Customer Reviews

Sacred

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The only problem with Dennis Lehane is that he writes so well, that his books just fly, and you regret that its over so soon. I started this book and finished in the same day. I can't remember the last time I read a book in one day, and believe me I read a lot. The reason this only gets 4 stars is that comparing it to "Darkness Take My Hand" it would be hard not to fall a little short. That book was so good it gave me chills. Now on to this book, once again Kenzie and Gennaro are drawn into an intriguing case, where nothing is what it seems. There are plenty of twists and turns that jump out at you. The dialogue and action don't miss a step. While I state this isn't as great at the previous book in the series, it is still very good and well worth the read. While it is true that you don't need to read the other books prior to "Sacred", there are however references to the events in those books that give away their endings, so I encourage you to read in order. Lehane has quickly become one of my favorite authors. He is right on par with Harlan Coben, but with a darker edge. If you haven't read Lehane or are yet to read this book, you are missing out. Pick it up now, so you aren't the last one in on this great author.

This is another book that I'll put in my loaner shelf to loan out to friends who like crime thriller/ mystery novels. I take pride in loaning out only the cream of the crop, and I'm happy to say that this one will fit right in. My wife thoroughly enjoyed it too.
This wisecracking pair of somewhat reluctant P.I.'s entertain from beginning to end. The dialogue is crisp, darkly funny, original, and insightful. The plot is cleverly woven, unpredictable, and fast paced. The main characters' motivations and feelings are explored without beating you over the head with it. (THANK YOU!) The entire book was very entertaining and memorable.
I'm not sure why anyone who enjoys reading wouldn't absolutely love this book, but there are some less than complimentary reviews, so I guess you can't please everybody all of the time.
This book is highly recommended to all non anal-retantives.

This is the third in Dennis Lehane's series of Boston-based, hard boiled-but-hip private eye novels featuring the team of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. This time, he refreshes his formula by taking his characters to a new locale, the Tampa-St.Petersburg area in Florida. What remains constant, however, is that Lehane has crafted another action-packed mystery thriller that once started is hard to put down.

In each successive book, Lehane has further developed his ability to create plot lines that feature the twists, turns, and surprises that characterize only the very best action/mystery novels. In *Sacred*, he keeps the reader guessing right up until very close to the end of the book, and for this reason alone, the novel can be highly recommended.

But Lehane does not just tell a good story, he writes exceedingly well and has a gift for describing characters, places, and human emotions that is rare within the detective genre. And to add frosting to the cake, in this novel he includes, almost in passing, some apt critical social commentary regarding the rapaciousness of the current "globalization" trend within the corporate world and Americans' overall obliviousness to the dark underside of this ongoing phenomenon.

Is the book perfect? No, there are some minor shortcomings, in my opinion. The ending is a bit on the theatrical side (perhaps the book might someday become a Hollywood film?) and I confess that I found the turn toward deep romantic engagement between Patrick and Angela more boring than gratifying. In terms of further developing the nuances of his main characters, Lehane has essentially taken a vacation in *Sacred*. Maybe next time.

Let me add that I was surprised to see that there is apparently an ongoing misconception among readers of this book that Lehane made a "glaring error" by including a clue involving the title of a 1965 Bob Dylan composition, "Positively Fourth Street." In fact, Lehane made no such error. On page 174, the clue offered by detective Jay Becker was, "Bob Dylan in St. Pete. . . Songs, not albums." Yup, "Positively Fourth Street" was indeed a well-known Bob Dylan song, so what's the problem?

Overall, *Sacred* is a darned good read, a page-turner that stands head and shoulders above most other books in its genre. Consequently, I'm looking forward to moving on to the next volume in the Kenzie/Gennaro saga, "Gone, Baby Gone."

Maybe Lehane was tired when he put this one together. I don't know. Sacred is not in the same league as A Drink Before the War or Darkness, Take My Hand, but it does move fast and gives us some more character development of Angie, Patrick and a bit more of Bubba. That character development alone, is handy when you get to his later novels (Gone, Baby, Gone and Prayers for Rain). Although the story is on the predictable side, we still come away knowing Lehane's main cast a bit better and he's always good for the sharp-as-a-tack wit. I absolutely love the way his books make me laugh -- not something you expect in this genre.

I have read 3 of Lehane's books and have enjoyed them all. The dialogue is always entertaining and the characters are intriguing. I recommend this to anyone that enjoys a fast-paced and twisting storyline with a healthy amount of sexual innuendo.

If Dennis Lehane wrote page after page of grocery shopping ...I'd still read it in one sitting. Angie and Patrick are, alas!, not real, but boy, are they fun! The dialogue is crisp, the rogues are, well, rough, the good guys are not entirely good and the bad guys (you get the drift)... A page turner for me.

First, this is the 3rd book in the series. If you're like me and prefer to read a series in the order that it was written (and hence evolve with the characters), you'll want to get this book along with the other two that precede it (Drink Before the War & Darkness, Take My Hand). Also, Lehane does talk some about the plots that took place in the two previous books and those references will be lost on you if you start with book 3. With that said, I thought the book was very good. Like his others, it was filled with great writing, was very visually descriptive and nicely put together. Lehane's strong suite is his excellent characters. They are complex, believable and interesting. I can see why Mr. Lehane uses some of them again and again in his novels (a male and female pair of Private Detectives). The book is written in the first person primarily, which I normally don't care for but works well here because it's not overdone (thus giving the reader many perspectives). Unlike his first two books, the villains and situations are not quite as intense so I was a shade disappointed there. He makes up the slack though in the plot with this one as it is even more of a twisty-turn mystery than the others. Overall, if you enjoy authors like Patricia Cornwell or Thomas Harris or Phillip Margolin, then I recommend you try this novel. You won't be disappointed.

After the events of DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro close up their private detective agency in order to recuperate. Angie is grieving for the death of her ex-husband and Patrick wants to give her as much time as she needs to regroup.

Billionaire Trevor Scott is a desperate man who does not like to wait. He is desperately searching for his daughter who has gone missing for several weeks now. He had hired Jay Becker, Patrick Kenzie's mentor, to find Desiree. Mr. Becker does his job and when he is ready to report to Mr. Scott he disappears. Trevor kidnaps Angie and Patrick since they were not taking his calls or accepting any new cases. He tells them that he is dying and he needs to see his daughter one last time. Mr. Scott believes that Desiree is still grieving from the death of her mother as well as her boyfriend so that she alienated herself from her family. He also tells them about Jay's disappearance. Patrick and Angie are intrigued and take the case. They forgot only one thing. Just like in most mystery novels, the client does not tell the private investigators the truth and that is just the case here.

What follows is a roller coaster ride that sends Kenzie and Gennaro to a cult, a fraud scheme, and warped family values. These two classic characters are witty and a joy to read. Lehane takes them out of their Dorchester neighborhood in Boston and sends them to sunny Florida. They hate it because they do not know anybody in town. It will make the job of finding Desiree and Jay a bit harder but they manage. Once they find Ms. Stone the reader learns that she has a lot of issues with Daddy. She will do whatever it takes to get even. This novel had one of the best endings in which all the villains get their just desserts. You cannot help yourself in rooting for Angela. Patrick then decides what to do with the crooks with a devious plan.

This book is second best to GONE, BABY, GONE, and it is highly recommended. Bubba even makes an appearance on this novel before having to spend a year in jail. He is always a hoot. If you have never met Bubba Rogowski now is the time. You do not want him to come over to your house to introduce himself.

In a story that should be familiar to anyone who has seen or read The Big Sleep, a old dying billionaire charges a pair of detectives with the task of tracking down his daughter, who disappeared under highly suspicious circumstances. The detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, aren't the first ones who have tried to find her - that is Desiree Stone, daughter of Trevor - in fact, the man originally hired for the job vanished himself not long after claiming with great certainty that she was still alive.

Dennis Lehane crafts a spiraling plot where you wonder if anybody at all is telling anybody else the truth about anything. There is a cult-like group preaching some sort of church message somehow linked with a grief counseling center, and Desiree may have been a member of either or both of these groups... or was she? All of the events surrounding her disappearance are highly suspect, so much so that our detectives aren't even sure she exists at all. And if she does exist, just what is her agenda? Some say she was seen with a dangerous man named Sean Price, but does he exist? It's a big confusing mess for Kenzie and Gennaro, but a page-turner for the reader following along closely.

In the end, though, this book turns out to be fairly predictable, despite the twists that Lehane works in throughout. It's an effective detective mystery, but fails to capture on anything other than a visceral level. I enjoyed it a lot while I was reading it, but nothing really stood out for me after I completed it. If you are familiar with the standards of film noir, none of the twists will surprise you too much, although they do hold up to scrutinization of continuity.

If you look at the 5 Lehane novels, "Darkness Take My Hand," "A Drink Before The War," "Mystic River," and "Shutter Island," "Sacred" is probably the weakest.

Based loosly on Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep," it sends Angie and Patrick off to Florida to track down the missing heiress of Billionaire Trevor Stone. She is not all that she appears to be and neither is the plot with numerous twists and turns common in Lehane mysteries.

Lehane maybe writing the best novels today and Sacred" is for now, the last of the Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gennaro duos. Perhaps there will be more. I myself was happy to see them go. Like others before them they seemed to have the same personal problems that surface repeatedly and I imagine that Lehane is too good of an author to have to rely on a formula. Read "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island " and you'll know what I mean.

But it's unfair to denigrate "Sacred" because of its company. It still remains a good novel