"Dennis was a great speaker - engaging, dynamic and funny... he thoughtfully and thoroughly fielded all of the audiences' queries."
-- Friends of the Topsfield Library
Dennis Lehane is the acclaimed master of the new noir. His novels include the New York Times best-sellers The Given Day, Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island, as well as Sacred, Prayers for Rain, Darkness, Take My Hand, A Drink Before the War and Coronado, a collection of short stories and a play.
His latest book Moonlight Mile (William Morrow), is an explosive tale of integrity and vengeance. This brilliant sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone heralds the long-awaited return of beloved private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Gone, Baby, Gone was made into the hit major motion picture in 2006 of the same name.
Mystic River was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Winship Award and won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Dilys Award from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction from the Massachusetts Center for the Book. A Drink Before the War won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel.
Three of Lehane's books have been made into hit movies: Shutter Island (directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, 2010); the big screen debut of Gone, Baby, Gone (directed by Ben Affleck, 2006); and the award-winning film adaptation of Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood, 2003).
Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar. Lehane and his wife, Angie, divide their time between Boston and the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Praise for Darkness, Take My Hand:
"Haunting. . . . Heart-pounding suspenseful."
-- People
"Masterfully plotted and beautifully written. . . A fierce and frightening story of crimes of the flesh and the heart."
-- Cincinnati Enquirer
"Taut writing. . . Lehane is one of those brave new detective stylists who is not afraid of fooling around with the genre's traditions."
-- Washington Post Book World
Praise for Sacred:
"Lehane's voice is an original. He turns the hard-boiled detective novel into an elegiac treatise on the corruption of the soul."
-- Michael Connelly
Praise for Gone, Baby, Gone:
"Lehane tackles corruption in many forms as he brings his complicated plot to its satisfying resolution, at the same time leaving readers to ponder moral questions about social and individual responsibility long after the last page is turned."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Gone, Baby, Gone is a tough, true, powerful story written by a stunningly good novelist, one of our very best."
-- James Patterson
Praise for Prayers for Rain:
"The superb detective novels of Dennis Lehane . . . became a kind of lifeline for me."
-- Stephen King, New York Times Book Review
"The well-oiled plot mechanics, edge-of-the-knife dialogue, and explosive bursts of violence are polished and primed in this hard-boiled shocker."
-- New York Times Book Review
Praise for The Given Day:
"[A] work of admirable ambition and scope. . . Lehane is as much like contemporaries George Pelecanos and Richard Price as he is like the bygone Boston-based John P. Marquand, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist."
-- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"[Lehane] deserves to be included among the most interesting and accomplished American novelists of any genre or category. . . A powerful moment in history, and Lehane makes the most of it. . . Heartfelt and moving."
-- Washington Post Book World
"Stands in the great tradition of the American novel, setting an enthralling personal story against a great sweep of history. The result is epic, romantic, and intelligent."
-- Kate Atkinson
"Superbly written, meticulously researched. . . Places [Lehane] in the first rank of modern American novelists."
-- Associated Press
"Steeped in history but wearing its research lightly, The Given Day is a meaty, rich, old-fashioned and satisfying tale. . . Lehane's masterpiece."
-- Seattle Times
"Passionate and powerful. . . [Lehane] is becoming, book by book, the foremost chronicler of social class in America. . . Lehane is trying to get his arms around the origins of modern America, the divide between red states and blue states, the great cultural cleaver that splits the country right down the middle . . . [in this] massive, ambitious novel."
-- Chicago Tribune
Praise for Mystic River:
"A spellbinding tale. . . A powerfully lacerating story, by an author who knows every block of the neighborhood and every hair on his character's heads."
-- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Shutter Island:
"Startlingly original. . . Instantly cinematic. . . This is a deft, suspenseful thriller that unfolds with increasing urgency until it delivers a visceral shock in its final moments. When it comes to keeping readers exactly where he wants them, Mr. Lehane offers a bravura demonstration of how it's done."
-- New York Times