A Drink Before the War written by Dennis LeHane.
Genre: Detective
I've never read Dennis LeHane until this book. I had read a lot about him, him stories, his writing style. I had been introduced to him from the movie Gone, Baby, Gone and a little know movie called The Drop, both extremely good movies. I will say this from those two movies I had really wanted to read some of his books because those two movies had some great characters, great stories, combined with a setting that felt real. This book is no different as the two main characters (
Patrick Kenzi and Angie Gennaro) dominate the PI story that enfolds in first person narration from Patrick Kenzi. It isn't a bad thing about these characters being so well written and complex that they ultimately over shadow the story line because as the book goes on I wanted to know more about these characters, their conversations (even if it wasn't about the over all story), their interactions (even if it didn't involve the main story), and their personality was genuine, funny, and felt real. They felt like people I could hang out with. They had real interests outside of what was happening within the story.
Then add to that LeHane's writing style which can be read fast (I finished two of his books in about 4 days) but never feels like he wrote it fast. His description of things has the hard boiled PI story down pat and is handled with some vivid poetic style that isn't over written but feels in place with the narrator. His pacing of the story is good. It picks up when it needs to and it slows down when
the slow, boring times of doing PI work hit but its in these times that the main characters get to shine as they make those down times fun. I look forward to reading more of his works. These two books have me hooked.
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