Product Description

When Jimmy Marcus's daughter is found murdered, his friend Sean Devine is assigned to the case. Sean's investigation takes him back into a world of violence he thought he'd left behind. As the race for a killer heats up, all are pulled toward an abyss that will force them to face their true selves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114341 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Dennis Lehane's Mystic River takes the material of the ordinary police procedural thriller and shapes it into heart-break. As boys, Jimmy, Dave and Sean were friends, until one day Dave was abducted by two men pretending to be cops, and was never quite the same again. As men, Dave is a damaged fantasist, safe in a quietly happy marriage; Jimmy a retired criminal making a good respectable living for the sake of his children; and Sean is the homicide cop who finds himself investigating the murder of Jimmy's eldest daughter Katie. This is not just a book about what becomes of the children who grow into adults; it is about what happens to a neighbourhood when the rules change, when an old established working-class district acquires gentrified espresso bars at one end and the beats of the city's most dangerous whores at the other. It is also a book about the tragedy of all sudden violent deaths; we never forget our sense of Katie as she was, dancing on the last night of her life--she is never just the corpse here, never just the object of mourning and investigation. --Roz Kaveney

Observer (Peter Guttridge)
'Enormously impressive: page-turning but thoughtful; moving in its sad inevitability… One of the finest novels I've read in ages'

Guardian (Maxim Jakubowski)
'Dennis Lehane establishes himself as one of the greats of crime-writing with MYSTIC RIVER'

Customer Reviews

MYSTIC RIVER
I'd had 'MYSTIC RIVER' on my wish list for ages but did not actually purcahse it until I heard that they were turning it itno a movie staring Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon. While I heard great things anout Dennis Lehane as an author this was the firsrt of his books that I've read and I am very pleased that I chose this one to start with. Lehane paints a picture so realistically that you can alomst feel the grief, anger and despair that his characters feel.

Jimmy, Davey and Sean were childhood friends and while all very different in personality, Jimmy being the tough one, Sean the boy from the "right side of the tracks" and Davey the follower, they never missed a Saturday together. However, one Saturday things take a turn for the unexpected when two men posing as police officers abduct Davey. Once returned to his familly days later and knowing the horrors that Davey must have enduredd at the hands of these men, the friendship between the three boys is irrevocably torn. Twenty some odd years later, when Jimmy's daughter Kaite is murdered the three of them are thrown back into each others lives. Sean is the investigating officer in Katie's murder and Davey who is married to Jimmy's wife's cousin is there to lend his support. But with a secret hanging over his head about his own misdeeds the night of Katie's murder Davey must try to keep it together himself.

When young Davey is abducted in the first few chapters of the book you feel the anguish that his family and friends go through as they await his safe return. You can also feel how tourtured that experience has left Davey as an adult. When Jimmy's daughter is murdered you feel the pain and sadness that he and his family go through and understand his urge to find the killer and make him pay at any cost. And when Sean is forced to investigate the murder of his estranged friends daughter you can feel how torn he is between doing his job and a sense of loyalty to an old firend in the hardest time of his life.

After reading 'MYSTIC RIVER' I couldn't wait to see how this story played out on the big screen and for once the movie stayted very true to the book. Penn and Robin's performances were defintiley Oscar worthy as you see these characters brought to life. If you loved the movie you will love this book even more.

A big departure from previous books
A friend passed me 'Sacred' to read on holiday - and I had it finished by the time I'd hit the beach. When I got back I ordered the rest of Lehanes books and greedily devoured them - great characters, clever dialogue and super storylines. 'Mystic River' represents a big change in Lehanes writing style - gone are McKenzie and Gennaro, and with them goes the tongue-in-cheek wisecracks that epitomised their series. Instead we have a darker, more mature story....a tale of three long-gone schoolfriends linked by the horrific murder of one of their daughters. Old coals get raked over and secrets uncovered - and although you never feel yourself intimately enjoying the company of any of the main three characters, they are painted in good detail, and you find yourself truly compelled to find out the motivations behind all three men. All in all, a good tale that leaves you guessing till the end - heavier than Lehanes previous work, but definitely well worth reading.

Top quality crime writing
Anyone buying this book should be sure to have enough time to read 50 to 100 pages at a stretch. Once started, it is a compulsive page turner.
Evil comes close to three kids and contaminates one of them.This evil will stay with him for the rest of his life. It will ruin their fragile friendship. It will haunt him, fill him with self doubt, with fear and in the end destroy all his hard endeavours to live a normal family guy life.
Twenty five years on the savage murder of a nineteen year old daughter brings them together again from their different adult lives. At this stage i feared a cliche strewn , one for all and all for one mystery as they unite to solve the crime. How wrong i was! Dennis Lehane is much better than that. Be prepared for many conflicts old and new; many twists and turns; many shocks before the truth is finally known.
I have no time for formularistic "who done it thrillers" some of which must surely be written by computer. This is nothing like those efforts. Mystic River is crime writing at its very best. This is my first , but certainly not my last Dennis Lehane.