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    Moonlight Mile
    Moonlight Mile
    Moonlight Mile
    Audiobook8 hours

    Moonlight Mile

    Written by Dennis Lehane

    Narrated by Jonathan Davis

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “[Lehane has] emerged from the whodunit ghetto as a broader and more substantial talent....When it comes to keeping readers exactly where he wants them, Mr. Lehane offers a bravura demonstration of how it’s done.”
    —New York Times

    Moonlight Mile is the first Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro suspense novel in more than a decade from the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane. An explosive tale of vengeance and redemption—the brilliant sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone—Moonlight Mile returns Lehane’s unforgettable and deeply human detective duo to the mean streets of blue collar Boston to investigate the second disappearance of Amanda McCready, now sixteen years old. After his remarkable success with Mystic River, Shutter Island, and The Given Day, the celebrated author whom the Washington Post praises as, “one of those brave new detective stylists who is not afraid of fooling around with the genre’s traditions,” returns to his roots—and the result, as always, is electrifying.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 2, 2010
    ISBN9780062023629
    Moonlight Mile
    Author

    Dennis Lehane

    Dennis Lehane is the author of thirteen novels—including the New York Times bestsellers Live by Night; Moonlight Mile; Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island; and The Given Day—as well as Coronado, a collection of short stories and a play. He grew up in Boston, MA and now lives in California with his family.

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    Reviews for Moonlight Mile

    4/5

    134 ratings75 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane is the sixth book in the series featuring Boston Private Investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. In Moonlight Mile Patrick and Angela must again search for Amanda McCready. Amanda, the four year old they searched for twelve years earlier in Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone (1998), is now sixteen and missing again. The outcome of the previous case has continued to haunted Patrick and Angela, now married with a four year old daughter.

      While in many ways this novel is predictable, it is entertaining and very well written. You can appreciate it and follow the story just fine without reading any of the previous novels following these characters. This is highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Twelve years ago, private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro were brought in to investigate the disappearance of four-year-old Amanda McCready. The toddler had suddenly vanished from her Boston neighborhood late one night, and her family feared the worst. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt had led them to take on the case - one of the toughest of their careers - and despite risking everything, the pair finally found the little girl. Against their better judgement, the investigators had to return little Amanda to the custody of her neglectful mother and a broken home.Now Amanda is sixteen - and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she had seemed destined to escape her troubled upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once again knocking at Patrick Kenzie's door, once more fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman - a woman who apparently hasn't been seen in weeks.Haunted by their memories of the past - and determined to do something to settle their consciences - Patrick and Angela revisit the case that has troubled them the most and which, even after all this time, has stayed with them. Their exhaustive investigation leads them into the darkest depths of the criminal underworld - a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. This is a world where motives and allegiances constantly shift and where the slightest mistake can prove, or most likely will prove, fatal.In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Patrick and Angela will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that reaches beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today are the ones that could end their lives.Mareena had chosen this book for me at our August Library Book Sale jaunt because she knew how much I had enjoyed reading Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. In my opinion, this particular book just wasn't for me. While I certainly found it to be well-written, fast-paced and jam-packed with drama and action, I must say that the Russian Mob is really too much for me. I'm sure that there are some readers who enjoy reading that type of story; however, I am definitely not one of them. I would give this book a B+!
    • 4/5
      I found this 6th Kenzie/Gennaro entry to be somewhat disappointing I love Lee Child's Reacher novels, so I do enjoy the occasional fast-paced, over-the-top suspense novel, especially when the hero's morals, wit, courage and intelligence lead him to a final confrontation with bad guys who deserve what they get . I think here I had trouble connecting to the questionable corners the main character (Kenzie) was willing to cut to justify making a buck: for instance, the willingness to betray people on the behest of rich clients who don't want to be held accountable for their illegal actions. I thought Kenzie was a better person than that, which is what makes these kinds of books so much fun, and perhaps I'm remembering the original five books wrong, but I think there's been a huge change here in his perspective.
    • 3/5
      There was a lot to like about this book. The sense of place, most of the dialogue, the atmosphere but I couldn't get past parts of it that rang untrue. The relationship between Patrick and Angie was just too perfect. Angie would have been more angry at Patrick about putting their daughter's life in danger. And if they were that stressed out about money and had a 4 year old child, I couldn't imagine they'd spend an afternoon having sex in an expensive hotel. Amanda's character was unbelievably self possessed. So much so that she alone didn't feel like a real person.

      What I loved was the thought that went into the secondary characters that really fleshed them out. As a follow up to Gone Baby Gone I did enjoy finding out what the outcome of Patrick's decision was. I would recommend the book based on these things.
    • 4/5
      The name Dennis Lehane probably rings a bell since he is the author of Mystic River and Shutter Island. This one is a Kenzie and Gennaro series book, a series which I've never read but I sure did love this book.I think the major reason I enjoyed it so much is that he can give you a character you would recognize in a minute. Like this description of a girl working the counter at a diner: "She was about nineteen. A pretty face had been damaged by acne scars and she wore an extra forty pounds on her frame like a threat. Her eyes were dull with anger disguised as apathy. If she kept on her current path, she'd grow into the type of person who fed her kids Doritos for breakfast and puchased angry bumper stickers with lots of exclamation points." Can't you just see her? And this is an extremely minor character, so imagine what he does with someone important to the story.The story is set in Boston which is what attracted me to this library book to begin with. I know Boston well enough to recognize places where characters are, and I know what people there are like well enough to recognize that he has them down cold. I haven't felt like I was in the Boston area like this since Robert B. Parker left us.The protagonist, Patrick Kenzie, had found a girl named Amanda many years earlier but her "rescue" didn't exactly work out well because she was returned to a stupid, drug addled, neglectful mother. Now she's 16 years old and in trouble. Her aunt comes to Patrick to ask for help and he just can't refuse because he feels guilty about what happened before. Meanwhile, he and his wife have had a little girl who is immensely entertaining to the reader, but would drive you crazy in real life. Add some Russian goons to the mix and you have a wild and crazy ride.I was hooked on the story right from the start and surprised at the end. That and great characters are the epitome of a good crime book to me and I recommend this one.
    • 5/5
      I can not begin to tell you how excited I was to hear about the arrival of this book. Patrick and Angie are among my favorite literary characters. This story takes place 12 years after the incidents in "Gone Bay Gone" and in the words of Bob Seager everybody's a lot more older and a little less bolder. Patrick and Angie now have a 4 year old child and have begun to rethink their lives and what's important. They also are forced to wrestle with the decisions that they made in the past and the effects they have on the future. However, don't think for a moment this ones a downer as once again Lehane is bringing the humor. I've read many reviews that haven't been kind to this book, but I found it exceptional and true to the series.
    • 3/5
      In Moonlight Mile, Dennis Lehane revives Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro for the first time since 1999. Time has marched on for the characters. Patrick and Angie used to be prosperous independent operators during Boston’s high living 1990s. They could even afford to be self-righteous, and to pick and choose their clients. Now Patrick relies for his jobs on a high profile white collar firm that doesn’t even provide health insurance. Angie, meanwhile, has gotten out of the investigator business and is going to night school.

      Moonlight Mile has been advertised as a sequel to Gone Baby Gone, which was made into a popular film. In Gone Baby Gone Patrick and Angie are hired to find five year old Amanda McCready. I won't say anything more for readers that may not have read the book yet. However, in Moonlight Mile Amanda is missing again and her aunt wants Patrick to find her. In order both to unravel the new case, and to put the old one to rest, Patrick and Angie must pursue the mystery of who this young woman has become. Just because you know a twist is coming doesn't mean you know exactly what it is and this book surprised me several times. My only complaint is that the mystery plot is a bit weak. It involves Russian mobsters and identity theft, and much of the conflict revolves around a missing object that was incredibly transparent.

      I thought it was interesting to catch up with Patrick and Angie, after all these years. I appreciate that Lehane felt he should give them the farewell they deserved.
    • 1/5
      This reads like a movie script. Therefore, watch the movie - you will not miss anything by reading another book.
    • 4/5
      An interesting follow up of the gone baby gone story. It was interesting to see where the character are 12 years after the return of Amanda McCready. As Patrick and Angie, now new parents, start looking for Amanda who as disappeared again. They slowly start to realize that everything is not what meets the eye.
    • 4/5
      Lehane's writing sweeps the reader right in and progresses at a good clip. It was great catching up with Patrick's and Angela's lives since reading Gone, Baby, Gone. Dialogue is Lehane's strong suit especially in how much we can glean from Patrick's interviewing / interrogating people connected to the case making the characters real. Need / want to read more Lehane.
    • 3/5
      Moonlight Mile is written as a sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone, but the author does a great job of filling you in on the background of the story, so you can enjoy this book regardless of whether you read the previous one.In Gone, Baby, Gone, four-year-old Amanda McCready was kidnapped, and private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro were hired to find her. She had been living with a mother addicted to drugs, alcohol, and dysfunctional men; those who “kidnapped” her were actually trying to save her. But Kenzie insisted Amanda be returned to her mother, no matter how neglectful she was:"Rationally, I know damn well I don’t want to live in a world where people can just pluck a child out of a family they deem bad and raise a stolen child as they see fit.”Kenzie invokes the necessity of laws to keep order in a society, and in particular the role of the Department of Children and Families (DCF): they have “due process” he says; they investigate diligently and only then take kids away. [Oddly, Lehane has Kenzie ignore the failures of DCFs to keep up with caseloads, follow-up on investigations and house visits, etc. In addition, Kenzie seems to forget the corruption he himself has uncovered in the DCF, a breach of the public trust which surely vitiates his argument.] Kenzie repeatedly is forced by what he finds out as a private investigator to make a choice about what he exposes: on the one hand, he feels obligated to do the job for which he is being paid. He also counts on the alleged “neutrality” of the law to absolve himself of any resulting chaos from his disclosures. But often, situational ethics cry out for a different solution. This was certainly the case with Amanda, and indeed with many of the cases he takes. After years of feeling bad for the havoc he has wreaked, finally, in Moonlight Mile, Kenzie tries to atone for past sins of judgment by bending just a bit to allow others to opt for solutions that may not be so legal, but that are infinitely superior. There is another consideration that has mellowed Kenzie: he and Gennaro are married now, with a 4-year old daughter they both love dearly, in spite of the fact that parenthood sometimes can be boring and/or drive them crazy. Thus when Kenzie finds out that Amanda, now sixteen, is missing again, the two of them jump on the case. Little do they expect that this will mean life-threatening encounters with drug dealers, black market baby traders, and the Russian mafia. If they get out of this one, they are determined to retire from this dangerous life. Evaluation: Some of the dialogue between Patrick and Angela seems too well-scripted, as if we were reading the screenplay for a Nick and Nora Charles movie instead of a real-life interchange between husband and wife. It’s witty, it sparkles, but is it real?Kenzie's reasoning about doing the wrong thing for the "right" reason was very off-putting to me. He didn't hesitate to bend the law when it suited his own purposes, but refused when it was clear he was doing more harm than good by claiming the equivalent of "I was just following orders." In a better-written book, this might be an interesting character flaw, but I got the impression that Lehane didn't see the connection, and furthermore, thought he was showing moral integrity instead of moral cowardice. The resolution struck me as rather unrealistic, although my inner jury is still out on that one. It was quite a shark jump, but seemed a big stretch, nevertheless.Still, on a positive note, one could say it's a fast-moving story that seems a bit like an episode of the TV show “Without a Trace.” It would be an okay choice for an airport or other occasion requiring a diverting book.
    • 4/5
      I've heard quite a bit of buzz about Shutter Island (both the book and the movie) so it's been on my list for quite some time to check out Dennis Lehane. When I saw this ARC arrive in the mail I jumped at it and put it on the "short-list" for books to read.Now, Moonlight Mile is, as I found out a few pages in, the 6th book in a series featuring Kenzie and Gennaro, and I don't usually like jumping into the middle of a series like that - but in this case it worked for me. There was enough background information provided that I didn't feel overwhelmed, the chemistry between the characters was solid and packed with a good feeling of history, and the story strong enough to pull me in despite being a case that was brand new to me (unlike to the characters).This is one of those books that you pick up, open, and read in one setting. It's classic detective stuff, some obscenities, some hard decisions made, but solid writing and something that is able to keep interest without being overly gruesome like some popular writers are turning toward (Yes, Patterson, I'm looking at you. Swimsuit was disgusting.)So if you are looking for a nice, solid detective read that leans more toward the gritty then the more comedic (like Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series), then this would be an easy recommendation from me.
    • 4/5
      In 1997, four-year-old Amanda McCready vanished without a trace. Investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro risked their lives to bring her home, and did so successfully, but it was the most haunting case of their careers. Twelve years later, Amanda has vanished again, forcing Kenzie and Gennaro to relive past demons and once again race to save her life.
    • 4/5
      It’s virtually impossible to describe the plot of Moonlight Mile without revealing things better discovered in the reading of it. It’s also hard to imagine anyone picking it up without having read at least one other chapter in the Kenzie & Gennaro series (at least Gone, Baby, Gone, to which it’s a direct and explicit sequel) and so knowing the characters and the rhythms of their lives. Suffice it to say, then, that Dennis Lehane deals with the passage of twelve years since Gone in interesting ways. Patrick and Angie are, in Moonlight Mile, recognizably the people they were in earlier books, and their adventures in the Boston underworld are still, as in earlier books, tense, thrilling, funny, and (occasionally) heartbreaking. They are also, in critical ways, not the same people they used to be. The differences are easy to put down to lazy writing, but they feel to me like Lehane trying to do something that mystery writers rarely do with their characters: letting them age realistically.The events of Moonlight Mile are triggered, as the back of the book will tell you, by the disappearance of Amanda Macready from the home to which Patrick returned her at the end of Gone, Baby, Gone. The reasons why are bound up in a plot that, like portraits of the main characters, feels simultaneously familiar and atypical: faster, shaded more toward the idiom of the thriller than that of the mystery. It suits the characters less well, I think, than others in the series, but I found myself not minding. There is, particularly in the last act of Moonlight Mile a valedictory quality—a feeling of Lehane preparing to leave the characters and their world behind—and I was glad to be with Patrick and Angie for one final ride.
    • 2/5
      This book was a disappointment for me. All of the Lehane novels I have read before this were epic in my mind. Mystic River, Shutter Island. The writing, the characters and the dialogue all so incredible, it didn't feel as if the books were written, but that Lehane had somehow just tapped into these character's lives and told a snapshot.

      This book was the opposite. The characters seemed stereotypical and undeveloped. The dialogue forced and convenient. Description that was lackluster.

      This book was so unlike everything I love about Lehane...I almost cannot believe it came from him.
    • 4/5
      Nice quick read - sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone
    • 4/5
      No one writes a thriller quite like Lehane. From the heartbreaking story in Mystic River to the mind-bending twists in Shutter Island, his books are undeniably addictive. He gives the reader so much more than good plot points; he creates powerful characters that feel relatable and real. This book is the latest installment of the Kenzie and Gennaro series (which includes Sacred, Prayers for Rain, A Drink Before the War, etc.). It is a direct sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone (published in 1999) and you really need to read that one first to understand what’s going on. The rest of my review will assume you’ve read Gone, Baby, Gone. What I’ve always loved about Lehane’s work is his ability to capture and communicate the moral ambiguity of a case without seeming preachy. He tackles impossible issues from the perspective of his “everyman” detective Patrick Kenzie. He faces the darkest corners of society and manages to come out alive, though never completely unscathed.In Gone, Baby, Gone Kenzie searches for a kidnapped girl named Amanda McCready. When he eventually finds her he struggles with the decision of whether of not to return her to her neglectful mother. He eventually decides that he as to take her back to her parent, but that decision has lasting consequences. At the beginning of this book Kenzie finds out that Amanda, now a teenager, has gone missing again. I really enjoyed this one because we have the chance to see the characters we’ve grown to love in another phase of life. Patrick and Angie are married and have a daughter. They’re trying to find a stable balance in their lives while still pursuing careers that interest them. There were a few moments when the novel lost its footing for me. This was mainly when Lehane tried to write like a teenager would speak and when he talked about technology. In both instances the novel felt forced. It wasn’t enough to ruin anything for me; it just took me out of the story for a second. BOTTOM LINE: This one is a must for fans of the series, but it’s not a great starting point if you’re new to his work. I’d recommend starting with the first Kenzie book, or with either of the stand alone novels Mystic River or Shutter Island.  
    • 4/5
      There is nothing about this book I don't like. From the very first few pages, I was hooked. This book is my introduction to Dennis Lehane. I know nothing about the past of Patrick Kenzie and his wife, Angie. Sometimes that can make for a very uncomfortable read. Not here. The back story necessary to follow the action is woven into the current situation with such an easy and efficient manner that I had no difficulties keeping up with the past. Private investigator Patrick Kenzie worries about how his family will meet their financial obligations when he does not get a permanent position with the company that hires him to find ways to save their clients money. He needs steady work. His wife is working on a master's degree in sociology and is nearly finished. He rebuffs her offer to put her studies on the back burner and help out. He considers his options. He worries a bit more. He gets a call at 3am from someone in his past. "Find her again. You owe me." He wonders if he dreamed it the next morning. And then he runs into her on his way to the subway. Beatrice McCready. Twelve years earlier, Patrick had found her 4-year-old niece who, it turned out, had been kidnapped by Lionel McCready, Beatrice's husband. With the help of some rogue cops, he had removed Amanda from an abusive and neglectful mother and given her to a couple who loved her and gave her the stability that all children need. He returned her to that mother and those involved in her kidnapping went to prison. He knows he did the right thing, but he also knows that the right thing is not necessarily the best thing. Fast forward to the present. Amanda has disappeared again. But this time, Mama says she's at home and no one wants to do any checking. Beatrice knows that something has happened because Amanda simply stopped calling and that's not like her. So she asks Patrick to find her again. He knows he should walk away but he can't. And he begins his search.The book is action packed but maintains its humanity. Everyone plays the cards that life has dealt. There are no supermen or women in this book. The characters are totally believable, even those who are completely off the wall. The dialogue is smart and witty. There are multiple surprises and some interesting twists along the way. It was a very satisfying read.I look forward to going back in time and meeting Patrick and Angie 'way back then.' I have no doubt that they will have lost their urbane charm and charisma. Mr. Lehane has a new fan!
    • 5/5
      Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite writers in any genre. His Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro series is compulsively readable and his later standalone work is also great. There are moments in his books that recur in my nightmares, in particular the image of a child getting into a car that drives away as his friends watch (most prominently in Mystic River).When Lehane began writing standalones I was happy to read them, but I'll admit to missing Patrick and Angie and wondering where they were. In an interview Lehane admitted to being reluctant to writing about them again, imagining them off in some exotic resort, picking up the telephone and thing, "Oh, no - not HIM again." He said that after all he'd put them through he felt they needed a break from him. I like that his characters are as real for him as they for me and I'm also glad that he revisited them again.This book would have been welcome for Patrick and Angie alone, but with them comes one of my other favorite series' characters, Bubba Rogowski. Like John Connolly's series' characters, Louis and Angel, Bubba is a pleasure to read, perhaps especially for his ability to cut to the chase in the most pragmatic way possible.These days Patrick and Angie are figuring how to navigate a life that now includes a young daughter and requires more stability. They're still taking risks, but are also realizing that some compromises will be needed to make their new life together work. When approached by the aunt of Amanda McCready, a child they returned to her unfit mother almost ten years ago, Patrick and Angie can't resist trying to put the past right.I devoured this book in a single day and, while I'm sad that Patrick and Angie won't be appearing in any more books, I'm pleased with how Lehane wrapped up the series - giving us all one more great book that creates an ending for these characters that makes sense, avoids being gimmicky, and honors who they all are. I can't wait to read whatever he decides to write next.
    • 3/5
      A sequel to "Gone Baby Gone" and just as good like all of Lehane's books. A little girl who was kidnapped when she was four is now missing again years later as a teenager and the same cop is looking for her. You don't have to read the first book to get caught up in this one and like the first one, is a page turner.
    • 2/5
      When I received Moonlight Mile, I didn’t realize that this was part of a series, and now having read it, I would not call it a stand alone book. Immediately I knew that there was a back story with little explanation to bring it to the present. Perhaps if I had read the previous books in this series I would have “known” the characters better, but I just found Patrick and Angie odd and vulgar. The characters talked about their poor financial condition so often that it became annoying. The author decided to try to make a political statement - it didn't work.
    • 4/5
      The latest and possible last Patrick and Angie novel. Patrick is still a PI while Angie is going to school, they have a young daughter. Now 16 year old Amanda McCready has disappeared, reported by her aunt Bea. This brings up old feelings for Patrick and Angie as they had once broken up when Patrick found 4 year old Amanda the first time she went missing and returned her to her mom even though she was unfit. Patrick has always felt guilty so even if it means losing out on paying jobs, he searches for her. This is a complex mystery but even more so as Patrick and Angie have both changed and it is not so easy to find a 16 year old girl who has gotten caught up with some seriously illegal stuff. I greatly enjoyed this novel, Lehane is such a great writer and really adds depth to his work.
    • 5/5
      A sequel to "Gone Baby Gone" and a return to the Kenzie - Gennaro series for Dennis Lehane after a number of years in which his profile has increased thanks to the success of The Wire and the films of his novels including the aforementioned Gone Baby Gone as well as Shutter Island and Mystic River. For those familiar with the series it is a welcome return and a probable farewell all in one. In the preceding story they had found and returned 4 year old Amanda to her neglectful mother from her doting "captors" and echoes of the conflict between what should be done and what is right are present here as are flashes of humour as Patrick Kenzie tries to support his family in light of the poor economy and his travails in seeking gainful employment with a large detective agency. Never less than entertaining (particularly when Bubba a one-man army is around) it makes me want to re-read the rest of the series which were probably among the first crime novels I ever read and hooked me on the genre. Maybe knock off one star for a slightly anti-climatic denouement.
    • 4/5
      Twelve years ago private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro's lives became consumed when they went searching for 4 year old Amanda McCready. The young girl, kidnapped from the home of her negligent mother, was at the center of a controversy when she ended up being found in a very unlikely place. After Amanda was found, she was returned to the disastrous home of her mother Helene, and Patrick and Angie began to move on with their lives. Now, 12 years later, Patrick and Angie are struggling to raise a family, which is all the harder because Patrick doesn't have a stable job and Angie is going to school. Pressure is mounting from all sides, and just when it looks like Partick could land a prestigious job as an investigator for a very upscale law firm, a face from his past comes back into sight. Out of the blue he is accosted by Amanda McCready's grandmother, who tells her that the now 16 year old Amanda has vanished again. Despite Patrick's initial reluctance to handle the case, he goes for it, and what he uncovers is not only seedy and dangerous, but this time the clues implicate Amanda herself. With time running out, Patrick and Angie begin a quest to find Amanda, and in doing so, they also uncover a group of people involved in a dangerous and unusual scheme. With a plot that moves like a speeding train and some of the most unsavory and entertaining villains ever to be seen on the page, Lehane gives us the conclusion of a case started 12 years ago, and an investigator like no other, the inimitable Patrick Kenzie.I haven't read many of Lehane's books, but what I have read has really impressed me. A few months ago I read and really loved Shutter Island and found myself thinking and rethinking about the book long after I turned the last page. I know he has a few other books that deal with Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, but I hadn't read any of them. I didn't feel lost at all in this story because I'd seen the movie version of the first book in this series, Gone Baby, Gone. One thing I thought was funny about reading this book was since I had seen Ben Affleck play Patrick Kenzie in the movie, I couldn't for the life of me not see him while I was reading Moonlight Mile. I think it actually made the book more enjoyable for me to be able to connect the actions of Patrick Kenzie with a face that I like very much!One of the things I liked most about this book was the realistic grittiness of it. Everything seemed to have a patina of grubbiness and grime to it that gave the book an unusually urban flavor and a hard edge. Lehane gets the dialect of the streets down perfectly, as well as the description of a town that has been subsumed by the economic recession. He shows the dichotomy of those who live the high life by being lowlifes, and the desperation of those who can't make ends meet and who have to turn to unlikely and unwholesome ventures to get by. Lahane is a master of creating whole worlds and societies that mirror our own in frightening complexity and darkness, and his uncanny ability to populate his world with smugglers, druggies, mobsters, prostitutes and others of the same ilk is not only impressive, but authentic as well.It was interesting to see the way Patrick had grown from the first part of this story to the second. No longer a heedless rebel, Patrick is now more restrained and thinks more about the things he does. His conscience troubles him because of the work he must do to feed his family, and his sense of being a vigilante out for justice seems more subdued as well. He feels the pressure of his life acutely and finds himself at a crossroads when deciding which direction his life will go in. This was a much more mature and level-headed man, a man who seemed to have so much more to protect and so much more to lose. I liked that Lehane made Patrick the kind of character you could not only become invested in, but lose yourself in, and that throughout the book, while Patrick is wrestling with the evil that surrounds him, he's also wrestling with himself.There were a lot of genuinely surprising things about this book, from the canny and hilarious Russian mobsters, to the villains hiding in plain sight, to the lengths Amanda will go to keep her secrets hidden. While I found the book to be very enthralling and entertaining, I also found the conclusion to be a little far-fetched. It wasn't so much of a problem that it marred my enjoyment of the book, but I think Lehane went a little too far out into left field to tie all of the aspects of his story together. The journey and the characters made this a top-notch suspense novel, but in the end, I had trouble believing that things would turn out this way in the end. I think that had Lehane managed to go in another direction, the book would have been flawless, but it seems like he might have written himself into a corner that he had trouble getting out of.Despite the conclusion, I found quite a lot to admire in this strange and twisted tale, and for the most part, the book was easy to pick up and get lost in for countless hours. I loved the complexity of the characters and the strange circumstances that brought them all together, and found that although I usually have a hard time enjoying these books, Lehane is very capable with his material and manages to sweep his story into the highest realms of suspense and action. If you have a chance to read this book, I would say go for it. It is full of twists and turns that might just surprise you.
    • 3/5
      A sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone with the kidnapped little girl now a smart teenager about to become a criminal mastermind. A good time killer for transport or travel with a good sense of the grubbier towns of Massachusetts, even though several of the main characters are just too far-fetched (a smart teenager from a very broken home pre-ordained to be criminal mastermind?). Takes place around 2009 in the aftermath of the mortgage crisis. Amusing dialogue.
    • 3/5
      Dennis Lehane employs a nice, easy to read style in Moonlight Mile. The narrative voice is distinctive, and the novel moves along at a nice pace, which for the most part makes in enjoyable. There is nothing especially earth-shattering about the plot, and the biggest issue is that much of it isn't very believable. The character of Amanda, whom the main character Patrick is tasked to find after disappearing for the second time in a 13 year period is note remotely believable. She doesn't carry herself in a way of any teen I've ever encountered. Her dialogue, mannerisms and character don't seem genuine. Neither is the story line itself. The storyline about stealing a baby that was going to a Russian mobster and his crazy wife was at times silly. The Russian mobster and his wife more resembled cartoon characters than actual people. Even though, the novel was enjoyable, there were too many flaws to overcome.Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity
    • 5/5
      Back in 1998, Dennis Lehane wrote Gone, Baby, Gone, the fourth in his fantastic Kenzie and Gennaro series. Now, one of the things that makes Lehane such a good writer is that he can take a somewhat ordinary premise and turn it into a tale of hard choices and moral ambiguity. Like in Gone, Baby Gone, where the choice was either a bad individual outcome that upheld a greater societal good or a breaking of the social bonds that, overall, hold us together as a society to allow an innocent child to escape what is almost certainly a life of abuse and neglect.Some 12 years later, Kenzie and Gennaro meet up with those involved again and are forced to see the results of their choice. The little girl who was missing is now 16 and is missing again. And they're faced with another choice with the same moral ambiguity. The result is Moonlight Mile, one of the better books of the year for me. Lehane's writing is a cut above the crowd of mystery writers out there (as always!), and Kenzie and Gennaro remain the fascinatingly real characters they always have been. If the ending weren't wrapped up quite so prettily, this one would have been nigh on perfect.If you haven't read the series, start at the beginning with A Drink Before the War. These are well worth it!
    • 5/5
      This book hits you like an elbow to the nose. You'll remember the shock and power of it for days to come. If you like a fast paced, hard hitting action story, with a definite touch of reality and soft touch of humanity, then you will really enjoy this latest suspense story by Dennis Lehane. This is a follow up to Lehane's, "Gone, Baby, Gone", a story of the kidnapping and recovery of a four year old girl. The story left off with the question of whether it was better to leave the child with the kindhearted kidnappers or return her to a dysfunctional mother. Twelve years later, the girl is missing again and P.I.'s Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro who found her before, are asked to find her again. The now married investigators are torn over the question of whether they did the right thing the fist time and whether they will be able to tell what is right this time.
    • 4/5
      It's been a dozen years since Amanda McCready was abducted by her uncle, Lionel, and placed with a family more fit to raise her than her own mother. In Gone Baby Gone, Patrick and Angie are hired by Lionel's wife, Beatrice, to find Amanda and bring her home, which is exactly what they did.Finding Amanda and bringing her home to an unfit mother almost cost Patrick and Angie their relationship. Now 12 years have passed and they are married with a 4 year old daughter. Patrick is doing boring, corporate invesigations, compromising his integrity in the process and Angie is getting her master's degree. They're hard up for money.Along comes Beatrice who drunk calls Patrick one night and then almost accosts him the next mornign as he exits the subway. Amanda, now 16, has disappeared again. While Patrick refuses to rise to the bait and look for Amanda again, he's also beaten to a pulp and warned to stay away from Helene and Amanda McCready. Of course, he can't do that now.He and Angie team up a bit and attempt to find her. Amanda is super smart and a computer wiz. Her mother's boyfriend, Ken, has taught her how to obtain new identities. So, finding her will be tough. What makes matters worse, is the Russian mob wants her as well, for she's stolen something of theirs and they want it back.Lehane hasn't lost his touch. I read Moonlight Mile in a little over a day. It kept me going throughout. Lehane's prose are so descriptive. His plot is good and his characters are interesting, especially Hefim, the Russian mobster. All in all, a fine sequel...and I don't say that lightly, since sequels tend to disappoint.
    • 4/5
      Before starting it I didn't realize it was 6th in a series or that it was basically a sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone. Never read GBG but saw the movie, so I was familiar enough to get right into the book. And it's an amazing book!