I love Dennis Lehane's books. A Drink Before the War and The Given Day are two of the best books I've ever read. Sacred was a good book, but it didn't have the punch that his other books have had. What I like about his books is that he always interweaves and exposes social prejudices, and the heroes of the books discover their own dark sides in regard to the issues. The books don't preach at you, but through the characters, prejudices are exposed, analyzed, evaluated, and the heroes realize that, while they initially thought they were above the issues, they have their own prejudices to acknowledge and deal with. But they acknowledge and deal with them honestly. Sacred was lacking this important piece of Lehane's best writing. It was just a story. A well-written, interesting story, but it just fell a little flat. I won't think about, ponder, and miss it the way I do some of his other books.