Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

ISBN:

Grade:  A

Moonlight Mile is yet another fine effort by Dennis Lehane, another Patrick and Angie story and an excellent follow up to Gone Baby Gone.

Let's start off with the fact that Dennis Lehane holds nothing back in this book.  The highlights:

- lots of f bombs and I do mean lots
- disses of Paris Hilton and Lil Wayne (about time these fools were called out on their nonsense)
- a mention of carrying a gun that is as appealing as kale
- Russian mobsters who feel so real you can hear them in your head (think Nikolai from Six Feet Under)
- a jab at Kindles

The story starts with Amanda McCready going missing again.  How can a girl who went missing as a toddler go missing again as a 16 year old.  Easy when one draws double assholes in the parenting department as Lehane eloquently summed up Amanda's misfortune.  Having a mother like Helene is barely a step above being a feral child.  Add in Helene's skeevy boyfriend Kenny and it's a recipe for disaster.  Amanda appears to have turned out okay considering her crappy start to life.  She's attending a private school and getting excellent grades and will head to an Ivy league school.  What Amanda doesn't have are friends, except for a girl named Sophie who turns out to be a little screwed up too.

So Patrick is on the hunt for Amanda and Sophie which like any reader familiar with Lehane would expect, turns out like a three ring circus.  There are run ins with some nasty yet humorous Russian mobsters that shave years off Patrick's life from stress alone, and a surprising connection between the Russian Mob and Amanda.  I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the book for you all.  I will say that the Patrick and Angie series seems to be wrapped up, which is a bit disappointing but at the same time I really have to wonder if it really is the end.  We learn that Patrick and Angie have a little girl named Gabby and the family dynamic is truly charming.

What Lehane does masterfully is write the best books in the crime thriller genre.  It should really be called the Dennis Lehane genre as no other author comes close to his talents.  The characters feel real even though most of us don't have life experiences like any of the characters.  The dialog is excellent and you can almost hear the characters speaking in your head.  There is humor, violence, suspense and more in a gripping page turner.  This is a book that you'll lose track of time reading, it's that engrossing.   And it's definitely one that should be made into a movie. 

If you're a fan of Lehane's previous books, you'll love this.  If you are just now meeting Patrick and Angie, Moonlight Mile can stand on its own without relying on Gone Baby Gone.  If you've never read anything by Lehane before and just know him for the Mystic River and Shutter Island movies, give this book a try.  If anyone can read this and not enjoy it, I probably don't want to know what books are on your bookshelves.  So give Moonlight Mile a try...try it you'll like it as the commercial says.  It won't require a big chunk of your time and you'll be a Lehane fan afterward.