Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Moonlight Mile (Kenzie & Gennaro #6)

by Dennis Lehane (Goodreads Author)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 8,763 ratings · 1,284 reviews

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl—only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.

Now Amanda is sixteen—and gone again. A stellar st...more

Hardcover, First Edition, 324 pages

Published November 2nd 2010 by William Morrow (first published November 1st 2010)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Can't Wait Books of 2010

386th out of 1,298 books — 10,686 voters

Explosion in Paris by Linda Masemore Pirrung

NO SLEEPING HERE!

60th out of 162 books — 90 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 04, 2011 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: detectives, crime-mystery

If Dennis Lehane would have ripped off Charles Dickens and started this novel with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” it would have been fitting.

It’s been eleven years since Lehane seemingly left his detective series starring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro behind to do stand-alone novels and work on HBO’s The Wire. The last decade has been both good and bad to the couple. The economic collapse has hit them hard, and Patrick has been forced to do free-lance work for a large...more If Dennis Lehane would have ripped off Charles Dickens and started this novel with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” it would have been fitting.

It’s been eleven years since Lehane seemingly left his detective series starring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro behind to do stand-alone novels and work on HBO’s The Wire. The last decade has been both good and bad to the couple. The economic collapse has hit them hard, and Patrick has been forced to do free-lance work for a large investigation firm that has him doing the bidding of various rich asshats. But if their professional lives aren’t great, at least things are going well on the domestic front except for worrying about how they’ll pay the bills.

In the midst of their economic crisis, an old case comes back to haunt them. In Gone Baby Gone, Patrick and Angie went looking for missing four year old Amanda, and by the end of it, they faced some of the toughest decisions of their lives. Now they’re going to have to deal with the consequences of those choices.

(That’s all the summary I’m going to give, and I’d caution anyone interested in this book to not read any kind of plot synopsis of this unless you’ve read Gone Baby Gone or seen the movie. Even the book flap for Moonlight Mile gives away a big piece of that ending. You have been warned.)

It felt incredibly good to be reading a new Patrick and Angie story, and Lehane used some of the work he’s done since to build a richer and deeper story for the pair. The influence of his time on The Wire shows in that one of the biggest villains in this book is a depressed economy. Lehane makes some poignant points about financial desperation and how it impacts everyone in a variety of ways.

This backdrop also fits an aging and moodier Patrick. Twenty years as a detective have taken their toll, and he’s increasingly disgusted with all the large and small ways that people can screw each other over.

This reads as a swan song for Patrick and Angie, and it’s pretty damn good. Not perfect. I’d have liked more Angie in the story, but there are reasons she doesn’t get more of the action this time. If this is the final book, then Lehane wrote a tender and touching farewell to Patrick and Angie that gives a satisfying ending to their series.

Oh, and just in case you’re worried that it’s all social commentary and brooding about regrets, Bubba is still around. And he still gets all the best lines like, “I’ll shoot you just for being short.”
(less)

26 likes · like · see review

Mar 10, 2013 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-mystery, 2013

When Amanda McCready goes missing over a decade after Patrick and Angela found her the first time, the couple set off to right a past wrong. But what does the Russian mob have to do with Amanda's disappearance? And has she really been kidnapped?

Moonlight Mile was Dennis Lehane's return to Kenzie and Gennaro, or are they Kenzie and Kenzie now, after a long absence. While Patrick and Angela may have lost a step or two after their domestication, I don't think Lehane has.

Moonlight Mile starts simply...more

27 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2011 James Thane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction

At the beginning of his writing career, Dennis Lehane wrote an excellent series of gritty P.I. novels set in Boston and featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, detectives who operated out of an office in a church bell tower. The 1998 entry was Gone, Baby, Gone, in which the detectives mounted a long search for a missing four-year-old girl named Amanda McCready. The girl had been kidnapped from an abusive mother and a generally miserable home environment and left in the care of a stable, midd...more At the beginning of his writing career, Dennis Lehane wrote an excellent series of gritty P.I. novels set in Boston and featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, detectives who operated out of an office in a church bell tower. The 1998 entry was Gone, Baby, Gone, in which the detectives mounted a long search for a missing four-year-old girl named Amanda McCready. The girl had been kidnapped from an abusive mother and a generally miserable home environment and left in the care of a stable, middle class couple who loved Amanda and provided her with an excellent home. Once having found Amanda, Patrick and Angie disagreed about whether they should return the girl to her awful mother or leave her in the home of the people who were obviously much better prepared to care for her. Ultimately, they returned Amanda to her biological mother, but the decision to do so drove a wedge into the relationship between the two detectives.

Lehane would write one more Kenzie/Gennaro book, Prayers for Rain, published in 1999, before leaving the series to write a number of stand-alones, including Mystic River and Shutter Island. He now returns to the series with Moonlight Mile, a book that Kenzie/Gennaro fans have long awaited.

Much has changed in the eleven years that have elapsed. Patrick and Angie are now married and the parents of their own four-year-old daughter. (This gives nothing away. It's in the promotional material and is revealed in the opening of the book.) Patrick is still working as a P.I., but the cases are few and far between. Angie has gone back to school and the family is struggling financially, victims of the recession. The office in the bell tower is gone--a casualty of the Catholic church's financial crisis--and now Amanda McCready has gone missing again.

The case has haunted Patrick and Angie for twelve years and Patrick agrees to take the case and try to find Amanda for a second time. The hunt takes Patrick and Angie into a tangled world of Russian mobsters, irresponsible parents, and a young woman who is wise way beyond her years. In addition to the intellectual and physical challenges that the case poses for Patrick, he faces a number of ethical and moral dilemmas that are not easily resolved.

This is a very good book--both highly entertaining and thought-provoking. But as a long-time fan who has read this series from the very beginning, I had a couple of quibbles. First, I regret, to some extent, the fact that Lehane simply picked up the series eleven years down the road. Major changes have occurred in the lives of characters that fans of the series have come to care about. And I feel somewhat cheated by the fact that I didn't get to watch those changes as they happened. It would be as if Lawrence Block had simply skipped over the book in which Matthew Scudder stopped drinking and became sober.

My other concern is that Patrick makes choices in this book that would have been perfectly logical for a single detective in his early thirties, possessed of a strong moral code. Patrick still has a strong moral code, but I'm not sure that some of his choices are appropriate for a man with a wife and child who may well be seriously affected by those choices. He has other people to think about now, and I found myself questioning the logic of his actions at a couple of points.

Those admittedly minor reservations aside, I enjoyed this book very much and it was great to finally see Patrick and Angie back again.(less)

17 likes · like · see review

Nov 21, 2010 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, cops-and-pee-eyes, four-star-fiction, miss-trees

I revisited Gone, Baby, Gone before reading this one, and I'm glad I did. All the particulars were fresh in my mind, so Moonlight Mile was just a continuation of the story for me, with no confusion.

It's been 12 years, and everybody's wondering what ever became of Kenzie and Gennaro after they found four-year-old Amanda McCready. They're now Kenzie and Kenzie, middle-aged, with a four-year-old girl of their own. Amanda McCready is now almost 17, and she's missing again. Patrick Kenzie is still h...more

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 26, 2011 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Dennis Lehane has always attracted me with his writing. As usual, I enjoyed reading this fast paced mystery novel,but it did not impress me as much as Mystic River. However he provided some good insights into human behavior,including morals and choices one makes for a lifetime.

Lehane's characters rang true, especially old favorites, Kenzie and Gennaro and now their little daughter,Gabby. Gone, Baby, Gone , another of my admired tales by this author, was recalled with the return of the star char...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 04, 2013 Arah-Lynda Hay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-said

So I picked this up at my local superstore. Bargain bin…. $3 hard cover; Dennis Lehane why not? I had read Shutter Island and liked it. And so it was that I even started reading this, sans knowledge, until a nagging familiarity prevailed and I realized this was the sequel to Gone,Baby,Gone. Never read that, but saw the movie.

The theme of moral dilemma that permeates that story is alive and well here. Only different…… more grey and black, less white!

Thinking this was a 3.5, I pondered having re...more

7 likes · like · see review

Nov 14, 2011 Andrew Kaufman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Well, I was up to chapter eight--until my chocolate lab puppy tore the next five pages I was about the read. There may be a delay. UGh

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 25, 2010 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

There's lots of excitement surrounding Moonlight Mile due to hit the streets in early November. I was thrilled to get a galley from Harper Collins. I deliberately set aside some time this past weekend to settle in and enjoy. Lehane hasn't written a book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series since Prayers for Rain (1999). In Moonlight Mile, the detective partners are back in full swing. If you remember the excellent Gone Baby Gone, the fourth in the series, you'll remember that Kenzie's mission that t...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 11, 2012 Sam Quixote rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

11 years after Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro found Amanda McCready in "Gone, Baby, Gone" she's disappeared again! Russian mobsters are after her as Kenzie and Gennaro hit her trail as well as wannabe gangsters, but as they investigate Amanda's sad life in the years following her return to her biological drug addled abusive mother, a strange picture emerges of the person she became. And what does the riddle mean - five people went into a room, two people died, but four came out?

I really enjoy...more 11 years after Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro found Amanda McCready in "Gone, Baby, Gone" she's disappeared again! Russian mobsters are after her as Kenzie and Gennaro hit her trail as well as wannabe gangsters, but as they investigate Amanda's sad life in the years following her return to her biological drug addled abusive mother, a strange picture emerges of the person she became. And what does the riddle mean - five people went into a room, two people died, but four came out?

I really enjoyed this novel, it's fast paced, well written, with some excellent characterisation. Dennis Lehane is a helluva writer who can write action better than some directors shoot it on film and the sequences involving the Russian mafia were exhilarating. He also picks up the tone of the two detectives perfectly from "Gone Baby Gone" almost as if it hadn't been 10 years since we'd seen the characters.

I will say this though - it's not as good as "Gone Baby Gone" or "Prayers for Rain", the storyline isn't strong enough. Neither is it as good as his masterpiece "Shutter Island" or his excellent historical novel "The Given Day", but Lehane on slightly above average is still a great read. The story takes nearly 100 pages to get going and it's over by page 370, the pacing ensuring that you'll be finished with this novel in two, if not one, sittings and that's a definite plus.

The only things that bothered me were the really syrupy lovey dovey nonsense between Kenzie and Gennaro - they're in love with each other, I get it, but does Lehane really have to go on about it? You'll know what I mean when you read it. Those passages aren't many but when they show up it undermines the gritty story and high quality of writing. And the ending... well I'm not 100% sure that's how Russian mobsters as sadistic as those portrayed in this novel would behave but who knows? It's not totally unrealistic but seems a bit unconvincing.

Overall, excellent mystery thriller! Well written, some great characters, an intriguing storyline, and a fast pace in keeping with the genre. While it's not Kenzie and Gennaro's best outing, it's still a good novel and definitely good for several hours' entertainment. Well done Dennis, keep `em coming! (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 16, 2010 Roy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

Lehane writes incredibly easy to read prose. This is the first of his books that I've read. Previously I had only seen movies based on his novels, including Gone Baby Gone which is the prequel to this story. His style can easily be lifted from the page and put on to the screen based on Moonlight Mile, so I'm guessing GBG was a pretty faithful adaptation. As crime novels go, Moonlight Mile holds its own with the finest of the genre. The reader likes and can easily relate to Patrick Kenzie as he r...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, mystery

Someone must have backed the Brinks truck up to the LeHane house because readers are now treated to a sixth book in the series... and you know what? It's pretty darn good. A sequel to what I'm guessing is the most popular book in the initial batch of books, Gone Baby Gone, LeHane makes the inspired choice to age all the characters and put them into new situations that bring out different facets of their already existing characters. I don't want to get into "spoiler" territory or anything but you...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 29, 2010 M.J. Fiori rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: krimi-mystery-thriller-procedural, actually-reviewed

I had hoped against hope that Dennis Lehane would write another Kenzie-Gennaro mystery, but I had no idea he was actually writing one until it suddenly appeared! Here it is - 12 years later in the lives of our beloved Boston-based on-again/off-again detective couple. Not as perfect as 'Gone, Baby, Gone' or even 'Sacred' or 'A Drink Before the War,' but damn good. And the best part is: Angie and Patrick are being forced to re-visit their most infamous and haunting case.

I read the book in 24 hour...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 17, 2013 Neil Mudde rated it 2 of 5 stars

Actually not to sure how to rate this book, the story starts off by talking about a girl who disappeared years ago, and was returned obviously she was not in favor of being returned to her Mother Helene who is a basket case, and certainly not a fit Mother, in the beginning of the book characters are dealt with and portrayed in a sensitive manner, and not wanting to give away the plot for those who have not read it, I am not even sure if you would, in any case there is an involvement of a "Russia...more

like · see review

Feb 21, 2013 Di rated it 2 of 5 stars

I actually looked up Dennis Lehane's wikipedia page in the hopes that I would find out that this was one of his first books. I mean, it was pretty mediocre. Not the kind of book that I couldn't put down, and I didn't really *love* any of the characters. Everyone seemed really hardened by life. Now, I'm not saying I wanted that character that you see so often - girl, mid twenties, soft-spoken, naive, and has no clue about the real world. I find that archetype gets old rather quickly. But it would...more

like · see review

Jan 24, 2013 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

No one writes a thriller quite like Lehane. From the heartbreaking story in Mystic River to the mind-bending twists in Shutter Island, his books are undeniably addictive. He gives the reader so much more than good plot points; he creates powerful characters that feel relatable and real.

This book is the latest installment of the Kenzie and Gennaro series (which includes Sacred, Prayers for Rain, A Drink Before the War, etc.). It is a direct sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone (published in 1999) and you...more No one writes a thriller quite like Lehane. From the heartbreaking story in Mystic River to the mind-bending twists in Shutter Island, his books are undeniably addictive. He gives the reader so much more than good plot points; he creates powerful characters that feel relatable and real.

This book is the latest installment of the Kenzie and Gennaro series (which includes Sacred, Prayers for Rain, A Drink Before the War, etc.). It is a direct sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone (published in 1999) and you really need to read that one first to understand what’s going on. The rest of my review will assume you’ve read Gone, Baby, Gone.

What I’ve always loved about Lehane’s work is his ability to capture and communicate the moral ambiguity of a case without seeming preachy. He tackles impossible issues from the perspective of his “everyman” detective Patrick Kenzie. He faces the darkest corners of society and manages to come out alive, though never completely unscathed.

In Gone, Baby, Gone Kenzie searches for a kidnapped girl named Amanda McCready. When he eventually finds her he struggles with the decision of whether of not to return her to her neglectful mother. He eventually decides that he as to take her back to her parent, but that decision has lasting consequences. At the beginning of this book Kenzie finds out that Amanda, now a teenager, has gone missing again.

I really enjoyed this one because we have the chance to see the characters we’ve grown to love in another phase of life. Patrick and Angie are married and have a daughter. They’re trying to find a stable balance in their lives while still pursuing careers that interest them.

There were a few moments when the novel lost its footing for me. This was mainly when Lehane tried to write like a teenager would speak and when he talked about technology. In both instances the novel felt forced. It wasn’t enough to ruin anything for me; it just took me out of the story for a second.

BOTTOM LINE: This one is a must for fans of the series, but it’s not a great starting point if you’re new to his work. I’d recommend starting with the first Kenzie book, or with either of the stand alone novels Mystic River or Shutter Island.(less)

like · see review

Dec 29, 2012 Tarin Towers rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1980s-historical, 2012, crime, detective, great-dialogue, mystery, sfpl, drugs, organized-crime

A sequel to "Gone, Baby, Gone," which I enjoyed immensely (I gave that book five stars). This book is more convoluted, more madcap, and more violent than its predecessor. I find the main character and his insights really engaging; he's a traditional PI wondering if he should "go straight" and get a day job either with a PI firm or out of the field entirely.

This book plays a lot with what is right and wrong in a world where sometimes right is wrong and sometimes wrong is right. Who gets to decid...more

like · see review

Dec 26, 2012 Nunzia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Premetto che ho letto tutti i libri di Lehane con protagonisti Angie e Patrick e premetto che li ho adorati tutti. Premetto anche che "Gone baby, gone" è stato il primo ed è quello a cui, alla fine, sono più affezionata, sia perché mi ha permesso di scoprire personaggi che ho adorato, sia perché mi piaceva molto il tema e la dicotomia nel concetto di "giustizia".
È per questo che, quando l'ho visto, mi sono subito lanciata a leggerlo.
Non è che proprio non mi sia piaciuto, eh; diciamo che, se aves...more

like · see review

Dec 23, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book features the private investigator Patrick Kenzie and his wife Angie Gennaro. Patrick is doing PI freelance work for a corporate investigative firm, hoping to get hired on permanently, but tired of getting strung along. Angie is going to school nights, working towards a new career.
Twelve years before Patrick took a case that still bothers him. He was hired to find a missing child, 4-year-old Amanda McCready. He did find her and brought her back to a neglectful mother and unhappy home l...more

like · see review

Nov 09, 2012 Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book from the library after always wanting to read a Dennis Lehane book. With the film adaptations of his novels, there is a certain image that came to my mind as to how one of his books would read. Dark. Gritty. Bostony. And I am glad to say that I couldn't have been more pleased.

Interestingly enough, this is the sixth in Lehane's series about private investigators Kenzie and Gennaro, a fact that my propensity to not read book jackets before I embark on a book kept me from know...more I picked up this book from the library after always wanting to read a Dennis Lehane book. With the film adaptations of his novels, there is a certain image that came to my mind as to how one of his books would read. Dark. Gritty. Bostony. And I am glad to say that I couldn't have been more pleased.

Interestingly enough, this is the sixth in Lehane's series about private investigators Kenzie and Gennaro, a fact that my propensity to not read book jackets before I embark on a book kept me from knowing. So, it was a bit of an odd experience to read the last in a series of books, but it all turned out rather pleasantly. It helped that I was familiar with the characters from the movie Gone Baby, Gone. But I didn't even figure out they were the same characters until about a third of the way through the book.

But, on its own right, this book is truly a triumph. It is engrossing and engaging and enthralling, and probably some other en-words, all in one. There are times when it reads like an old-timey private eye story, full of the outlandish descriptions of some dame's legs or flowery similes for a dead guy. But there is a stark realism that comes through in it that makes it hit perfectly.

Though it doesn't have the same weighty moral questions that it's predecessor, Gone Baby, Gone does, it still deals with heavy issues all on its own. More than anything, I was impressed that it was the realistic, current thriller that tied its characters together through their shared economic woes. The main character infiltrates a small-time street gang and blows off someone's hip joint just to retrieve a stolen laptop because he couldn't afford another one. A doctor performs unconscionable deeds in order to pay off a $570,000 loan that he is doomed to never be able to pay back. An precious heirloom is at the center of a heist tale, but it doesn't seem quite valuable enough for all the blood shed in its retrieval. The economy is a major minor character in this book, making its realism all the more realistic.(less)

like · see review

Nov 04, 2012 Sophie Bane rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is Lehane’s sequel to his novel ‘Gone Baby Gone’, which was turned into a successful film by Ben Affleck (approximately 300% less irritating behind a camera than in front of one). I was first introduced to ‘Gone Baby Gone’ by a colleague in children’s services who had seen the film, and was interested to hear my take on the ‘moral dilemma’ at the end – I won’t spoil it for anybody, just read the novel, it’s totally worth it.

Moonlight Mile is definitely one that you will get more out of if y...more This is Lehane’s sequel to his novel ‘Gone Baby Gone’, which was turned into a successful film by Ben Affleck (approximately 300% less irritating behind a camera than in front of one). I was first introduced to ‘Gone Baby Gone’ by a colleague in children’s services who had seen the film, and was interested to hear my take on the ‘moral dilemma’ at the end – I won’t spoil it for anybody, just read the novel, it’s totally worth it.

Moonlight Mile is definitely one that you will get more out of if you’ve read the first book, as much of the narrative in the second is coloured by the repercussions of the decision Patrick Kenzie, the private detective in whose voice the novel is written, made when faced with said moral dilemma. This is one of the main themes of Moonlight Mile, along with what it means to be a good parent, and the question of whether nature can override nurture.

That intro makes it sound like a deeply philosophical work, which it kind of is, but not at the expense of a great plot. Kenzie is approached by the aunt of Amanda McCready, the girl who he was hired to find after her disappearance in ’Gone Baby Gone’. Amanda is 16 now, and she’s gone missing again. The chase for Amanda this time is just as dark as the first, but with different elements – Kenzie finds himself mixed up with the Russian mafia, chasing a stolen ancient artefact, and a bit of baby-farming thrown in.

I found this a really engaging novel, and a lot of that is down to the strong character of Patrick; somebody you can empathise with, and who injects a good level of humour into the book. That can stray sometimes in ways that break the characterisation a little, when he goes into little rants that feel more like Dennis Lehane than his creation; I don’t know whether Lehane has teenage daughters, but the scene where Kenzie goes to talk to Amanda’s classmates is somewhat exaggerated, and the character comes across as a grumpy old Dad of teenagers, rather than a relatively new dad, which is what Patrick is supposed to be.

Patrick and Angie’s relationship has matured somewhat in this novel – they are now married, and have a child together. I think I remember Angie, and their relationship, being a little more unstable and unlikeable in previous novels, but then I read the latest Karin Slaughter novel and realised I might have been thinking of Angie Trent in her Sara Linton/ Will Trent series, so the problem I thought I had with the book (that Angie’s transformation to devoted wife and mother didn’t feel authentic) may be more user-error than an actual problem. It would be good if crime writers had some kind of agreement like Equity, where characters can’t have the same first names…

Anyway, getting back to the book and away from my inadequacies as a reader, the character development in Moonlight Mile is great, particularly of Amanda and the repercussions that Patrick’s decision had on her life and her personality, which felt authentic – though in some places, I thought the way she behaved was too ‘adult’, in ways that conveniently served the plot.

However, the cons of this book are very minor compared to the pros. Like Gone Baby Gone before it, Moonlight Mile is a proper morality tale with good guys and bad guys. That’s not damning with faint praise, and not to say that any of the characters are reductive or simplistic, but just that it’s a novel that wear its ethics on its sleeve, which is no bad thing – it’s even got a bit of a shout-out to same-sex parenting, which makes an interesting contribution to the nature/ nurture theme. There’s a lot of complexity to the book, but it all serves the plot rather than distracting from it. Definitely worth a read, but go for ‘Gone Baby Gone’ first if you want to get the most out of it.
(less)

like · see review

Sep 30, 2012 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have never read anything by Lehane but am a huge fan of his movies - Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island, Mystic River - and his writing did not disappoint!

Moonlight Mile is the sequel to Gone Baby Gone, but it is not necessary to read Gone Baby Gone first (however, to save time, I would highly recommend seeing the movie!). Private investigator Patrick Kenzie is asked to revisit a case he closed 12 years ago, a case that forced him to make a decision that has haunted him for the last decade, a case...more

like · see review

Sep 20, 2012 Coffeecurls rated it 4 of 5 stars

The official blurb: Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from her blue-collar Boston neighborhood. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro risked everything to find her—only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and broken home.

Twelve years later, Amanda, now sixteen, is gone again.

The disappearance of little Amanda was the case that troubled Kenzie and Gennaro more than any other. Still haunted by their consciences, they must now revisit the nightmare that once tore them ap...more

like · see review

Aug 26, 2012 David Piper rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

This book is the last(6th?)of a very good series with private eyes, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. All the books in the series are page-turners. I'm glad Lehane wrapped this up so I can move on to other books by him. (I did already manage to slip in the great Shutter Island, though.)

I can't think of any other author who draws characters as vividly as Lehane does with such efficiency. Depending of the character's importance, the author can sear an impression into the reader's mind in a few par...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 21, 2012 Nadine rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my first Dennis Lehane book. I had avoided him previously because his themes tended toward the dark side. I had seen the movie Gone Baby Gone, and Moonlight Mile is the sequel.

There may be other books in between the two titles, but this book can stand alone. It continues the conflict between what is right and what is legal, what is ethical and what is good. Patrick and Angie still disagree with the outcome of the first book, but have moved past it. That outcome comes back to haunt them.

F...more

like · see review

May 26, 2012 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-crime

This book is Dennis Lehane's 6th Patrick Kenzie, Angie Gennaro book, but the first in about 11 year.

Kenzie and Genaro are 2 private investigators, though in this book, Gennaro's more a bit part play, having gone back to college. In addition, they're married, and have a kid.

At the end of their last book, they had found a kidnapped 4 tear old (Amanda McCready). In this book, she's gone missing again, so her aunt (who'd got Kenzie and Gennaro involved the first time) has got them involved again. Th...more

1 like · like · see review

May 20, 2012 Maryann rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Lehane's work and all mystery fans.

First, I have to admit I am a bit biased when it comes to books by Dennis Lehane. He is one of my favorite authors, and he is one heck of a nice guy. At least he was when I met him at a writer's conference many moons ago. This was before Shutter Island - in fact he was writing that book at the time - and when Mystic River was in production for film. He's had a lot more success since then, so that may have puffed up his ego, but I suspect not.

Moonlight Mile does not have the depth of character an...more

like · see review

May 05, 2012 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Eleven years after the publication of "Prayers for Rain," the presumed last of the five Kenzie-Gennaro novels that started his career, Dennis Lehane produced "Moonlight Mile," a novel that brings our heroes face-to-face with the legacy of a case that nearly wrecked their relationship, documented in the fourth book in the series, "Gone, Baby, Gone."

These years later, the detective team is now one, in several respects. Patrick and Angela are married, with a 4-year-old girl. Angie's out of the biz,...more Eleven years after the publication of "Prayers for Rain," the presumed last of the five Kenzie-Gennaro novels that started his career, Dennis Lehane produced "Moonlight Mile," a novel that brings our heroes face-to-face with the legacy of a case that nearly wrecked their relationship, documented in the fourth book in the series, "Gone, Baby, Gone."

These years later, the detective team is now one, in several respects. Patrick and Angela are married, with a 4-year-old girl. Angie's out of the biz, and Patrick is sticking to cases for corporate types that are safer than the brutal, violent ones of the old days. The Boston couple is trying to stay afloat in a bad economy when they're forced to look into the mirror of their past.

In "Gone, Baby, Gone," the pair "solved" a kidnapping of a 4-year-old girl, in which their opinions split — emphatically — on whether the child was better off being found and returned to a bad parent. Twelve years later, Amanda McCready is a missing 16-year-old, they're asked to find her again, and old ghosts haunt them and old wounds fester.

Lehane's approach here matches that of Patrick Kenzie. Patrick has grown fond of the softer comforts of family life. The author, though certainly not going soft, goes light on fast-paced plot and the extreme sort of brutality seen in older books. Lehane takes it at an older man's pace, stretching out scenes and dialogue instead of taking us, frenetically, down labyrinths of plot. He's more interested this time in portraying the detectives as world-weary, Patrick as a man interested in settling down and loving his family.

In "Moonlight Mile," another girl, an admirer of the world-wise Amanda, also disappears, and Patrick encounters a number of well-drawn family members and others in his investigations. Patrick again enlists his frightening, conscienceless but good-to-have-on-your-side pal, Bubba, and encounters more vile but charismatic bad guys. His search leads to violent Russian mobsters with their own agendas. Patrick has priceless exchanges with a Russian who, while in opposition, clearly admires and likes him. It is in creating characters such as this one — a "bad guy" having fun but on his own brutal path, a real person — that Lehane excels.

Along the way, Lehane's dialogue crackles, stronger than ever, the voice of wiseass Patrick Kenzie a delight. ("His gaze was impersonal. It had been at least three decades since empathy had crawled in there and died.")

Lehane, perhaps cannily, is revisiting here territory that was the basis of a hit movie ("Gone, Baby, Gone," obviously) but the book doesn't seem like a cash-in. Kenzie and Gennaro are older, wiser; their thoughts are about family and future, subjects not always at the top of the list when you're young and full of piss and vinegar. Lehane and his characters use guile, are more prone to contemplation. It works.

"Moonlight Mile" doesn't have the plot zing or the action scenes of other novels in the series, but it has its own rewards. The novel doesn't match the best of the Kenzie-Gennaro books, but it is worthwhile. It could as easily get a 3-star rating but gets 4 stars here, for old time's sake.

My biggest gripe is the mass-market paperback format I read. Whose freaking idea was it to make all these books extra-tall? Hate that. That extra inch or so in height makes these editions look like the first gawky teen in his clique with a growth spurt, looming over everything. Fuck.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Mar 14, 2012 Bridget Petrella rated it 5 of 5 stars

First of all, Dennis Lehane is by far one of the greatest authors of our time. After reading his novel, Prayers For Rain, I was astonished by his innate ability as a writer to sum up a person in a single line. I interviewed Dennis and read the line to him verbatim, "The first time I met Karen Nichols, she struck me as the kind of woman who ironed her socks." What else did you need to know about Karen that Dennis didn't capture in just one line? I simply devoured Prayers for Rain. The dialogue is...more First of all, Dennis Lehane is by far one of the greatest authors of our time. After reading his novel, Prayers For Rain, I was astonished by his innate ability as a writer to sum up a person in a single line. I interviewed Dennis and read the line to him verbatim, "The first time I met Karen Nichols, she struck me as the kind of woman who ironed her socks." What else did you need to know about Karen that Dennis didn't capture in just one line? I simply devoured Prayers for Rain. The dialogue is so snappy, and often so humorous, you don't realize an entire chapter has passed. It took me no time at all to get a sense of Kenzie, Bubba and Ange. These are characters you quickly get to know and care about. Kenzie has a love for the Marx Brothers, and I imagine that comes from Dennis Lehane himself, as the banter between the principals can be very funny. Despite the breezy and punchy style, there's enough darkness to satisfy the hard-boiled. And Moonlight Mile brings us back to the characters we fall in love with...

Moonlight Mile is the first Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro suspense novel in more than a decade from the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane. An explosive tale of vengeance and redemption— the brilliant sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone— Moonlight Mile returns Lehane’s unforgettable and deeply human detective duo to the mean streets of blue collar Boston to investigate the second disappearance of Amanda McCready, now sixteen years old. After his remarkable success with Mystic River, Shutter Island, and The Given Day, the celebrated author whom the Washington Post praises as, “one of those brave new detective stylists who is not afraid of fooling around with the genre’s traditions,” returns to his roots— and the result, as always, is electrifying.

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from her blue-collar Boston neighborhood. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro risked everything to find her, only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and broken home. Twelve years later, Amanda, now sixteen, is gone again. Still haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro must now revisit the nightmare that once tore them apart. Following the trail of a lost teenager into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, and Russian gangsters, they once again put everything that matters to them on the line in pursuit of an answer to a troubling question: Is it possible to do the right thing and still be dead wrong?

Dennis Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He has written eight novels, A Drink Before the War; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island; and The Given Day. Mystic River was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award, and it won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel as well as the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction given by the Massachusetts Center for the Book.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Lehane worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar. He lives in the Boston area... "A Bean Town boy" as he explained. You have to love this guy. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 David Yoon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lehane has somehow avoided the curse of the bad movie adaptation with Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island. He's such a "guys" writer without being cliche. Despite having all the standard set pieces and actors he manages to put them together with an easy familiarity. It doesn't hurt that he has such a keen ear for dialogue (except in the case of teenagers which made me cringe every time) So while I didn't read Gone Baby Gone, I did see the movie, which helped inform the backstory to M...more

like · see review

Oct 22, 2011 RunRachelRun rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries

Ok, since I'm such a rabid fan of Dennis Lehane and wholeheartedly recommend his Kenzie & Gennaro books to everyone and anyone, I'm going to be brutally honest. This, desparingly, is not up to his standards. Two days ago, I had a 9 PM flight from Atlanta to Orlando, and I'm always early for flights, particularly if it's for work - a) it's not my money I'm spending and b) how awful it would be to have to call and say you missed the flight... ugh. So I know that I'm going to have time to brows...more

2 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Angie as a computer whiz?	5	52	Mar 23, 2013 04:26pm

combine
Other Editions (30)

More editions...

Genres

Mystery

266 users

Mystery > Crime

100 users

Thriller

55 users

Mystery > Detective

39 users

Thriller > Mystery Thriller

34 users

Mystery > Noir

27 users

Mystery > Hard Boiled

21 users

Suspense

18 users

Geography > Cities

17 users

Adult

11 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

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

More about Dennis Lehane...

Books by Dennis Lehane

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

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

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Moonlight Mile

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Moonlight Mile

“...I normally can't stand vice-free people. They conflate a narcissistic instinct for self-preservation with moral superiority. Plus they suck the life right out of a party.” — 12 people liked it

“My daughter squealed again and both Bubba and I winced. It’s not an attractive sound, that. It’s high-pitched and it enters your ear canals like hot glass. No matter how much I love my daughter, I will never love her squealing.
Or maybe I will.
Maybe I do.
Driving down 93, I realized once and for all, that I love the things that chafe. The things that fill me with stress so total I can’t remember when a block of it didn’t rest on top of my heart. I love what, if broken, can’t be repaired. What, if lost can’t be replaced.
I love my burdens.” — 9 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Moonlight Mile
avg rating	preview: Moonlight Mile Goodreads rating: 3.65 (8763 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7853757-moonlight-mile?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348606712l/7853757.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7853757-moonlight-mile?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane[/url]

Moonlight Mile (Kenzie & Gennaro #6)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website