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Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro #5)

by Dennis Lehane (Goodreads Author)

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 8,141 ratings · 391 reviews

The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston’s gritty blue-collar streets.

Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why a former client, a perky woman in love with life, could, within six months, jump naked from a Boston landmark—the final fall in a spiral of self-destr...more

Paperback, 375 pages

Published May 2nd 2000 by HarperTorch (first published 1999)

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May 04, 2011 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery, detectives

Patrick and Angie have gone up against a lot of very bad people in their time as detectives. They’ve tangled with gang members, serial killers, the Irish and Italian mob, a religious cult, corrupt politicians, child molesters, and a variety of other evil sons-of-bitches. In Prayers for Rain, they meet their most sadistic and diabolical villain yet.

Angie has gone to work for another detective agency, and Patrick is operating solo. Without Angie around, he’s losing his taste for the job, though. H...more Patrick and Angie have gone up against a lot of very bad people in their time as detectives. They’ve tangled with gang members, serial killers, the Irish and Italian mob, a religious cult, corrupt politicians, child molesters, and a variety of other evil sons-of-bitches. In Prayers for Rain, they meet their most sadistic and diabolical villain yet.

Angie has gone to work for another detective agency, and Patrick is operating solo. Without Angie around, he’s losing his taste for the job, though. However, he gets very interested when Karen Nichols hires him to help get a stalker off her back. Karen is the type of person who seems too nice and innocent to exist in the world. She just wants to marry her boyfriend and lead a normal life. Patrick and his personal wrecking crew Bubba manage to *ahem* 'persuade' the stalker to leave Karen alone and consider it a job well done. Karen sends Patrick a check signed with little hearts on it. Case closed.

Six months later, Patrick hears that Karen has committed suicide. He realizes that he forgot to return a call she made to him months before, and he’s shocked to hear that Karen’s life imploded after he last saw her. Her boyfriend was hit by a car and is in a coma. She lost her job and her home. He’s even more shocked to hear that Karen ended up on drugs and became a prostitute before she finally stepped off a building. Patrick can’t believe that the woman he met could fall apart so fast and starts looking into what happened. Fortunately for him, Angie is willing to come back and help out.

What they find is that Karen’s life was systematically destroyed by a mysterious figure. But why would anyone go to so much effort to crush a woman whose biggest dream was being able to afford a Toyota Camry? As Patrick and Angie try to figure out who ruined Karen’s life, they’re contacted by the man who did it. Now he’s threatening to do the same to them if they don’t back off, and he’s more than capable of making good on the threat.

Wow. It’d been several years since I’d read the Patrick & Angie novels, and I’d kind of forgotten how good Lehane was at creating creepy and effective villains as well as his knack for keeping you on the edge of your seat. I especially liked that while he never made Patrick and Angie superheroes, that they’re also not victims. If someone screws with them, they go on the offensive, and their motto is that payback is a bitch.

This one also has more of Bubba than the other books, and the big crazy bastard is in rare form here. Whether it’s using a tennis racket to negotiate with a stalker or escorting Patrick to a Mafia barbecue or schooling the detectives on the fine art of walking point in hostile territory, Bubba is always highly entertaining in a demented way. He is definately among the best of the bad-ass friends in the realm of ficional private detectives.

Now that I’ve re-read all of the P & A novels, I can not wait for the release of Moonlight Mile next month so I can find out what they’ve been up to for the last ten years.
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Jan 16, 2013 Dan Schwent rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-mystery, 2013

When a former client commits suicide, Patrick Kenzie goes digging into her background to find out why. What he finds is a blackmailing stalker that anticipates his every move. Even after being reunited with Angela, can Patrick put a stop to the blackmailer's reign of terror?

Wow. After Gone Baby Gone, I assumed the Kenzie and Gennaro series would be on the decline. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong.

Prayers for Rain starts with Patrick at his lowest point and sees him clawing his way back to th...more

28 likes · like · see review

Dec 04, 2010 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: SusanD, Steve, Kelly, Vanessa

Shelves: mystery

Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite mystery authors, who rarely fails to please me. In "Prayers for Rain", he has delivered another spellbinding detective story, which leaves little to the imagination. The book is certainly not for the faint of heart. Deftly plotted, it is gritty, suspenseful, often violent and offers endless surprises. The few quiescent periods in this very emotional story offer little respite from unexpected action. The suspense is further heightened at the climax with several...more

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Jul 27, 2008 Bryce Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

And so we come to the end... I'm going to miss Kenzie and Gennaro I've been putting off this book for awhile, but well I had a train to ride and it was just staring at me.

Prayer's For Rain isn't their best outing but you can't say the crew doesn't go out with a bang.

Say this for Lehane he writes a good villain. He creates antagonists that you don't want to so much see beaten, as destroyed utterly. A good Lehane villain simply angrys up the blood in a real primal way.

So color me surprised that...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Joyce Lagow rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

5th in the Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro series.[return][return]Just when you think Lehane has reached a pinnacle, to your delight he outdoes himself. I didn� t think it was possible, but this book is, if anything better than its predecessor, Gone, Baby,Gone.[return][return]A former client takes her life, and Kenzie can not understand why. Unwilling to let go and accept the official verdict of suicide, Kenzie begins investigating her life, trying to unravel the mystery of her rather sudden decli...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries-and-thrillers

Karen Nichols, a seemingly perfect prime and proper young lady, hires private detective Patrick Kenzie to warn off Cody Falk, a stalker who has a history of rape and abuse of women. Patrick and his new sidekick, Bubba, who has the face of a deranged two-year-old but with the physique of a “steel boxcar with limbs” pay Cody a visit. Bubba rearranges Cody’s car and they leave with suitable threats of potential carnage should anything happen to Karen. Six months later Karen jumps naked from a six...more Karen Nichols, a seemingly perfect prime and proper young lady, hires private detective Patrick Kenzie to warn off Cody Falk, a stalker who has a history of rape and abuse of women. Patrick and his new sidekick, Bubba, who has the face of a deranged two-year-old but with the physique of a “steel boxcar with limbs” pay Cody a visit. Bubba rearranges Cody’s car and they leave with suitable threats of potential carnage should anything happen to Karen. Six months later Karen jumps naked from a six story building and Patrick wants to learn what happened.
He learns that Karen’s boyfriend had been killed in a car accident and that she had been raped before her descent into drugs and despair. But he also discovers that someone had been setting her up.
Feeling somewhat contrite at one point, Patrick decides to attend Mass in spite of being more than a lapsed Catholic. He’s astonished by the priest’s short sermon. “Father McKendrick definitely had Red Sox tickets. The parishioners looked dazed, but happy. The only thing good Catholics love more than God is a short service. Keep your organ music, your choir, keep your incense and processionals. Give us a priest with one eye on the Bible and the other on the clock, and we’ll pack the place like it’s a turkey raffle the week before Thanksgiving.”
In a previous book in the series, Patrick had split up with his onagain-offagain sweetheart and investigative partner, Angie Gennaro. This case gets them back together. They need to discover why Karen had slowly descended into a quagmire of drugs and prostitution before committing suicide. They discover that her fiancé might have been deliberately killed in what had apparently purely an accident while crossing the street.. Karen's family is uncooperative and clearly hiding something. The family secrets begin to unravel.
Despite some of its rather fantastical aspects — how convenient that Angie's grandfather is a mob boss with the power to call off the mob fangs at one point, and the level of evil strains credulity — this book reminds me a lot of some of Ross MacDonald’s better work, a peeling off of layers of ostensible respectability to reveal putrid corruption and evil permeating family relationships.

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Jul 29, 2012 Harry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: noir-detective-series, great-antagonists, favorites

Hmmmm...someone liked one of my reviews and I checked out this person's reading list as well as their reviews and heard mention somewhere in there a sentence or two about heroes, one likeable, the other...well, more along the lines of a sociopath. Dennis Lehane, among other authors was mentioned in this respect.

As always, my curiosity was piqued, and although I checked out the other named authors I did finally settle on Dennis Lehane. It was a good decision. Perhaps one of the best reading decis...more Hmmmm...someone liked one of my reviews and I checked out this person's reading list as well as their reviews and heard mention somewhere in there a sentence or two about heroes, one likeable, the other...well, more along the lines of a sociopath. Dennis Lehane, among other authors was mentioned in this respect.

As always, my curiosity was piqued, and although I checked out the other named authors I did finally settle on Dennis Lehane. It was a good decision. Perhaps one of the best reading decisions ever. Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro series is best described as being in the Noir series of detectives (I am reminded of Andrew Vacchs as another excellent member of this genre). This study of the darker side of humanity is epxressed through very witty and sometimes humerous dialogue that contrasts sharply with each novel's antagonists: awash in horrendous and pure evil. Lehane's descriptions are on the mark, there's no guessing as you attempt to imagine each scene described: you see it as it was meant to be seen. I've seen other novelists (Katherine Slaughter, for example) try to pull this off but frankly, the writing does not compare in both dialogue and descriptions. At least, not after you've read Lehane.

As my other reviews attest, I'm interested in the lone hero in novels (series only, please), an interest awakened by the Jack Reacher novels of Lee Child and Coben's Myron Bolitar series as well as other excellent novelists (see my other reviews). In the Reacher novels, all aspects of the hero (consistent values, propensity for violence, temptation, etc.) are encased in a single hero: Jack Reacher. Harlan Coben splits these characteristics and infuses them into two heroes: Myron Bolitar (values and principles), and Win (our favorite sociopath). Lehane takes this a step further and presents us with a three way split from Jack Reacher: Gennaro (the good), Kenzie (the good mixed with propensity for violence), and Bubba (our favorite sociopath).

When it comes to Noir, you can't get any better than Dennis Lehane. And if you're interested in this genre, do take the time to read the works of Andrew Vacchs (start at the beginning folks!). Outstanding in their own right and as good, if not better than Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro series.

If you've read this review of the Kenzie and Gennaro books, than you've read them all. His work will keep you up late into the night, reading, when you should be sleeping and getting ready for work.(less)

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Jun 07, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

A little disclosure: I think Dennis Lehane is perhaps the best crime writer in the last 50 years. I love this guy and have read almost everything he's every written (there are literally only two books by him left and one them is Mystic River which I've seen the film version of like 10 times). I other words, I'm generally going to be pretty inclined to like his stuff. Why? Well, unlike a lot of other crime writers I've read his stuff is funny, thrilling, and, while totally engrossing in the momen...more A little disclosure: I think Dennis Lehane is perhaps the best crime writer in the last 50 years. I love this guy and have read almost everything he's every written (there are literally only two books by him left and one them is Mystic River which I've seen the film version of like 10 times). I other words, I'm generally going to be pretty inclined to like his stuff. Why? Well, unlike a lot of other crime writers I've read his stuff is funny, thrilling, and, while totally engrossing in the moment, it sticks with you for a long time after. He has a funny way to posing big questions in a genre that is often meant mostly for summer reading. The end of "Gone Baby Gone" is one of the best 'big question' endings I've ever read - especially since I work in Child Welfare.

That said, the Kenzie-Gennaro novels (not counting the latest one which I have not read yet) are generally better on the even numbered books. "Darkness Take My Hand" (book 2) and "Gone Baby Gone" (book 4) are masterpieces. Seriously, "Darkness Take My Hand" was one of the scariest books I've ever read. Especially after you get to know, and love, so many characters in the first novel. It's like watching a sculptor take a baseball bat to his studio, you really wonder how anybody will move on after that book.

That said, "Prayers for Rain" is an excellent book. It nicely reunites Kenzie & Gennaro after their falling out at the end of "Gone Baby Gone" in a way that is very believable and ultimately satisfying. Patrick's obsession with a woman, a former client, who throws herself naked off a downtown Boston building predictably leads to all manner of twists and turns, from abandoned military bunkers to mob barbeques, but ultimately it is the parade of wiseguys, crooks, down-and-out types and their interplay with the snarky Kenzie and Gennaro that make this such a fun ride. The chapter where Patrick interviews the legless owner of the run down motel is so good it could easily be a stand alone short story. The way he uses casual conversation in that chapter to illuminate this initially one dimension character and make him reveal all manner of dark secrets is so subtle that it actually surprised me. I thought it was the perfect illustration that people are seldom who you judge them to be at the outset.

There is only one thing that makes this book less than the equal of its predecessor "Gone Baby Gone" and that is the slight weakness of its ending. While all the major plot points wrap up neatly, and there are a few messy ideas left for you to chew on, ultimately I felt that there was a basic lack of justice in how the main bad guy was dealt with. Perhaps that is the point, that evil people often do not get punishments equal to their crimes (certainly not equal to the pain they cause their victims and their families) but I still really wanted to see this guy get it. You know? Like Chuck Norris, Patrick Sawayze Road House style. Like a giant monster tuck rolls over him while he's eaten by sharks and blown up all at the same time. I guess that's a totally different book.

This is the kind of series I would recommend to anyone even if crime fiction is not their thing. However, do yourself a favor and start at the beginning. While each book can easily be read as a stand alone there are things referred to in them that are so much richer if you know what came before.

I eagerly look forward to the next book in this series. After all, it's an even numbered one so it should totally blow my mind.(less)

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Mar 18, 2012 Alisha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-novel, mystery-thriller, e-books-i-ve-read

So, most people who only "just liked" Prayers for Rain or didn't enjoy it all are quick to say "It was no 'Gone Baby Gone'". And they would be right...Prayers for Rain was actually better than 'Gone Baby Gone', in my opinion. While Gone Baby Gone was good and slightly better of the Kenzie and Gennaro novels prior to it, I felt like it was a smidgen melodramatic. For me, the Kenzie and Gennaro series are not only superb thrillers, there's also an underlying sense of humor that makes them great fo...more

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Dec 31, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This one was really great up until the end, which was a bit of a letdown. At the end of "Gone Baby Gone", Patrick and Angie had split up their detective partnership over the outcome of that novel. "Prayers For Rain" begins with Patrick working solo. However, does anyone really believe that Angie won't make her way into the plot? Of course, she does.

The book gets off to a great start. A very sweet, innocent,woman is being stalked by a creep. Patrick handles the problem, but then the action really...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Kath rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Fifth in the Kenzie/Gennero series, Prayers for Rain continued Lehane's satisfying string of cases for two of my favorite PIs. It's not the strongest story in the series, but it's Lehane, and it's well worth reading. Prayers had me relentlessly turning pages, even when I was at WorldCon, surrounded by Fantasy and SciFi books (including a huge amount of just purchased books in my own suitcase).

The magic in this book and all of Lehane's books, for me, is in the characters. It was extremely satisfy...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-thriller

What started off as another excellent Lehane book was ruined by the last couple of pages for me, unfortunately. Still, up until then, it had been great. The mystery is convoluted, thought-provoking & keeps the suspense going strong. We get to see a lot more of & find out more about Bubba. That right there makes it worth reading. I got a little tired of Kenzie's flashes of brilliance. I would have preferred he just reason it out soundly.

Unfortunately, Lehane had to take the case an extra...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Rhonda Browning White rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've never been so hooked on a series of novels as I've been the Kenzie/Genarro series by Dennis Lehane. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one, after finishing "Gone, Baby, Bone," and now I'm jonesing to begin "Moonlight Mile." Honestly, I'll be glad to finish that one and end (perhaps) the series, so I can gain control of my life again, as I've put it on hold to read these books!

Yes--they're that good. Genre snobs will re-think their presumptions once they begin this series, as the writin...more

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Mar 13, 2010 Jayci rated it 4 of 5 stars

Patrick is a great PI--Magnum without the stache. When he is hired by sweet and uncontaminated Karen Nichols, Patrick feels a sense of obligation to keep things that way. Unfortunately, six months after they meet, Karen ends up swan diving off of a building. What leads such an innocent to end things so violently and so out of character? Patrick is determined to find out. Through a maze of tragedies that have befallen Karen-a fiances questionable "accident"--the loss of her employment, home, and...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Xirxe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: krimi, bookcrossing

Dies ist das erste Buch von Lehane das ich - dem Zufall sei Dank - in die Finger bekam, aber vermutlich nicht mein letztes.
Im fünften Band der Reihe um den Privatdetektiv Kenzie läuft diesem die junge unschuldige Karen über den Weg, die ihn um Hilfe bittet. Diese Bitte ist schnell zu ihrer Zufriedenheit erfüllt, doch sechs Monate später stürzt sich Karen vom Dach eines Hochhauses, drogenabhängig, kurz vor der Obdachlosigkeit. Niemand kann sich diese Wesensveränderung erklären und Kenzie, der ei...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Cathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a pretty difficult book to review. First of all, as a standalone novel, it would have been next to impossible to follow the character interactions. I read book 4, Gone Baby Gone, before any of the other Kenzie/Gennaro books, but that somehow worked. Prayers for Rain would not have made any sense if I hadn't read book 4, however, and this is the first of the series where I would definitely say the background is necessary.

Also, this is the last Kenzie/Gennaro book Lehane has published, to...more This is a pretty difficult book to review. First of all, as a standalone novel, it would have been next to impossible to follow the character interactions. I read book 4, Gone Baby Gone, before any of the other Kenzie/Gennaro books, but that somehow worked. Prayers for Rain would not have made any sense if I hadn't read book 4, however, and this is the first of the series where I would definitely say the background is necessary.

Also, this is the last Kenzie/Gennaro book Lehane has published, to this point. The previous books have always left me wanting to read the next one. This book has left me with a different sense of closure, in that if it's the last in the series, I'm satisfied with that, and not because I didn't enjoy the entire series. If Lehane ever writes another (which, it's been 11 years since the last, and the 5 already completed were all published within 6 years), I hope time has elapsed in Kenzie/Gennaro world, because I wouldn't want it to pick up where the last one left off!

I have mixed feelings about the book itself. The best thing about it, it shows a different side of Patrick Kenzie. In Prayers for Rain, he isn't the wisecracking, mouthy kid, but darker and more impulsive. This man is tired and beaten, and it's finally taken its toll. On the other hand, it seems as though Kenzie is reliant more on endurance than wits. If other books in the series have been a sprint to solve the cases, this is a triathlon. It also lacks some of the banter I've enjoyed about the previous books, although the narrative isn't totally devoid of humor.

All that being said, this book belongs to Bubba Rugowski, Patrick and Angie's loyal school friend cum arms dealer, hit man, sociopath. Early in the book, Patrick explains that even though Bubba lacks the polish of somebody whose schooling went past 3rd grade, he should never be mistaken for stupid. In Prayers for Rain, Bubba (my favorite supporting character in the series) has his opportunities to shine.(less)

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Nov 19, 2009 Mark R. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I put off reading this book--or rather, delayed it as long as I could, putting it at the bottom of my to-read pile--as it is the fifth and final book in the Patrick Kenzie/Angela Genarro series, and I wasn't eager to see it end.

Knowing it's the last in the series, I had figured there'd be some kind of fiery, crazy conclusion. This book doesn't quite have that, and actually, the way it's written is not very final at all, but could easily be just another chapter in the series, which could continu...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Nelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't decide if I didn't like this that much because I'm not a huge fan of mystery and suspense, or if it's because I started reading the Patrick Kenzie, PI, series at book #5. Oooooor maybe it's because this book just wasn't that good.

The storyline, although an intriguing idea from the synopsis, was really just OK. Compared to Shutter Island, the only other Dennis Lehane book I've ever read, this storyline was outright silly. I mean, a seasoned PI becomes obsessed with avenging the death of a...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book kept me interested and the characterizations that made the rest of the series so entertaining to read was still there. Thankfully, there's a fair amount of Bubba and we get to really see him in action in the book's climax, which is deftly paced and described very well. There are problems with the story, though, and I think it's easily the worst of the series. Often times Patrick's motivation seems thin at best, incomprehensible at worst to do the things he does, and there are a lot of...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Following the conclusion of Gone, Baby, Gone, the predecessor book to this one, I picked this up immediately to find out the effects of that book's events on Kenzie and Genaro. In my opinion this book is the second half or part of Gone, Baby, Gone with the case being the only thing different to the books. This book picks up right where the last book left off, Angie and Patrick's split. In my opinion it can be argued that Gone, Baby, Gone is the 'Cause' book while this is the effect book.

Gone, Ba...more Following the conclusion of Gone, Baby, Gone, the predecessor book to this one, I picked this up immediately to find out the effects of that book's events on Kenzie and Genaro. In my opinion this book is the second half or part of Gone, Baby, Gone with the case being the only thing different to the books. This book picks up right where the last book left off, Angie and Patrick's split. In my opinion it can be argued that Gone, Baby, Gone is the 'Cause' book while this is the effect book.

Gone, Baby Gone sets up this book all through out. One of the biggest is the growing separation between Angie and Patrick's views on life. She mentions the idea of a baby early on in the previous book, which has a major effect later when Patrick makes the decision to send Amanda back to Hellen. He could have done as Angie wanted and let her stay, but he did what he believed was the right thing. This lead Angie to leave him. This book does not further the reasons behind the break up much, but if you read it together with the previous book you get the sense that that was the final nail in the coffin for Angie and she realized she could not be with Patrick any longer.

Furthermore, the effects of Gone, Baby Gone are echoed in the fact that Patrick has seen enough and does not care for his job any longer. He is done with it and no longer has any passion for his work. This theme carries over into this book and most of the book is Patrick trying to decide how to continue with his life and what it means without Angie there to share the adventure.

This book has excellent pacing and both the Patrick and Angie story as well as the main plot will provide hours of enjoyment. This book is so perfectly balanced and the story is top notch crime thriller drama I found it hard to put it down. I loved the Bubba and Patrick dynamic that existed all through out this book, especially the early chapters where Bubba plays side kick. Having only read three Lehane novels at the date of this review, this so far was my favorite novel in this series.(less)

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Jun 24, 2009 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think Dennis Lehane is one of the best suspense(i think this is the genre) writers. He likes to put both his readers and his characters on the edge. In this book, Patrick Kenzie is most definitely hanging on by his fingertips. He's lost Angie, is losing money on this case, is having his family and friends threatened. You can really feel his inner struggle. The killer is a very, very scary man, complete with gory details and unlikely accomplices. Plus, Lehane's characters never lose their sense...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Rafal Jasinski rated it 3 of 5 stars

Powieść, jak zwykle świetnie napisana, aczkolwiek pod względem stopnia skomplikowania intrygi, zdecydowanie słabsza od tego, do czego przyzwyczaił mnie Lehane. Jej braki dają o sobie znać w końcówce, kiedy ma się wrażenie, że autor na siłę stara się zaskoczyć czytelnika, mimo, iż wcześniej wyłożył już większość kart na stół. Coraz bardziej irytującym staje się dla mnie fakt, że pisarz zaczyna korzystać z tych samych trików - najsłabszym z nich jest dla mnie (mimo uwielbienia dla samej postaci) w...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, eclectic-reader-challenge

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I must confess... I am not a fan of the hard-boiled American "Private Eye", who relies more on his physical prowess than mental powers to catch criminals. Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells, and the cosy drawing-room British murder mystery where violence almost always takes place backstage, is more to my taste. Given my usual predilections, I might never have discovered Dennis Lehane, had Martin Scorsese not made a movie out of Shutter Island. I wanted to see the movie; and since I make it...more I must confess... I am not a fan of the hard-boiled American "Private Eye", who relies more on his physical prowess than mental powers to catch criminals. Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells, and the cosy drawing-room British murder mystery where violence almost always takes place backstage, is more to my taste. Given my usual predilections, I might never have discovered Dennis Lehane, had Martin Scorsese not made a movie out of Shutter Island. I wanted to see the movie; and since I make it a point never to see a mystery movie without reading the book, I read the book-and was hooked.

Lehane writes beautifully (I mean, it is not great literature, but one does not look for it in a murder mystery); Prayers for Rain will hook you and pull you in from the first page, and the pace never lets up. The breathtaking pace is not built through incessant physical action, but rather through the steadily increasing tempo of dramatic tension. The book is so well structured that succeeding scenes almost naturally flow out of their predecessors. We never feel that somebody is building the narrative, rather it is flowing by itself. The novelist is almost invisible.

The characterisation is also superb. Even the secondary characters are well-delineated. Lehane takes pains to build the world of his story. And in the creation of Wesley Dawe, the author has succeeded in creating a truly evil villain, somebody who will really makes us shudder.

Are there flaws? Sure, for a purist. There are some loose ends which are not tied up cleanly. The "omnipotent" mailman as a literary device is straight out of G.K.Chesterton. Also, to make Wesley's and Scott's plans work, Lehane had to create a lot of co-conspirators, which makes the story rather far-fetched.

However, all these can be ignored. The sheer pace and energy of the narrative will carry you through, bug-eyed and dry-mouthed, till the last page is turned, when the final twist will blow you away. The novel thrills... and what more does a "thriller" require to do?(less)

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Aug 16, 2011 Candace rated it 4 of 5 stars

Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane is the first of the FINISHED books I have recently read. And he doesn't fail to disappoint. Yes I understand that all of his crime series novels have the same basic structure but who likes change? If the formula works why deviate? This one starts off where the other one left off in series with Patrick Kenzie trying to get his life and detective business back on track after his partner, in more ways than one, has left. Angela was a big part of his life and he is...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-thriller, hardboiled, mystery, new-york-times-best-seller, read-in-2010, reviewed, series, thriller

Private Eye Patrick Kenzie has lost some of his zest for his job since Angela Gennaro left their partnership.

He's hired by a young woman, Karen Nichols, to stop a stalker from pestering her.

Patrick and his friend, Bubba, scare off the attempted assailant. Patrick also gets Karen's auto insurance company to pay a bill they were denying, claiming that the coverage had lapsed.

Kenzie thinks that the case is over and when he gets a call from Karen a bit later, he doesn't think it's anything urgent so...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Peter Molnar rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of the new "noir"

I am a huge Dennis Lehane fan, especially of his Kenzie/ Gennaro crime books, and while "Prayers for Rain" was a solid book it did not impress me as much as its predecessor "Gone Baby Gone". I was looking for a second helping to the profoundly evil criminal element lurking along Boston's fringes of society and it seemed the worst criminals seemed to be working alongside Kenzie and Gennaro, the two protagonists. While it was fun to read about their exploits, I wanted a villain who never seemed to...more

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May 30, 2013 David Mcangus rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, detective-smart-ass

It's understandable why this was the last in the series for quite a while. Every aspect of the book feels lethargic. It works, but it creaks and groans as it goes through the motions. This is in contrast with the energy that's usually displayed by Lehane's writing. The plot can steer all over the place, but there's been a consistent passion underlying the work that draws the reader in and seduces with fine characters. This is absent from Prayers for Rain. It read like Lehane was trying to stay i...more

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Jul 04, 2009 Grant rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kenzie-gennaro, crime-thrillers, meh, action

I've loved Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro from the beginning so it was with a heavy heart that I approached this, the last book in this stellar PI series. Sadly, it wasn't quite the send-off I was hoping for.

Sure, the story was fast-paced and suspenseful, and there were a few things I did enjoy about the novel, mainly Patrick's new flame, sexy defense attorney Vanessa Moore. I found her intelligent and interesting, although I didn't really understand her role; if the antagonist was trying to...more I've loved Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro from the beginning so it was with a heavy heart that I approached this, the last book in this stellar PI series. Sadly, it wasn't quite the send-off I was hoping for.

Sure, the story was fast-paced and suspenseful, and there were a few things I did enjoy about the novel, mainly Patrick's new flame, sexy defense attorney Vanessa Moore. I found her intelligent and interesting, although I didn't really understand her role; if the antagonist was trying to terrorize Kenzie, why would he pick a casual sex partner like Moore to threaten and not go for someone who was really dear to him, like former lover Grace Cole?

...Which brings me to my first gripe. It seems that Dennis Lehane lacks both a good memory and a fact-checker, because he frequently forgets minor details that he himself came up with. An example would be the color of Grace Cole's hair. In the short scene she has with Kenzie, which provides closure to their romance that started in 'Darkness', she's described as having ash-blonde hair but, in 'Darkness', where her role was much more substanial, her hair is auburn. Sure, these are minor details, but it's still an annoyance. If Lehane is too lazy to do some background research to respect the characters he, himself, came up with, what else can't he be bothered to check? And errors like this run rampant upon the pages. Errors that could have been caught and corrected if anyone had really taken the time to check.

And that's my main gripe with this book - it's lazy and feels rushed. The plot isn't even that labyrinthine, unlike its predecessors, which had at least four or five twists before the climax of the story. Here it's pretty much resolved from the get-go, basically a no brainer, and devoid of any of that three-dimensional emotional conflict and character interaction that was so prevalent in Lehane's other Kenzie/Gennaro novels. He simply glosses over the issues that forced Gennaro to terminate her partnership with Kenzie in the previous book, acting as if said situation is now merely trivial. There's seriously only a three paragraph, half-a-page dialogue between Angie and Patrick and then BOOM, all is forgiven. And Lehane never bothers to clarify the ambiguity surrounding the ill-fated David Wetterau's "accident" crossing the street, and why he was in one place but supposed to be in another. This is a huge plot hole that's left gaping and empty. One of many.

Lehane was obviously more concerned with releasing a half-assed product than hankering down and writing a well fleshed-out finale for two characters the readers have grown to love. I'll still recommend the series to friends because books like 'Darkness, Take My Hand' and 'Gone, Baby, Gone' were so fantastic; those two are models for what this, the curtain call, should have been. But this book just broke my heart - possibly because it means we're now finished with Kenzie and Gennaro but, mostly, because it was just so underwhelming. (less)

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Sep 30, 2010 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read this fantastic blood-thumping book not knowing it's the 5th in a series. Can't wait to read the first 4! Dennis Lehane was born to write...with a dark candle flickering in the background and spooky music playing! I've slowly been reading evrything he's ever written and the great thing is, he keeps putting these gems out.
The story begins with a shy pretty girl going to a detective agency and asking that a stalker be put on alert and please, not bother her anymore. Much speculation follows...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Andre rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love the end--or, at least, what we thought was the end--of the Kenzie-Gennaro series. I love the way Lehane wrapped up the Patrick-Angie storyline. I love the case, rather, the issue, at hand.

Of what I've read thus far, this was Lehane's best work. I did not "Why" questions in my head after reading this one. Everything made sense. Although I loved the entire series, I had minor gripes with each of the first four novels. None this time around.

Only a great storyline and great writing could make...more

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Is Prayers for Rain a stand alone book?	19	25	Dec 07, 2012 03:34pm
Whats the Order?	7	56	Oct 09, 2012 10:56am
Plot point that bugged me	2	46	Oct 09, 2008 11:16am

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About Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane (born Aug 4th, 1966) is an American author. He has written several novels, including the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award winning film, also called Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon (Lehane can be briefly seen waving from a car in the parade scene at the end of the film). The...more

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Books by Dennis Lehane

A Drink Before the War (Kenzie & Gennaro, #1)

Darkness, Take My Hand (Kenzie & Gennaro, #2)

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Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro #5)

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