Dennis Lehane won a Shamus Award for A Drink Before the War, his first book about working-class Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. His second in the series, Darkness, Take My Hand, got the kind of high octane reviews that careers are made of. Now Lehane not only survives the dreaded third-book curse, he beats it to death with a stick. Sacred is a dark and dangerous updating of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, as dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires Kenzie and Gennaro to find his daughter, Desiree. Patrick's mentor, a wonderfully devious detective named Jay Becker, has already disappeared in St. Petersburg, Florida, while working the case, so the two head there to pick up a trail. Desiree, of course, is nothing like the sweet and simple beauty described by her father, and even Chandler would have been amazed by the plot twists that Lehane manages to keep coming.


From School Library Journal
YA?Dying billionaire Trevor Stone has his thugs kidnap sleuths Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro and bring them to his mansion so he can hire them to find his missing daughter, Desire. She is supposedly grief-stricken over the death of her mother and the impending death of her father but it becomes clear that she may not be the sweet and beautiful daughter her father describes. Patrick's mentor, Jay Becker, was the first investigator on the case but he has also disappeared. Patrick and Angie follow the trail to Florida after a brief encounter with a group of religious swindlers who may be involved with the disappearances. Every person they meet adds more confusion and conflicting information to the puzzling case. The intricate mystery of the changing identity of Desire, dangerous car chases, bloody shoot-outs, and the humorous dialogue between Patrick and Angie, all with subtle romantic overtones, will keep YAs happily turning pages.?Katherine Fitch, Lake Braddock Middle School, Burke, VACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are kidnapped by dying billionaire Trevor Stone and forced to find his lost daughter, they become entwined in a vicious whodunit in which "up is down and north is south." The case takes them to Grief Release Inc., a Boston-area church/cult whose members purge their sins, secrets, and financial records; then, accompanied by Stone's henchmen, to Tampa, Florida, where a top-of-the-line sports car and all the money they can spend are put at their disposal. Kenzie and Gennaro ditch it all to continue the search on instinct in a cheap convertible. When the detectives finally find their prize, the perfecto, leggy Desiree Stone, she turns out to be much more than they bargained for. With its fast-paced plot, Lehane's (Darkness, Take My Hand, LJ 7/96) newest will be a winner with adventure buffs.-?Ahmad Wright, "Library Journal"Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
Kenzie's boyish antics have broader scope in Sacred, which takes him and his street-tough female partner to Florida.... Driven by a fast-paced, twisting plot, these two keep up a flippant commentary on the foreign life-forms while engaging in some bruising tussles with a sinister group of religious swindlers who may or not be the villains in the piece. It's all very lively and entertaining, but miles from home.


From Booklist
A wealthy widower hires a team of private investigators to find his missing daughter . . . and, while they're at it, to locate the last private investigator he hired to find her. Soon the detective team of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro find themselves hip deep in confusion and paranoia, with no idea who (or what) to believe. This is Lehane's third novel (following Darkness, Take My Hand [1996] and the Shamus Award^-winning A Drink before the War [1994]), and it's devilishly twisted, a kind of Elmore-Leonard-meets-The-Sting in which everyone is trying to con everyone else. The characters are well drawn (especially the billionaire and his daughter, who keep revealing new things about themselves, right up until the last scene), the mystery perplexing (it involves, among other things, a religious cult), and the conclusion deeply satisfying. Sacred is a first-class novel that will delight anyone who loves an intricate mystery. David Pitt


From Kirkus Reviews
The kidnapping really should have tipped them off. You can't have much of a relationship with a client who grabs you off the street, drugs you, and ties you to a couple of chairs while he makes his pitch. But dying billionaire Trevor Stone, whose wife is dead and whose daughter has disappeared, is obviously a man in pain, and the $50,000 retainer he offers (plus $200,000 for expenses) goes a long way to soften the insult. So Boston shamus Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, his partner, friend, and sometime lover, agree to follow Patrick's vanished mentor Jay Becker into the darkness surrounding beautiful, depressed Desiree Stone, and soon--with only a brief intermission for a lovely farewell bash for their prison-bound buddy Bubba Rogowski-- they're tangling with fraudulent grief counselors, a clever and vindictive IRS computer geek, and the Church of Truth and Revelation. And that's only the beginning, since the trail of Desiree's last known companion leads to Tampa, where the serious corpses will start to pile up, and where they'll finally get an inkling of the true relationship between their megalomaniac client and his anaconda-like daughter, ``a No‰l Coward play that had been rewritten by Sam Shepard.'' Lehane's barn-burning third novel (Darkness, Take My Hand, 1996, etc.) packs enough beatings, betrayals, unmaskings, resurrections, smart talk, and untrustworthy people for the most jaded palate. If you haven't discovered this gifted newcomer yet, you'd better hurry before his ship of fools and knaves casts off without you. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


The New York Times Book Review
"Lively and entertaining . . . Driven by a fast-paced, twisting plot."


James W. Hall, author of Buzz Cut
"I'm betting Lehane is going to be a name to reckon with in years to come."


Andre Dubus
"Young Lehane is rapidly climbing the mountain of detective fiction upon whose peak rests James Lee Burke."


People
"Menace charges the atmosphere of this crackling thriller."


Michael Connelly
"Lehane's voice is an original. He turns the hard-boiled detective novel into an elegiac treatise on the corruption of the soul."


San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
"...an utterly relentless yet ultimately affirming examination of urban malaise and anxiety... [A] searing debut."


The Boston Sunday Globe
"...grabs us with its blunt talk and breathtaking pace, but what leaves a lasting impression is the brooding authenticity..."


Book Description
The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane brilliantly interweaves beauty and violence, integrity and evil in this thrilling, powerfully resonant novel.

A beautiful, grief-stricken woman has vanished without a trace. So has the detective hired to find her. And a lot of money. Enter saavy, tough-nosed private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Rooted in the no-nonsense streets of Boston's blue-collar Dorchester, they've seen it all -- and survived. But this case leads them into unexpected territory where nothing is sacred -- a land of lies and corruption where trusting anyone could get them killed ... where taking any step could be their last.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This thriller begins when dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Genaro to find his missing daughter. Grief stricken over the accidental death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks. So has the first investigator Stone hired to find her: Jay Becker, Patrick's mentor. As Patrick and Angie begin their search, they are led down a trail of half-truths and corruption into a world in which a therapeutic organization may be fronting for a dangerous and seductive cult, a high-tech private investigation firm may be covering up lethal crimes, and a stolen cache of millions in illegal funds may be tied to both disappearances and a tanker full of heroin.

FROM THE CRITICS

Michael Connelly

Lehane's voice is an original. He turns the hard-boiled detective novel into an elegiac treatise on the corruption of the soul.

Andre Dubus

Young Lehane is rapidly climbing the mountain of detective fiction upon whose peak rests James Lee Burke.

People

Menace charges the atmosphere of this crackling thriller.

New York Times Book Review

Lively and entertaining . . . Driven by a fast-paced, twisting plot.

James W. Hall