I've been reading up a big tear recently, and I just finished
my first Lehane, GONE, BABY, GONE. Lehane's a fine, engaging
writer, and his portrait of the white-trash losers of Boston
seems absolutely realistic. In fact, Lehane's got quite a
touch with characters -- I think both Kenzie and Gennaro are
appealing, and manage to walk the tightrope between
sensitivity and tough guy behavior quite well.(Gennaro is
probably the first female PI I've absolutely bought as a
character.) And as someone already mentioned, Bubba's
amusing. I could stand to see more of him, but, well, you
can't have everything.
The plot's good, the sense of place is handled well, and the
action sequences work. Actually, I have nothing but praise
for GBG, except that it's too long.
Although not as outrageously padded as, say, Crais's LULLABY
TOWN or Muller's WOLF IN THE SHADOWS, I personally would've
ended the book about a hundred pages before the book actually
ends. Although the ending offers some interesting, dark
complications, it also involves a lot of ridiculous
conspiracy-stuff that undercuts some of the power that went
on before. That it succeeds at all is a testament to Lehane's
skill. For me, the real emotional ending seemed to be at
about page 388 -- the shoot-out at the Germantown house, for
those of you who've read the book. The rest of it is really
Lehane dancing as fast as he can.
Ah, well. It shouldn't be any surprise to anyone on this list
that hb books today are too long. G,B,G isn't a perfect book,
but it's worth a look, and I certainly recommend it. I'll be
checking out other Lehane books.
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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