Mystic River [Import] [Paperback]

Dennis Lehane (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: New York: William Morrow; First edition thus. edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0593044762
• ISBN-13: 978-0593044766
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (457 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,799,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dennis Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He is the author of A Drink Before the War, which won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; and the New York Times bestsellers 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. Coronado, a collection of five stories and a play, was published in the fall of 2006 and includes the story "Until Gwen," which was adapted for the stage.

Lehane's work has been translated into 22 languages. He holds an MFA from Florida International University and is the writer-in-residence at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he runs the Writers in Paradise writers' conference. Before becoming a full-time writer, Lehane worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. He lives in the Boston area.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NO MYSTERY HERE!!!! LEHANE IS THE GREATEST!!!!, August 26, 2002

By 

Nancy Martin (Pennsylvania (orig. NY)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystic River (Mass Market Paperback)

There are authors and then there are GREAT authors. MYSTIC RIVER just proves that Dennis Lehane has risen to the "great author" category. I'm familiar with Lehane's work having already read four books in his Patrick and Angie series. But nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for the greatness of MYSTIC RIVER.

Everything in this book is real -- so real that you actually feel like you're living in the "Flats" even though you've never set foot anywhere near that part of the United States. Perhaps growing up in Brooklyn enabled me to relate to the people living on the so-called "opposite side of the tracks" because I was friends with many of them. Every city has this section. Those who live in it want to get out and those who live outside of it would like, in some small way, to be a part of it. It's a place where the residents look out for their own, sometimes having to take justice into their own hands to see that it is properly served.

We meet the three main characters, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus and Dave Boyle, when they are young boys playing together in the streets. When we meet them again, they are grown men -- one a homicide detective, one an ex-con who has lived the straight life for fifteen years and one a husband and father plagued by demons.

Lehane explores the "what if" scenario by reminding us that "if" it had rained in Dallas on that fateful day, Kennedy would not have been in a convertible. The big "what if" in this book centers around an occurrence that happened when the boys were not yet twelve years old and one of them was taken away in a car by pedophiles posing as cops. The big "what if" was how life would have been for the other two had they also gotten into the car. The bigger "what if", however, is how different this story might have been if NONE of them had gotten into the car. Because the boy who left in the car that day is not the same boy who returns four days later having escaped from his captors. As a result of this incident, all three boys will carry around the demons of that day into manhood until the tragic death of one of their daughters will bring the three of them face-to-face again.

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that this is one of the finest books I've ever read. While there's a mystery going on, and it certainly is a page-turner, it is so much more. It is a journey into the psyches of all the characters so neatly drawn out by Lehane and so knowingly admired by the reader. You can understand each and every movement; each and every motivation. While you might not always agree with their choices, you can see that they are real and not something contrived by the author.

I just can't imagine anyone not liking this book and, while I long for another Patrick and Angie episode, I am content to read whatever this author writes. As long as he keeps writing, I'll keep reading.

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Ten Star Read On A Five Star Scale, January 30, 2001

By 

sheldon bowles (Winnipeg, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystic River (Hardcover)

Dennis Lehane has done it again! I started to read this book on a U.S. to Canada flight, and could scarce tear my nose out of it to clear customs and pick up my bags. Thank heavens we arrived late evening so I could head for bed to finish one of the most exciting, delightful and satisfying reads I've ever enjoyed. I read several books a week and I can't remember when I've been so transported and enthraled.

Now, in case you haven't guessed I'm a big fan of Lehane. Since his first book, Shamus Award winner, A Drink Before The War to last year's Prayers For Rain I love everything he's written and he just keeps getting better and better. Mystic River is different than his previous books in that it is not part of his Boston P.I. Patrick Kenzie series. But don't worry. The magic that makes Dennis Lehane such a powerful writer is all here in Mystic River and it is here in abundance. Lehane gets inside the characters' minds and with masterful twists and turns persents a psychological thriller that is second to none.

This alone would qualify Mystic River as a must read. But, as always, Lehane presents, like a Shakesperian play, a story that can be enjoyed on many levels, and like the best masters of the English language he does so in prose of seemingly effortless beauty. Just reading a Lehane paragraph is a delicious, sensious experience! And yet language and image never get in the way of the characters and the story. Above all, Lehane is a story teller.

Mystic River begins in Lehane's familiar back yard of Boston where we meet three children. Friends whose childhood will mark them forever. They will meet again and even knowing what we know, we don't know how deep the darkness runs. As the dust jacket says, this is an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family. To tell you more would tip the master's hand.

I can tell you one more thing, however. Hit the Add To My Cart button and buy this book now. I expect my email box will soon be full of letters from grateful strangers thanking me for alerting them to this exceptional novel. Matter of fact, I suggest you buy two. One to read and re-read. The other to put away carefully wrapped as a prized first edition. Mystic River is that good.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Riveting, November 24, 2001

By 

D. F. Norris "dfnorris" (Napa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mystic River (Hardcover)

Reading is my passion. I have books piled up all over my room just waiting to be read. Although I enjoy most books, I read so many of them that often, by the time I'm halfway into a new one, I have already forgotten most of what I read in the previous book. But there are a handfull of books that made such an impression on me, that their stories stay with me long after I've finished them. Some, I doubt, I will ever forget. Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River" is one of those. I had only read one other Lehane book - "Praying for Rain" - which was a good crime thriller. Mystic River, however, is entirely different. It does involve a murder, but it is so much more than a crime thriller. It is a psychological masterpiece. The main characters, Dave Boyle, Jimmy Marcus, and Sean Devine, grow up as childhood friends. One day Dave suddenly disappears in a car with two men. He returns a changed and damaged child, but what happened while he was gone remains his secret. The book moves ahead twenty-five years. All three have now grown up, having taken completely different paths in life. When Jimmy Marcus' daugher is murdered, the story takes off as Sean, now a homicide detective, takes on the case. But the meat of the story involves the personal demons that haunt all three men, and the effects those demons have on their marriages, families and their lives. This is not a classic whodunit. Lehane does not throw out little tidbits to throw the reader off from guessing who killed Katie, the murdered girl. In fact, so wrapped up in the lives of the three men, their wives and families, that we almost don't care who the murderer really is. There is a lot of darkness in this book as Lehane deftly developes these tragic characters. But the book is not without humor - Lehane's writing is full of dry, acerbic humor. I found myself drawn to every character in the book - as flawed and damaged as they were. No matter what you think has happened, you want to reach out to them, especially Dave, whose live was forever changed that fateful day that he was taken away. This book will appeal to a large audience - for those who love a good mystery, and those who like their books deep, probing the characters' psyches. As I said, this book is still with me, and I suspect it always will be. Do yourself and favor and don't miss this wonderful, deeply moving book. It will make you think about your own life, and how "but for the grace of God go we" makes us realize how fragile our sense of security in our own lives really is. Read it and be moved!