Synopsis
State trooper Sean Devine is assigned to investigate the murder of the daughter of Jimmy Marcus. Jimmy and Sean have been friends since childhood. A third old friend, Dave Boyle, may or may not have much more sinister ties to the crime. Lehane's exploration of the three friends' intertwined, checkered pasts is set against the backdrop of working-class Boston.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2003-08-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 416 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 11.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.
Industry Reviews
"At his most daring in MYSTIC RIVER, Lehane aims for the plainspoken lyricism of a good acoustic Bruce Springsteen ballad, or the knife-edge clarity of an earlier transcendent mystery novelist who wrote about damaged children, Ross Macdonald, and achieves his desired effect..."
Entertainment Weekly - Ken Tucker (02/09/2001)
"What elevates MYSTIC RIVER over just about everything else being published in the genre today is Lehane's willingness to expose the scars, as well as the strengths, of all his lead characters, and let hubris take its natural course."
Chicago Tribune - Gary Dretzka (03/04/2001)
"This big, rambling story, written in a noir style full of slang and overstatement, has mystery aplenty and enough tough-talking characters to satisfy any crime-story aficionado."
Houston Chronicle (03/09/2001)
"[A] powerful story of childhood friendship and inexorably doomed lives."
Guardian (London) - Peter Guttridge (04/01/2001)
"[H]is sixth and best novel, one utterly impossible to forget."
Charlotte Observer - Connie Ogle (04/08/2001)
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