Book Review: Dennis Lehane Returns With Sizzling ‘Moonlight Mile’

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CHICAGO – Dennis Lehane remains one of our better fiction writers with some of his best-known material being turned into highly-acclaimed films including “Mystic River,” “Gone Baby Gone,” and “Shutter Island.” He returns to his two most beloved characters — Angie Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie — those played by Michelle Monaghan and Casey Affleck in the film version of “GBG” to craft a direct sequel to that novel, “Moonlight Mile,” a reminder of how efficient Lehane can be when it comes to breakneck thriller pacing but a bit of a letdown if it truly is the final book with these memorable detectives.

Lehane introduced the world to Kenzie and Gennaro, a pair of tough, Boston P.I.s in the great “A Drink Before the War” in 1994. That book won an award for a first novel and spawned more adventures for the pair throughout the ’90s in “Darkness, Take My Hand,” “Sacred,” “Gone, Baby, Gone,” and “Prayers For Rain.” In the ’00s, Lehane put Angie and Patrick on the shelf and crafted three spectacular standalone books in “Mystic River,” “Shutter Island,” and the incredibly-ambitious “The Given Day.” Now that he’s older and arguably a different writer, he returns to the pair that started his career with mostly-positive but a bit melancholy results.

For the first time, Lehane has written a direct sequel to one of his books, as the action of “Moonlight Mile” hinges on the decision that Patrick made at the end of “Gone Baby Gone.” In the final act of that book, Kenzie found the kidnapped Amanda McCready and realized that she had been taken out of a horrible environment and put in a loving, caring one. He was faced with the decision of returning a little girl to a horrible mother simply because of biology and law or turning away and realizing that she would have led a much-better life. He sided with the structure of society and gave Amanda back to the hideous Helene. Now, Amanda is missing again.

Moonlight Mile
Moonlight Mile
Photo credit: Harper Collins

The most successful parts of “Moonlight Mile” hinge on not just the gray area represented by the end of “Gone Baby Gone” but the concept in general. Kenzie has made similarly-unclear decisions as the book opens, working for a company that gives him moral agita as he often has to help their big-wig clients screw the little man. Gennaro has retired and is planning to go back to school and the pair have a precocious four-year-old named Gabby. The fact that they now have a girl the same age as Amanda when they found her is no mere literary coincidence. Once again, Lehane is playing with the concept of child welfare in a unique way, suggesting that what’s best for a kid is not always cut and dry.

Patrick and Angie get sucked back into the world of the McCreadys as they try and track down Amanda once again and discover that life with a mother as horrific as Helene can destroy you or make you a pretty resilient, adaptable creature and it’s done the latter to Amanda. It turns out that despite her worthless mother, Amanda was going to go to Harvard. In other words, she’s not the kind to just run away or disappear. Before you know it, Helene, maniacal mobsters, baby-trafficking, a legendary Russian cross, and more have been thrown into Lehane’s funhouse ride before he spits us out on the other side, trying to catch our breath.


The best thing about “Moonlight Mile” is Lehane’s ridiculous ability with pace. He rarely wastes a word, a passage, or an idea, and I truly admired the final pages of the book as Patrick and the reader are finally allowed to catch their breath, think about their place in the world, and emotionally respond to what’s just happened. He also stages the final scenes with the pen of a Hollywood screenwriter. The showdown that ends the action of the piece will be stunning if filmed by the right director.

My biggest problem with “Moonlight Mile” is that Kenzie and, particularly, Gennaro feel nearly like observers. Angie has a little involvement early on but is then shuttled out of the story altogether and I’m not 100% sure that what happened in the final act would have been any different if Kenzie was there or not. That could be part of Lehane’s point as he closes the chapter on this characters — that they are no longer P.I.s but a family that shouldn’t be anywhere near Russian mobsters; prioritizing the safety of their own daughter above finding someone else’s — but I wished for a slightly more active send-off for these characters and hope that they get another chance. Maybe in another eleven years.

Despite a plot that I feel could have used another act and more lead character involvement, there’s simply no denying that Dennis Lehane is one of the best-working when it comes to this kind of material. He crafts thrillers that you’re tempted to read in one afternoon they move so quickly. “Moonlight Mile” is merely further proof of his general excellence as a mystery writer. My biggest complaint would have to be that we’ve only received four full-length books from him in the last decade. Like the greatest writers, he leaves you wanting more.

“Moonlight Mile” was written by Dennis Lehane and published by Harper Collins. It was released on November 2nd, 2010.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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