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

by Dennis Lehane

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are tough private investigators who know the blue-collar neighbourhoods and ghettos of Boston's Dorchester section as only natives can. Working out of an old church belfry, Kenzie and Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician: to uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline, a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential Statehouse documents.
But finding Jenna proves easy compared to staying alive. The investigation escalates, uncovering a web of corruption extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of state government.

With slick, hip dialogue and a lyrical narrative pocked by explosions of violence, A Drink Before the War confronts a city in which institutionalized bigotry and corruption are often the norm, and the true nature of 'racial incidents' is rarely clear. Dennis Lehane's remarkable debut is at once a pulsating crime thriller and a mirror of our world, one in which the worst human horrors are found closest to home, and the most vicious obscenities are committed in the name of love.

• ISBN10: 0156029022
• ISBN13: 9780156029025
• Publish Date: 15 September 2003 (first published 1 November 1994)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Mariner Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 300
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

I've read a couple of Lehane's books already, including a later book in this series, and so far I've liked everything I've read. This series has a nice noir feel to it, especially with the couple of private detectives having their office in the bell tower of a church. I like Kenzie and Gennaro's relationship, complicated as it may be. I also like Kenzie's gutsiness. The politics in this book could just as easily be written about today, and I always appreciate the Boston setting. This is a series I'll actually finish someday.