ehfire i teper' zhivet zatvornicej; a v ostal'nom ehto ideal'naya zhizn' s ideal'nym muzhem - poka sluchajnaya vstrecha ne zastavlyaet Rejchel usomnit'sya vo vsem, chto ee okruzhaet, a to i v sobstvennom rassudke. Hvatit li ej vnutrennih sil, chtoby sovladat' s nevoobrazimymi strahami i nemyslimoj pravdoj?Vpervye na russkom - "e;samyj zahvatyvayushchij detektiv iz vsekh, chto mne dovodilos' chitat' v poslednie gody"e; (Kejt Atkinson); "e;kriminal'nyj roman o neulovimyh aferistah, neuemnoj alchnosti i neizbezhnoj mesti; no v serdce ego zhivet istoriya lyubvi"e; (Associated Press).
Live by Night
Joe Coughlin is nineteen when he meets Emma Gould. A smalltime thief in 1920s Boston, he is told to cuff her while his accomplices raid the casino she works for. But Joe falls in love with Emma - and his life changes for ever. That meeting is the beginning of Joe's journey to becoming one of the nation's most feared and respected gangsters. It is a journey beset by violence, double-crossing, drama and pain. And it is a journey into the soul of prohibition-era America... A powerful, deeply moving novel, Live By Night is a tour-de-force by Dennis Lehane, writer on The Wire and author of modern classics such as Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone and The Given Day.
WORLD GONE BY
Vpervye na russkom - novoe panoramno-liricheskoe polotno sovremennogo klassika Dennisa Lihehjna, avtora bestsellerov "e;Tainstvennaya reka i "e;Ostrov proklyatyh, a takzhe ehposa "e;Nastanet den' - pervoj v novom veke zayavki na preslovutyj "e;velikij amerikanskij roman - i ego prodolzheniya "e;Noch' - moj dom. Pisatel', kotorogo nazyvali "e;naslednikom Dzhona Stejnbeka i Rehjmonda CHandlera, reshil sygrat' na pole "e;Krestnogo otca i "e;Odnazhdy v Amerike - i vystupil ochen' uverenno. Dzho Koglin - syn kapitana bostonskoj policii Tomasa Koglina i mladshij brat byvshego patrul'nogo Dehnni Koglina, uzhe izvestnyh chitatelyu po romanu "e;Nastanet den'. Dzho poshel inym putem i za desyatiletie, opisannoe v romane "e;Noch' - moj dom, stal iz buntarya-odinochki, kotoromu zakon ne pisan, rukovoditelem krupnejshej v regione butlegerskoj operacii, pravoj rukoj glavarya gangsterskogo sindikata. Proshlo eshche desyat' let, suhoj zakon davno otmenili, za okeanom bushuet Vtoraya mirovaya vojna. Dzho v odinochku rastit syna i kursiruet mezhdu Floridoj i Kuboj - rodinoj ego pogibshej zheny. On chuvstvuet sebya svoim i v velikosvetskih salonah, i sredi mafiozi, i v oficerskom klube voennoj razvedki. No nichto ne zashchitit ego ot temnoj tajny prestupnogo proshlogo
drop
Pochti dvadcat' let Bob Saginovski stoyal za stojkoj bara - kazhdyj den' s chetyrekh dnya do dvuh nochi - "e;strannovatyj, odinokij Bob-barmen chelovek s temnym proshlym, pogruzhennyj v vospominaniya, pochti poteryavshij nadezhdu obresti prostoe chelovecheskoe schast'e. Peremeny vsegda nastupayut neozhidanno. Razmerennaya zhizn' Boba stremitel'no razvorachivaetsya v burnuyu kinodramu, uchastnikami kotoroj stanovyatsya grabiteli, pokusivshiesya na vorovskoj "e;obshchak chechenskie bandity, lyubopytnyj kop-puehrtorikanec i sumasshedshij shantazhist, voobrazivshij sebya supermenom. A takzhe zagadochnaya devushka Nadya. No vse nachalos' s togo, chto na tretij den' posle Rozhdestva v bake dlya musora Bob nashel sobaku...
Drink Before the War
As richly complex and brutal as the terrain it depicts, here is the mesmerizing, darkly original novel that heralded the arrival of Dennis Lehane, the master of the new noirand introduced Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, his smart and tough private investigators weaned on the blue-collar streets of Dorchester.A cabal of powerful Boston politicians is willing to pay Kenzie and Gennaro big money for a seemingly small job: to find a missing cleaning woman who stole some secret documents. As Kenzie and Gennaro learn, however, this crime is no ordinary theft. It's about justice, about right and wrong. But in Boston, finding the truth isn't just a dirty business . . . it's deadly.
Moonlight Mile
Sixteen-year-old Amanda McCready has disappeared. Her anxious aunt contacts Patrick Kenzie to investigate. It is not the first time she has gone missing, as Patrick well knows - he was the investigator who worked on her case when she was kidnapped before, as a four-year-old. But this is not a simple case of a runaway girl. In fact, nothing in Amanda's life has been simple: brought up by the world's worst mother, neglected throughout her childhood, she has nonetheless blossomed into a formidably intelligent young woman. A young woman so bright that she can seemingly out-think and out-manoeuvre anyone... For Patrick, the case leads him down Boston's darkest, most dangerous streets - and into a world of shocking secrets that will threaten not only Amanda's life, but also his own and that of his partner Angie Gennaro.
Gone, Baby, Gone
Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired to find four-year-old Amanda McCready.Despite extensive news coverage and dogged investigation into her abduction, the police have uncovered nothing. The case is rife with oddities: Amanda's indifferent mother, a couple with a history of paedophilia and a shadowy police unit. As the Indian summer fades, Amanda McCready stays gone - vanished so completely that she seems never to have existed. When a second child disappears, Kenzie and Gennaro face a local media more interested in sensationalizing the abductions than helping to solve them, a local police force seething with lethal secrets, and a faceless power determined to obstruct their efforts. Caught in a deadly tangle of lies, and determined to unravel the riddle that is anything but child's play, they soon discover that those who go looking for the missing may not come back alive.
Shutter Island
Tie-in to the major motion picture, released on 12th March 2010. US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando. As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C? The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane...
Mystic River
The New York Times bestselling novel from Dennis Lehane is a gripping, unnerving psychological thriller about the effects of a savage killing on three former friends in a tightly knit, blue-collar Boston neighborhood.When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever.Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.
Given Day
From Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and Shutter Island, comes the paperback edition of The Given Day, an unflinching family epic that captures the political unrest of a nation caught between a well-patterned past and an unpredictable future. This beautifully written novel of American history tells the story of two familiesone black, one whiteswept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power at the end of World War I.
Coronado
Though best known for his hugely successful novels, Dennis Lehane is also a master of the short story. This collection, his first to be published in the UK, includes the story 'Running out of Dog' which was featured in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2005 and THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF THE CENTURY. It also includes the full text of the acclaimed play CORONADO. Infused with the compelling narrative drive, piercing insight, and psychological drama that have made his novels bestsellers, CORONADO is sure to satisfy this acclaimed writer's devoted following while they eagerly await his next novel.
Prayers For Rain
Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's relationship has hit the skids - their long-standing professional commitment and growing romance have disintegrated due to seemingly irreparable personal differences. But despite these problems, Prayers for Rain brings them together again to close down a predator whose modus operandi seems to put him beyond the law. This killer's insidious murder weapon is within his victims' minds: no smoking gun, no bloody knife, just merciless manipulation until despair 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 in which simple survival seems a mixed blessing - because not even the winner will emerge unscathed.
Darkness, Take My Hand
When wisecracking detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro agree to protect the son of a prominent psychiatrist who believes she may have angered the Boston Irish Mafia, they soon find bodies are piling up around them - seemingly unconnected with their case. And what's more all the clues point to an unlikely suspect - a serial killer who has been in prison for twenty years, so he can't be killing again, can he? As Angie and Patrick try to find out what kind of human being could perform such horrifying acts of rape, mutilation, torture and dismemberment, they discover that the killer's motive is disturbingly rooted in their own distant past. In a series of heart-stopping climaxes that grow ever more terrifying and bloody, the two work frantically with the Boston cops, the FBI, the local Mafia, and the folks from their old neighbourhood to unearth the killer before they become victims themselves.
Sacred
Dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to find his missing daughter. Grief-stricken over the death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks. So has the first investigator Trevor Stone hired to find her: Jay Becker, Patrick's mentor. As Patrick and Angie begin their search, they are led down a trail of half-truths and corruption into a world in which a therapeutic organization may be fronting for a dangerous cult; a hi-tech private investigation firm may be covering up lethal crimes; and a stolen cache of millions in illegal funds may be tied to both disappearances and a tanker full of heroin. Nothing is remotely what it seems as the detectives travel from the wind-blown streets of Boston to the rum-punch sunsets of Florida's Gulf Coast and back again, searching for a woman and a man who could be saints or sinners, victims or victimizers, alive or dead. And the more Patrick and Angie discover, the more they realize that on this case, any wrong step will certainly be their last.
A Drink Before The War
Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are tough private investigators who know the blue-collar neighbourhoods and ghettos of Boston's Dorchester section 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 Statehouse documents. But finding Jenna proves easy compared to staying alive. The investigation escalates, uncovering a web of corruption extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of state government. With slick, hip dialogue and a lyrical narrative pocked by explosions of violence, A Drink Before the War confronts a city in which institutionalized bigotry and corruption are often the norm, and the true nature of 'racial incidents' is rarely clear. Dennis Lehane's remarkable debut 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.