Darkness, Take My Hand (Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro Book 2)

This one got my attention and held it through the whole book! I couldn’t put it down. The story built on their history and continued to grow. Great read!

Lehane's characters and setting really come alive, which is the most enjoyable aspect of his books, to me. The people and the town feel very specific and immediate. This is a fast-paced story, a real page-turner. The thriller aspects are accompanied by Patrick's (the narrator) musings on life, which are interesting and lift this story (and other Lehane novels) above the mundane page-turner.In the end, I did not care so much for the over the top, preternatural strength and evil of the villain. I felt the story veered into boogeyman territory. While it was done effectively, i guess, that's just not my favorite kind of villain.Still, very, very good writing, lots of twists, definitely superior thriller.

Five stars again for Dennis Lehane. Why haven't I found him sooner? I'm a transplant to Boston, his books are great.

Throw on your trenchcoat, suspend your disbelief and go along for a thrilling ride through a world of untold evil and unexpected redemption, courtesy of Dennis Lehane and his terminally romantically thwarted duo of private eyes, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. Boston is plagued by yet another series of brutal serial killings, but the modus operendi this time is crucifixion, not strangulation, and the victims seem random. But are they? When Angie and Patrick find themselves investigating a threat against the son of an old client, they find that there may be more commonality lurking among the fiend's victims than meets the private eye. The tale unfolds through a series of horrific events, the ruminations and reminiscences of scores of unforgettable characters, and a jailhouse interview with the face of evil itself. The book is peppered with hard boiled detective speak straight out of Elmore Leonard, updated with references to "N'Sync" and Bill Clinton. The language is one of the many fun parts of the read, but it's the characters, and the age-old unfolding struggle between good and evil within each of them, that really give it merit. A couple of drawbacks: the book is like a maze. It takes the concentration of Bobby Fischer, or at least a very elaborate flow chart, to keep all the characters and their histories and interrelationships straight. A lot of the violence and grotesquerie is gratuitous and a little insulting to the intelligence of the reader, as if he needs every salacious detail of disembowlment and dismemberment to keep him awake enough to wade through the plot's complexity. Nonetheless, don't take it too seriously, don't struggle overmuch with the minutiae, and the unique honesty of Lehane's prose, even while shamelessly derivative, will get under your skin.

The second installment in the Kenzie and Gennaro series is extremely dark but such a compelling story that it’s one of my absolute favorite books ever. Unlike the first book, this one is much more personal to the characters and veers from the social commentary of its predecessor to focus more on the themes of love and loss, in all their complexities.This is one of very few books I’ve ever read to actually surprise me. Every time I thought I knew where Lehane was going, I was wrong and although I’ve read it countless times, this story never gets old for me. It’s just that well done.We get a more in-depth look into our hero and heroine, both strengths and flaws. From Angie’s complicated relationship with her abusive ex-husband to the hidden scars Patrick bears from his violent childhood, we watch them fail and succeed in their personal lives in ways large and small. The first book had an element of will they or won’t they about Patrick and Angie but this story seems to dispel any such notion.Lehane continues to develop an outstanding cast with the secondary characters bringing back Devin, Phil and especially Bubba, among others. All of these relationships have a complexity and nuance that draws readers in and makes you care. Their enemies are a step ahead of them throughout and it ends up costing them more than one person they love.This story is devastating in so many ways. Will they second-guess themselves forever, wondering what might have been had they made different choices? Will they come out of it stronger for their mistakes and losses? Every character will be irrevocably changed by these experiences, their persons and their relationships permanently altered in many ways. This is a story of love, loss, reckoning and the damage caused by pure evil and Lehane tells the tale masterfully. No matter how many times I’ve read this book, I always want to read it again, so I do.

I'm a fan of Mr. Lehane.I rate him as one of the very best there is , ever .My local council library doesn't stock his books , like they don't stock Michael Connolly , Craig Johnson and many other top authors , especially their ebooks but luckily for me they have many new LBTQ / BLM titles for me to get stuck into.😕

Great read

Cracking dialogues (easily a "modern Raymond Chandler"), interesting plotline, great character development, snappy twists, a true page-turner.I'm gonna read more of him in the future for sure.

Still building the ambience of the detective couple Rounded and believable characters for Noir novel A really great read Try the whole series

perfect, great writer, lots of humour juxtaposed to lots of horrid killingsgot a copy in french for my husband!