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Prayers for Rain (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels) by Dennis Lehane
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Dennis Lehane Edition: Mass Market Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2000-05-02 ISBN: 0380730367 Number of pages: 416 Publisher: HarperTorch
Book Reviews of Prayers for Rain (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)Book Review: "We need stuff. Illegal stuff." Summary: 5 Stars
Never one to be deterred by legal "technicalities" when he solves his cases, Patrick Kenzie, a Boston private detective, is up to his eyeballs in his own problems when Karen Nichols asks him to stop a stalker. Kenzie and his long-time partner/sometimes lover Angie Gennaro have worked together in four previous Dennis Lehane novels, but they have now split, and Kenzie is at loose ends. After solving Karen's problem, he ignores a later phone call, then reads six months later that she has jumped to her death. Thinking that she must have had a new problem that he was too "busy" to investigate, he wonders if he might have contributed to her death and feels honor bound to find out why she jumped.
As Kenzie investigates Karen's background and family, he turns up what may be the most dysfunctional family situation ever created. But he also discovers that Karen led a totally different life at the time of her death than the seemingly innocent and vulnerable life she led just six months before. Her mother and stepfather are unfazed by her death--and no one misses her or mourns her--except Kenzie, who is more curious than mournful. Teaming up once again with Angie, who helped him with an early aspect of the case, he continues his investigation, eventually calling upon Bubba Rogowski, another old friend, for help. Rogowski, a Vietnam War vet with "lobster tails" of scars on his chest and hidden shrapnel within his chest, has even bigger scars and "shrapnel" within his psyche.
As Kenzie uncovers Karen's long-time psychiatric problems and their origin within her family, the suspense ratchets up. Karen's little half-sister died at the age of four, and her stepbrother Wesley has had no contact with the family for ten years. Kenzie's insatiable curiosity about the family leads to new information that complicates what might have been a relatively straightforward case of family dysfunction and turns it into a case of manipulation, psychological warfare, and emotional torture.
Lehane, an absolute master of suspense, juggles plot lines and complications with aplomb, in the process creating intense scenes filled with local color and oddball details. As his characters face (and create) scenes of stomach-turning violence (and even sadism), the focus remains on people, not violence for its own sake. Though no one can claim that these are all rounded characters, they are usually unique, so fascinating that the reader always feels their behavior to be at least plausible--for them. As the plot lines converge, the novel winds up to a wild conclusion, filled with violence and several big surprises. One of Lehane's early (1999) novels, this one shows all the promise that he continues with Mystic River and Shutter Island. n Mary Whipple
The Given Day: A Novel
Darkness, Take My Hand (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)
Sacred
A Drink Before the War
Gone, Baby, Gone (Harper Fiction)
Summary of Prayers for Rain (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston?s gritty blue-collar streets. Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why a former client, a perky woman in love with life, could, within six months, jump naked from a Boston landmark -- the final fall in a spiral of self-destruction. What he finds is a sadistic stalker who targeted the young woman and methodically drove her to her death. A monster the law can?t touch. But Kenzie can. He and his former partner, Angela Gennaro, will fight a mind-twisting battle against this psychopath even as he turns his tricks on them. 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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