Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel (Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro Series) Paperback – September 7, 2010

“Gone, Baby, Gone” is crime thriller novel written by Dennis Lehane. It is the fourth in a series of books about fictional Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. This is an excellent work of fiction that features a dark and tense plot about important and timely subjects – namely the neglect and abuse of children, and police corruption. It provides a vivid and realistic look at how these things play out in an environment of poverty and despair."Gone, Baby, Gone's" setting is Dorchester, Massachusetts, a run-down, economically depressed community near Boston. Four year-old Amanda McReady has disappeared from her second-story apartment. As family, friends, and the police all desperately search for Amanda, her abusive and negligent single mother, Helene, remains coldly indifferent to her daughter’s whereabouts. Therefore, Helene’s brother, Lionel, and his wife, Beatrice, decide to hire Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, a pair of local private detectives, to help find the missing child.At first, it seems like a straightforward missing person’s case. Did Amanda simply wander away from home one night, and if so, where is she hiding? As Kenzie and Gennaro’s search for Amanda progresses, the two private eyes begin discovering evidence that indicates something more sinister might be at play – the child might have been abducted. . Soon the two private eyes find themselves on a collision course with a local drug lord, a family of automatic weapon-wielding child molesters, and a pair of hard-boiled Boston police detectives determined at all costs on preventing them from having anything to do with the case…All of this makes for a fast-paced, engrossing book of 500 pages that I finished in only three days. Dennis Lehane has populated his novel with characters that are easy to like and despise at the same time in equal measure.Those who have seen the movie "Gone Baby Gone" that’s based on this book will notice that the novel is richer and more detailed than the film. Although the movie retains the same plot structure and many of the characters are the same, it does alter many characters and plot points for the sake of simplifying the story for the screen. As good as the movie is, the book is even better. I think "Gone, Baby, Gone" is one of the best novels ever written by Dennis Lehane. Highly recommended.

A 4-year-old girl disappears without a trace from her Sagamore Street home in Dorchester. Amanda McCready’s mom had left her alone to go next door to watch TV with her friend or so that was her story to the detectives and others later involved with the case. The child was kidnapped that night.Lieutenant Jack Doyle of Crimes Against Children (CAC) founded the unit and brought over Officers Poole and Broussard to assist the squad in their mission. Lt. Doyle was immediately brought in to investigate the missing child disappearance.Beatrice, Amanda’s aunt, contacted private eyes she’d seen in the media who worked to find kidnapped kids. She would do whatever it took including bankrupting the family to hire Angela Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie to find Amanda.Lieutenant Doyle tried to warn them away on their first meeting indicating that he had leverage from an unsolved murder he could dump into their laps. Then he played to their soft side to not take the case for it could end badly for the family and them.Angie and Patrick really didn’t want to take the case for it brought back painful memories of an unsolved case. But, there was something about this one and the constant pleading from Beatrice that made them finally agree to the case. They informed Lieutenant Doyle of their plans and he warned them not to release info to the media and other ground rules that would keep just the CAC and them in the loop.Then things began to unwind as they uncovered Amanda’s mom had stolen $200,000 from a drug dealer just before her child disappears. Strung out, Helene McCready finally owned up to stealing the money when a drug deal turned bad. Now it appeared that Amanda McCready was kidnapped because of her mom’s involvement.The private eyes and Detective Broussard met with Cheese at the prison. He was the drug kingpin who supposedly got robbed. They planned to strike a deal where they would return his drug money for the little girl. Cheese would have nothing to do with it and told the PI’s they weren’t seeing things clearly.That didn’t stop the detective and private eyes from finding someone within the organization to make the swap. It seemed while Cheese was in the tank his top man was making a run with his competition for his business. The detectives and private eyes would do anything to bring the little girl home. Their plan fell into place when they received a call to meet at the quarries to swap the $200,000 for Amanda McCready.The police force had blocked all the routes out of the quarry and the two detectives and private eyes were instructed where to go. The older detective, Poole, had an apparent heart attack climbing the treacherous path to the location. He told everyone to go on and call in the emergency once the little girl was found safe. The detectives were instructed by the kidnappers to go one way while the PI’s went another up the quarry wall.The PI’s found the little girl’s doll floating in a deep murky water filled gorge. Angie immediately stripped and dove into the cold water to find Amanda McCready. She came up empty-handed after several dives while being rocketed by bullets from automatic weapons. The helicopter the police brought in couldn’t reach her. She met Patrick and the others later at the pick-up location down the hill and found the two competing drug dealers dead in a car. Police combed the area all night and the next day for the little girl. She wasn’t found. Detective Poole was taken to the hospital where he was listed in critical condition.The private eyes, Angie and Patrick, realized they’d reached a dead-end going that route. They made another attempt to rescue Amanda McCready by visiting Cheese, the drug dealer in prison. They had new ammunition since Bubba Rogowski, their friend, had gotten hit over the head while acting as their backup at the quarry. Although Cheese was a mighty big man, Bubba scared him to death whether on the inside or out. He knew he’d get him and the PI’s wanted to use that in their favor. It kind of worked only he wouldn’t give up the name/s of the kidnappers immediately. He had something to do or someone he needed talk to first. The Cheese didn’t live another 24 hours. He slipped on a wet floor and fell 40 ft. to his death. They were back to square one without a clue to Amanda McCready’s location.Angie and Patrick, the private eyes questioned themselves and one another about continuing the case. They rehashed everything they knew until their old friend Bubba asked Patrick to play backup on one of his deliveries. It was a small neighborhood where everyone knows everyone - cops, PI’s, drug dealers, addicts, prostitutes – you get the picture! The Dorchester boys/girls never forget the good or bad.Bubba had his reasons for asking Patrick’s backup for his delivery. But, that could wait until later. He had high-powered firearms to deliver and collect the cash. On delivery, the buyer wanted the firing clips immediately that went with the guns. Bubba wouldn’t let him have them until he counted his money and that took a while for he was constantly interrupted and had to begin counting again. Finally, the buyer’s woman came out with her gun and this didn’t stop Bubba’s counting his money either. In the end, there was gunfire from the woman and others who found hidden weapons stashed in unlikely places to shoot at them. Bubba made an opening where the door once was and they got away. Bubba didn’t leave them the clips for the automatic weapons he sold them.After getting safely away from the firepower, Patrick realized why Bubba had asked for him to ride along. There was something about the man that struck a memory. He had seen that face in one of the mug shots Detective Broussard had shown him of a perpetrator that did ungodly things to children. This might be a new lead in the case of finding the missing Amanda McCready and arresting her kidnappers.Patrick’s hunches began to unravel unseemly things about the investigators and the case. His doubts were verified by an agent from the Justice Department who had already figured it out. He warned he and Angie about their safety now that they knew too. This realization made him take a new look at himself, his friends, cops, and his relationship with Angie. He wondered if they could stand the testing this case had placed on them.Was there any way the private eyes and detectives from the CAC could work together now to solve the mystery and bring Amanda McCready home? Was there any way this little girl could come out a winner from her unfit mother and kidnappers?  Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel (Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro Book 4)

I agree with many other reviewers that this is the best of the Kenzie and Gennaro series. The themes covered- child abuse and kidnapping, while dark are not excessively lurid, and you can read Lehane's portrayals without losing your lunch.A toddler, Amanda McCready has gone missing and Kenzie and Gennaro are brought in by the family to assist the police. Twists and turns abound and the two find that this is not a simple kidnapping for ransom, but something much darker.A tightly plotted tale with great real-to-life characters.Dialogue and narrative-top notch.Highly recommended. It will help to have read other books in the series, but not absolutely necessary.

This is a very well-written book, but I was turned off by the author's use of extremely repulsive violence against children. This was way over the top for my taste in thrillers and murder mysteries. I think it's a great book for what it is, but I wouldn't read anything else by this author unless I could assure myself that it didn't deal with such ugliness as this one does.

A consistently good author, who goes deep and dark at times. This crime thriller has great characters you buy into to. The plot is good and the ending is incredible - I was holding my breath and rushing to finish.If you like afternoon TV drama, this may be too strong for you. If you like "Line of Duty", "Luther", "The Wire" you'll probably enjoy this.

Lehane Moves Up a GearYou can tell Dennis Lehane wanted to move on from his genre origins and stock characters. This is too thick and rich a gumbo.However great Lehane is, and this is a great book in many ways, Ben Affleck's screenplay is that much tighter. The whole Kenzie and Gennaro thing gets in the way of this kidnapping tale, and there are too many characters developed poorly in this one to hit the heights of Mystic River. It almost seems Lehane is planning his escape to higher literary playing fields.For those coming to Lehane the first time, it's a bit of a flawed masterpiece. There is too much back story with the leads to follow cleanly, and that is compounded by the incredibly complex narrative. But at its heart, this is a layered, moving tale of Boston low life scum - not just criminals but cops too. It packs a punch, and it is beautifully concealed.No matter its flaws, read this book, then see the Affleck movie. It'll kill you.

I'm not sure if it was the book not grabbing my attention or the mood I was in recently but this took me ages to read. If I could have given it 2.5 stars then that is what it would have got.I felt I lost the plot a little in the first half of the book at times and wasn't sure who was who to be honest. Whether this was down to the book not grabbing me or only having the time to read small amounts at a time. I did find the second half of the book better and was able to sort out who was who in the end.Some of the book was a little predictable but at other times it had you guessing. This is the first of this series that I've read and I've got Moonlight Mile to read. I'll probably read the others in the series at some point, to see how the series started and how it progresses.

I loved the film, but after now having read the book I realized the film cut quite a few corners with characters and simplified the drug lord plot, which in my opinion lessened the impact of the whole story.There are many characters in this story and sometimes it isn't always easy to remember each one that is referred to, but maybe that is me and my poor memory.Some gripping poignant moments, sad discoveries, huge decisions to be made... I read this book straight after reading Darkness Hold My Hand, and there were many references to the latter book, so be warned.Lehane proved to be a very versatile story teller and got 2 more of his books including Mystic River.

Enjoyed this very much. Am reading Lehane in order, which as everyone says, is the right thing to do. This is better than 'A Drink Before the War', except of course that has a special importance as it introduces a number of characters, and imho much better than 'Sacred'. But not as good as the astonishing 'Darkness Take My Hand'.One point, is the child care scene in the USA really as grim as the characters in this book make out? Is it really almost impossible in law to remove children from the family home? In Britain it wouldn't be, although of course mistakes are made, provided the authorities were aware.Terrific writing.