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    Darkness, Take My Hand
    Darkness, Take My Hand
    Darkness, Take My Hand
    Audiobook12 hours

    Darkness, Take My Hand

    Written by Dennis Lehane

    Narrated by Jonathan Davis

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Master of new noir Dennis Lehane magnificently evokes the dignity and savagery of working-class Boston in Darkness, Take My Hand, a terrifying tale of redemption.

    Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro’s latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist, running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know about cold-blooded retribution. Born and bred on the mean streets of blue-collar Dorchester, they’ve seen the darkness that lives in the hearts of the unfortunate.

    But an evil for which even they are unprepared is about to strike, as secrets that have long lain dormant erupt, setting off a chain of violent murders that will stain everything – including the truth.

    With razor-sharp dialogue and penetrating prose, Darkness, Take My Hand is another superior crime novel from the author of Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone; and Shutter Island.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 13, 2011
    ISBN9780062101709
    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 Darkness, Take My Hand

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    851 ratings46 reviews

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    • 4/5
      So far having read 2 Lehane books I can honestly say that these books are impossible to put down and very easy to pick back up. Lehane performs a nice tweak on a too used plot device, the serial killer, and the final showdown becomes truly frightening. More of an emotional rollercoaster since we already know these characters as they all become more fleshed out, three dimensional and real.I used the “starâ€? system to rank the books in the series in the order that I liked them. In a non comparative sense I would give all of the books at least a solid 4 star ranking.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Dennis Lehane never disappoints. Amazing. I could vividly see the characters and scenes.
    • 5/5
      Storyline good, Content Good, I enjoy this book alot and keep going for new book
    • 4/5

      good book

    • 5/5
      Very good, the personal involvements and the twists in the story make the story exciting and difficult to leave
    • 5/5
      This Bostonian, who grew up near Dorchester, could visualize the local. I would’ve enjoyed the taut suspenseful story regardless of where it was set. Bravo.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this like book one. I was on the edge of my seat several times. The narrator is great at doing characters as well as ethnicity.
    • 4/5
      Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are hip and modern and rooted in the Irish, blue-collar culture of South Boston, heirs Hammet’s Spade or Spillane’s Hammer. This second installment puts Kenzie and Gennaro on the trail of a serial killer. But the trail leads to some brutal secrets that have plagued earlier generations of the neighborhood and seem to be putting their children at risk.Lehane’s gift for highlighting the moral ambiguities of life takes a bit of a back seat to a more sensational and bloody story. Though the level of gore supports a certain message about the numbing of modern man and the rise of depravity to fill that void, ultimately, the use of the blood and the shocking details of the murders seem to prove the point more than highlight it as a problem. Lehane’s debut in the series carried a more solid, real storyline and still managed to be thought provoking beyond the ‘whodunit’ aspect.The upside of the book is spending time getting to know Kenzie and Gennaro. Lehane has created central characters for this mystery series that are interesting and charismatic and unpredictably human, a recipe that will keep readers coming back. Bottom Line: Not as good as the debut in the series, but the main characters are worth the read.4 bones!!!!
    • 5/5
      Dark content as murder books tend to be but a brilliant storyline with plenty of twists and turns. First time with these characters and I really enjoyed them. Redeeming qualities with definite flaws like we all have.
    • 4/5
      Liked it because I am from Boston. Good bad guy characters, woman cop Angie a bit too tough and plot line was good only to end in disappointment. Neighborhood bad guys and what they can get away with.
    • 5/5
      As good as it gets; truly dark and enjoyable suspense writting
    • 4/5
      I liked the first Lehane I read but not enough to go get another one. But friends kept telling me I was wrong and I should give him another shot. I finally listened and am ever so grateful. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro make a good pair of private detectives and this story is compelling. They are hired to find a missing son. The college student soon becomes the latest victim of a serial killer who invades their current and past lives. The story is really one you can't put down.
    • 3/5
      This has got to be the worst title in the history of literature. Reminds me of that howler of a made-for-TV move, "Mother, May I Sleep with Danger." I hope the books is better than the title.
    • 3/5
      First 75% of the book was great. Lehane is a wonderful writer, and I learned a lot from reading this book.

      I don't mind violence, but this was over the top, and too extreme to be believable.

      I'd say more, but I can't do so without giving things away.
    • 3/5
      Great dialog; great descriptions that place the reader into the setting of the narrative. I liked the book,but the 'shoot-em-up' ending is always a disappointment. I think some of Lehanes' more recent novels are much better.
    • 4/5
      If the author’s name is not immediately familiar, this is the man who wrote “Mystic River”. This is the third or fourth Lehane novel I have read and each one is incredibly gripping and well written. This novel is part of a series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, two private eyes who have grown up, live and work in the same working class Boston neighborhood.In this book, a psychiatrist believes she is being targeted by the Irish mob when she receives a picture of him in the mail. She is not the only one being threatened however. After she hires Patrick and Angie, more letters and more pictures appear and part of the sleuthing involves figuring out how everything connects.Angie and Patrick are supported by a variety of interesting characters. Bubba is a childhood friend who is an enforcer and he is someone to be feared if you are on the wrong side of him. Phil is Angie’s ex-husband. An abusive alcoholic he appears to have changed his ways and is making a re-appearance in Angie’s life.Several people who have read the book found it quite frightening. Some said it gave them nightmares. I think it taps into our primal fear about someone being able to get into our house and us not knowing. It also taps into that fear of someone finding out all about us and then threatening those who we consider close or vulnerable.Lehane is a great neo-noir writer. Every book I have read by him has done nothing but whet my appetite for more writing by this author. Additionally, he sets his stories in the Boston area and knows the landscape, people and nature of the characters that inhabit the place inside out. To me, this is an important factor because it makes readers feel as if they also know the place.Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      I think this book is a great example of why there shouldn't be a prologue or an epilogue in books. They diminish a perfectly good story with needless fluff. Very enjoyable story that had me hooked the entire way through. The mystery was compelling and the characters interesting enough to keep the entire book grounded.
    • 5/5
      DARKNESS,TAKE MY HAND is the second book in the Kenzie & Gennaro series. It was a whole lot darker than the first. A bit more disturbing. Many cogs in a mysterious wheel spinning at once. And I loved it.Diandra Warren is worried. She is a professor and psychiatrist. When a young woman, Moira Kenzi, comes to her for help nothing adds up. Things get worse when the doctor receives a photograph in the mail. It is of her son. She now finds herself worried about his safety, as well as her own.If the Irish Mob isn’t directly behind the silent threats, it could be Kevin Hurlihy, Jack Rouse’s right hand man. Either way, Kevin’s involvement spells trouble. The man has no heart, and is known for his unorthodox ways of dealing with things. Delivering pain, resorting to torture, and even killing people doesn’t faze him in the slightest.Kenzie and Gennaro are hired. Diandra wants to be absolutely sure no one is after her son. The investigation involves a lot of shadowing, keeping the doctor’s son under constant surveillance. The best the private eyes can tell, there is nothing for the family to worry about.Nothing to worry about, that is until a young girl is found dead. Crucified. Her hands and feet were nailed into the ground. On her was Kenzie’s business card. Although seemingly separate from Kenzie and Gennaro’s initial investigation, sins of the past are brought to the present.Someone is killing people from the old neighborhood. And before each person is killed a photograph of that person is sent to someone they love. A serial killer is on the loose. The police and the FBI find one common factor in all of the cases. Patrick Kenzie. He is in some way tied to nearly each and every one.When those Kenzie loves are threatened, are put into harm’s way, the joint investigation is stepped-up, but it may not be enough. Finding the one responsible is no easy feat. Bodies keep turning up. And it is clear that time is running out. Kenzie receives a simple threat, not everyone you love can live.A fantastic, fast-paced, and gritty crime novel! DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND just grabbed me from the depressing opening scene, until the very last page. I am finding this is common in the Lehane books I’ve read recently. He is quickly working his way up as one of my favorite authors!PhillipTomassoAuthor of the Severed Empire Series
    • 4/5
      This is the second in Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennaro mystery/thriller series. Like the first (A Drink Before the War), it was somewhat hard to put down. It is tense, gritty, brutal noir about serial killings. No one is ever going to accuse these things of being cozy mysteries. Having just read Rowling’s Career of Evil where the antagonist was also a serial killer, it was interesting to compare it to this one. Rowling’s had its violence and suspense but Lehane’s is just more—I’m not sure how to describe it—visceral and full of dread. You also deal with characters who, while completely engaging, are less polar opposites to their foes: instead of a black and white moral spectrum, let's call it black and gray.I’d rate it a shade less than the first in the series, say 3.75 stars if I could award that number, because there was a touch of over-the-top at moments. But it’s still gripping.
    • 4/5
      I really like Lehane. His work is very dark, very intense but somehow doesn't put me off. Maybe it's because his characters aren't heroes and they never pretend to be. They get scared, they have doubts, they eff up. They're infinitely human. I had figured out the whodunit part far before the end, but it didn't detract in the least from the story.
    • 4/5
      Dennis Lehane is an amazing storyteller. I met him once...I told him that the first book of his that I read was "The Given Day" and that I then had to go back and read the rest of his novels. He seemed surprised that the thrillers were not the books that hooked me to his writing, but pleased, too. I'm not much of a thriller reader, at least not anymore, but I finished this book in just over 24 hours. I couldn't put it down. It's violent and frightening, which I don't like, but it's worth all that to just read Lehane's stories.
    • 4/5
      Lehane is an excellent writer. His books, while dark and very violent, are engrossing. You get pulled into the lives of the primary character and feel you are living the experiences with them. The primary characters are well developed, even if a bit over the top.
    • 4/5
      Very dark, disturbing story but Lehane's writing is so outstanding that I read on anyway. The two protags, Kenzie and Gennaro, are terrific and have a unique relationship that makes a great subplot.
      I can't praise Lehane's writing skill highly enough. Read him.
    • 4/5
      Wow! I couldn't put this down for the last 150 pages or so. It was much better than the first book, which was pretty good. The characters had more depth & the situation or plot was just fantastically twisted, but so realistic. Very exciting & well done. I can't wait to read the next.

      Nancy, thanks so much for turning me on to this series & allowing me to mooch the books from you!
    • 5/5
      Someone is brutally killing people that Patrick knows and they are both on the case. The usual characters are there, which is nice since I have not read a Kenzie Gennaro book in a while.after reading The Given Day and thinking what a great writer Dennis Lehane is, it is nice to realize that that wonderful writing style is also evident on his mysteries. I am a Dennis Lehane fan all the way.
    • 3/5
      An interesting mystery about private detectives who get more drawn into a case then they would have liked. The character development and study of desensitization intrigued me, however, I felt it could have been expanded upon much more. There were numerous times when I did not want to put the book down. However, I did not feel the main characters were realistic, multi-faceted or "human" enough to hold my interest in the less intense periods. I enjoyed the straight forward writing, and the keeps-you-guessing story line, however, I thought it left a bit to be desired. It touches on some extremely intriguing concepts of inurement and the necessity of pain, but I felt it largely left those ideas out there, very separately, instead of drawing them into the story and the characters.All in all a good read. But I was hoping for more.
    • 4/5
      "Darkness Take My Hand" is the second in Dennis Lehane's series featuring private investigator team Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genhnaro. This series is on the extremely gritty end of the spectrum of books that I read, with more violence and harsh language than is my usual cuppa tea. I keep reading them for the same reason I keep reading James Lee Burke's series featuring Dave Robicheaux: the quality of the writing. Well-crafted, complex characters; descriptive writing that takes you to the setting with all your senses; plots with more twists and turns than a country mountain road; and just good, solid storytelling touching upon issues that make you think.In this one, Kenzie & Gennaro are hired by a psychologist who believes her son is being threatened because the girlfriend of a mob henchman confided to her about a murder. But nothing is quite as it appears. As murder and mayhem break out in Kenzie's old Boston neighborhood, links are made with a series of 2-decade-old crimes, and dirty old secrets rise to the surface. And no one in Patrick Kenzie's inner circle is safe.A monstrously good thriller!
    • 4/5
      This is the second book of a series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genaro, partners in a private detective agency in a working-class section of Boston. That first book, A Drink Before the War dealt with a gang war, but Darkness, Take My Hand deal with a serial killer, and if the plot is fairly standard in that regard, this novel still stands out for style, setting and characters.A blurb in the book compares Lehane to Chandler, MacDonald and Parker. I actually prefer Lehane to any of them. I recently read through a list of mystery recommendations that included all those authors and discovered I actually don't usually care for the hard-boiled detective genre that includes those authors, even when the author is a fine stylist. (To Chandler and MacDonald I'd add Dashiel Hammett, Walter Mosley and James Lee Burke as impressive in that regard within that genre.) Yet with the possible exception of Hammett, you won't see me read more books by those other authors. In the end I find hard-boiled too cynical, too gritty and too many of the typical hard-boiled detectives are damn unlikable, little more than thugs. (Philip Marlowe, I'm looking at you!) And that is what sets Lehane apart. Because though the milieu Kenzie works in is dangerous, corrupt, at times bleak, there's a core of decency that runs through him, a sense of humor--and more than that--caring. The detectives of those other books are solitary, isolated and grim. But Kenzie has friends, and above all he has his partner Angie, and that makes all the difference to me. It's the humor, the way Lehane brings the mean streets of Boston to life, but above all that relationship between Angie and Patrick that will keep me reading the series.
    • 5/5
      Well, once again, Dennis Lehane has managed to grab me and solidly rivet me to one of his books...while turning page after page well into the night. As with every book I've read by him (all but one now that I've not yet read)....I have been completely smitten and unable to put down this story of murder, suspense, love and loss."Darkness, Take My Hand" was a winner from page one. The characters Angie Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie, private investigators with a long history, are contacted by an old acquaintance with the prospect of a case....a wealthy psychiatrist who has received a threatening message from an unknown source. Thus begins a journey into the web of insanity and danger so extreme, that it consumes all involved without mercy.There are so many twists and turns in this story, I don't even know where to begin to try to describe it....only that this one will grab you and won't let go until the very last page....and leave you reeling after a thrill ride that you won't soon forget.If you've never read Dennis Lehane, you are really missing out. "Darkness, Take My Hand" is a 5 star winner, without question. I highly recommend this book!!
    • 3/5
      I enjoy Dennis Lehane's sentences, but the stories have more sizzle than meat. There were are few points in this book that were laughably bad. I did read the book and only had to skip a few pages, but it is like the author is writing the novel in a attempt to get a movie made, more than to entertain his readers.