Gone, Baby, Gone audiobook

And then depression set in….This book wrecked me the first time I read it. It was almost like having post traumatic stress syndrome. I found myself staring blankly at the walls for days after I finished it the first time. I felt like calling my sister and telling her to keep my young niece locked in the house until she was at least 25. I remember meeting a friend for beers shortly after I finished it, and that he asked me what was wrong. When I tried to explain, he was skeptical. “You’re really this bummed over a book?” And yes, I was that bummed over a book.Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro have had enough of the crazy-ass violence that has surrounded them for three novels. They still run their detective agency, but they’re strictly doing routine jobs with no chance of anyone getting hurt. They’re also finally relatively happy with their lives.That changes when they get hired to look for Amanda McCready, a 4 year old girl who has been missing for days. The cops and media are all over it, but Amanda’s aunt and uncle want Patrick and Angie to join the search. The detectives are reluctant, partly because they don’t think that they can do anything that the cops aren’t doing already, and partly because neither of them is anxious to sign on for what is almost surely going to be a case that ends badly. However, the aunt’s desperate request for help gets the better of them. By the end of it all, they’ll really wish they would have just gone on vacation.At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Kemper, you dumb bastard. You read a book about a child abduction by Dennis Lehane, a guy you knew wasn’t exactly Mr. Giggles. Were you really expecting a happy ending?”Yes, I knew it was probably going to be a depressing story, but while I had braced myself for all kinds of terrible things happening to kids (and terrible things do happen), I wasn’t ready for the more banal cruelty and neglect that Lehane sprinkled the book with in regards to how some people treat their children.Amanda’s mother, Helene, is a barfly and small-time doper who doesn’t do anything really bad enough to technically qualify as abuse, but Amanda was usually left to entertain herself in front of the TV. It’s the tiny details that are heartbreaking like when Patrick checks out Amanda’s room and finds a mattress on the floor, few toys, and no books of any kind, not even coloring books. Or when they talk to the people on Amanda’s t-ball team and everyone notes how she’s the quietest kid around who acts like she’s used to being ignored. You’d have to be one cold bastard not to be saddened by it.This is one of the best crime novels I’ve read. Maybe even the best. But you won’t be skipping down the street and whistling any time soon after you read it.**A Few Thoughts on the Movie Version**I was not a fan of Ben Affleck. I thought he was a complete goober, and that Matt Damon must have wrote most of Good Will Hunting because I couldn’t imagine that Ben could read, let alone write anything. When I heard that he was going to be one of the people writing the adapted screenplay and directing the movie version of one of my favorite books, they probably heard my screams of outrage in Hollywood. When he cast his brother Casey as Patrick, I exhausted my extensive vocabulary of profanity and swore I’d never see the movie.Wow. I was definitely wrong on that one. The movie version is not only one of the best crime novel adaptations I’ve seen, it’s just an incredibly good movie, period. (And Ben Affleck’s recent adaptation of another book The Town is also a very good flick so the guy has some very real skills.)What surprised me most is that Affleck made a couple of very smart changes from the book to the movie. He revised Patrick and Angie from veteran smart-ass gun fighting private detectives to a couple of kids who mostly track down people skipping out on bills. That allowed him to introduce the audience to them, and really gave weight to the idea that these were two characters in way over their heads.Affleck also tightened up the story to the point that I’d almost call it an improvement over the book’s plot. That’s incredibly rare. My only complaints are that Angie didn’t come across as Angie-like in the film version (although she still gets one of her best Big Damn Hero moments in the film), and that Bubba has a much smaller role. Plus, Bubba is portrayed more as just a bad-ass street guy rather than the one-man army he is in the book, but again, it works perfectly with the way Affleck chose to tell the story. Now that he’s adapted two crime novels into top-notch movies, I’m ready to start my own chapter of the Ben Affleck fan club. Just as long as he doesn’t do any more Michael Bay movies.

** spoiler alert ** When Beatrice McReady approaches PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to help find her missing niece, Amanda, the prospects do not look good. But Patrick and Angie work with the local missing child unit, bringing in their regular cast of colorful associates to lend their able and sometimes bloody hands. There are the usual misdirections, cul-de-sacs and things that just do not make sense. Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie and Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro VERY LARGE(view spoiler)[ Ultimately, it turns out that the missing child cops are involved in taking children from problem homes and placing them with discrete families (including their own) where the children can be raised with love and a decent level of material comfort. This creates issues as Patrick must decide whether to turn in the criminal cops when doing so will mean that children at risk will be returned to awful birth-parents. (hide spoiler)] Beware.A typical, well done Kenzie and Gennaro tale. Instead of child abuse, he is doing child neglect as the primary thread, but he manages to focus also on horrific child abuse by a psychotic couple, returning to his favorite crime.=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pagesOther books by Lehane I have read/reviewedKenzie and Gennaro-----A Drink Before War - #1-----Darkness, Take My Hand - #2-----Sacred - #3-----Prayers for Rain - #5-----Moonlight Mile - #6The Coughlin Series-----The Given Day-----Live by Night-----World Gone ByRead, but not Reviewed-----Mystic River - a masterpiece-----Shutter Island - not["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

5 STARSThis is a brilliant book. I’ve read most of his published work and I’m a huge fan, especially the Kenzie and Gennaro series.Lehane has a gift as a writer – his character development is probably the best in the business. By the end of his novels, you feel like you know the main characters as if they are a part of your family. You genuinely care and – in this case, especially – you will feel things deeply.***POSSIBLE SPOILER, BUT PROBABLY NOT***I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult to digest at the end, because you will have to ask yourself this question:When is doing the right thing the wrong thing to do?In terms of quality, I will put this story right up there with Mystic River as his best work.

Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane is a 1999 Harper publication. I must make a few confessions up front: 1: I saw the movie version of this title a long time ago and it was so good, I’ve always wanted to read the book, because, of course, the book is always better. 2: I haven’t read as many books by this author as I thought. 3: This is my first foray into the Kenzie & Gennaro series. In fact, I didn’t even know this book was a part of a series, until now.I make these confessions with shaking hands since I’m sure my admission is tantamount to religious sacrilege to some folks, but hey, you have to start somewhere. I was immensely curious how the book would differ from the movie, since Hollywood is notorious for taking liberties and on many occasions they flub the whole thing up. But, surprisingly the book and movie matched up, with only a few small differences. All the same, the book was better, as I knew it would be, as it paints a far more detailed and emotional rendition, which had me enthralled, and gave me an even greater respect for this author. When Amanda disappears, her Aunt Beatrice hires the PI team of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to find her. The case winds up consuming the couple to the point of obsession, always at the forefront of their lives, until another child goes missing…Well, what can you say? This was one incredible story and one that has sparked some rather heated debate in my household, all of us holding strong feelings on how the situation could have been handled. While there is the obvious black and white answer, there are surely those among you who fall into that gray area, where your mind and logic tells you one thing, while your heart is telling you another. But, no matter which way you slice it, this is one very twisty rollercoaster ride, spotlighting human flaws, and what one does to cope with the world, and how there are never easy answers to many of life’s questions. Sometimes the wrong thing feels like the right thing, in a twisted way that only makes sense when you are living in that moment. Those choices could backfire, or not, depending on the situation, could lead to regret, or no regrets. But, a tangled web has been woven, and good people become unwitting pawns in a convoluted scheme, and a price must be paid, a very high price, as it turns out. This story stayed with me a long time and I still run the details over in mind on occasion, still feel sickened by what happened, and still feel conflicted by the decisions made. When a novel really grabs you, affects your emotions, plays tricks on your mind, and breaks your heart, leaving a lasting impression, well, that’s what great storytelling is all about, and this author sure knows how to weave a tale. 5 stars

I just finished this book- like, literally, turned the final page, put it down, and am now writing. So, it's possible that I'm violating some rule of thumb akin to waiting two hours after you eat before swimming or not going to bed angry. However, there's a sort of queasy discomfort I have after finishing this fourth volume of the Kenzie & Gennaro corpus that might dissolve given enough lag time that I wanted to get down. Lehane has left me with the disquieting malaise of a wicked problem . Wicked problems are defined (in part) by their lack of definitive solution. And, at least for me, uncertainty is not a favorite feeling. This book, of course, is not a discourse in moral philosophy. Patrick and Angie are brought in to look for the missing child of a less than stellar mother at the behest of the girl's uncle. As usual, there are layers of intrigue, action and tension for miles. If nothing more, this one will definitely make you feel something, but it will likely be a something you can't quite pin down.

“When I was young, I asked my priest how to get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God told His children; 'You are sheep among wolves, be wise as the serpent, yet innocent as doves.'” This is by far the best installment in Dennis Lehane's great series following inner city Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro (with Darkness, Take My Hand being a close second). And the VERY BEST detective novel I've read so far. I know that's saying a lot but I don't say it lightly. Lehane always proves to be a master of plotting, and here, he not only takes a simple missing child mystery and turns it into something endlessly addictive and compelling, but he ends it well too. The final reveal and resolution came at me like a hard fist to the face, sending me reeling for days. It's ingenious and truly one of a kind, and left me to ponder even my own morality. When a novel in such a crowded and cliché-ridden field as the detective genre can leave you so affected, that book is truly something special. There are so many great moments in this book; the plot develops at a flawless pace, and every character is pitch-perfect and memorable. And I love the way the Patrick and Angie get so involved that the case affects them personally, taking over their lives, challenging everything they believe in. All of this helps to rank this book as one of the best novels in modern crime fiction, right up there on my list with Clockers, A Simple Plan, The 25th Hour, and the author's other masterwork, Mystic River.

*4.5 stars* Love like that? Hell. It seems so pure, it's damn near criminal. Soooo....I've missed my Angie and Patrick, I'm not guna lie. So when I got the empty feelings one usually gets after finishing a fantastic book and not knowing what to read, I started to get an ache that couldn't be filled by anything other than a beautifully flawed and tortured detective and his snarky partner in crime. See, there are only 6 books and I decided to break them up so I didn't lose them all at once....I'm so happy I did this now. The silence of the dead says, Goodbye.The silence of the missing says, Find me. I don't know what I could say that hasn't already been said on my part, but I feel like this story deserves a review, ya know? It feels wrong that I wouldn't give voice to one of my new favorite series that I occupy a lot of time daydreaming about. But, in many ways, it's hard to review multiple stories pertaining to one series, and even harder when you hit one in the series that just....isn't as good. Now, the funny thing here?? This book was still excellent. We still had my wonderful Patrick, asshole Angie (sorry, but she is a total snark-monster (which I love)), Bubba, and a deep mystery that keeps you enthralled until the final page...but I just didn't feel during the mystery. We were slippery creatures, our impulses ruled by a variety of forces, many of them incomprehensible even to ourselves. Maybe that makes me a monster, maybe I am, indeed, in the minority on this one, and maybe I should have loved this way more than I did. But after the excellence of Darkness, Take My Hand and Sacred, this story fell flat for me. Less action, less investment on my part, and just a lack of depth I'm so very used to with these mysteries. Now, when I say I didn't feel as much, I mean I didn't have any leads as to who it was, I didn't really freak out when something would happen (aside from that horrid house scene which was just.....nightmare inducing...) and I just...wanted a serial killer story or a deceptive siren woman to come back so I could be engrossed in a different way. All in all? I didn't like the story line. Awesome ending...but the mystery fell flat for me, which is the total opposite of everyone on GR, it seems. I moved over and she sat beside me. She took my face in her hands, but I couldn't meet her eyes, was sure that seeing the warmth and the love in them would make me feel more soiled, for some reason, more unhinged.She kissed my forehead and then my eyelids, the tears drying on my face, brought my head down to her shoulder, and kissed the back of my neck. Patrick, despite the gravity of this case, is in a good place. He's happy...he's with the girl he's been in love with since he was a kid and they are happily living with one another. But, and this is a big but (hehe), they have been through hell and back..and it shows. They only take little cases and they avoid matters like this. It's not good for them-it weighs heavily on their minds and souls, and they've seen enough darkness to last them a lifetime. They just want to be happy. But what happens when a desperate Aunt won't take no for an answer. What happens when the issue at hand hits you right in the gut..what happens when taking this case might lead to the ultimate sacrifice of your happiness? "I don't know what to say," she whispered."Nothing to say." I cleared my throat, wrapped my arms around her abdomen and lower back. I could hear her heart beating. She felt so good, so beautiful, so everything that was right in the world. And I still felt like dying." I feel for them...I really do. Because I could never turn down that case. Ever. So, anyway. I don't think there's a whole lot more to say. It's simple: This series is epic, the stories draw you in no matter the content, even if it's not your favorite, and the characters leave you aching for them and desperate for more. I'm sad, really, I have to wait so long in between so I can find that ultimate enjoyment...but it's for my own good and....sigh...fine...I will be strong. At the end of an April day, after the sun has descended but before night has fallen, the city turns a hushed, unsettled gray. Another day has died, always more quickly than expected. Muted yellow or orange lights appear in window squares and shaft from car grilles, and the coming dark promises a deepening chill. For more of my reviews, please visit: **************************I figured it would be fun to list my favorites in order until I find time to write a review: Darkness, Take My Hand Sacred Gone, Baby, Gone A Drink Before the War It might come as a shock to y'all that this book is one of my least favorites...well, the story just didn't compare.Review to come.

This I found to be a surprisingly good read. It’s rare that a suspense thriller actually evokes an emotional response from me.