A Drink Before The War

First paragraph:

The bar at the Ritz-Carlton looks out on the Public Gardens and requires a tie. I've looked out on the Public gardens from other vantage points before, without a tie, and never felt a loss, but maybe the Ritz knows something I don't.

Patrick Kenzie is the hero and Angie Gennaro the heroine in a detective story mixing drama, comedy, and and a little romance. Think of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the movie Mr & Mrs Smith then tone down the humour and turn up the suspense.

The action is set in Boston but you do not have to know Boston to enjoy the story. You only need to know that it is a typical big city on the east coast of America with a big divide between rich and poor, there are gangs, corruption, and they drink alcohol the way we drink tea.

This book is the first in a series about Kenzie and Gennaro. You can read other books in the series without starting at the first book but taking them in turn creates more suspense because you do not know who will survive. The books in sequence are:

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I read Sacred then went back to find A Drink Before The War and the other books in the series. Rush to read the books because Gone, Baby, Gone will be released as a movie in 2008 featuring Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie and Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro.

Dennis Lehane is famous for writing Mystic River, the book behind a superb film of the same name. Mystic River is set in the same city but is unrelated to the Kenzie Gennaro books.

Conclusion

8/10. Buy the first four books in the series and read them before seeing the film.