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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Prayers for Rain (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780380730360
ISBN: 0380730367
Label: HarperTorch
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2000-05-01
Publisher: HarperTorch
Release Date: 2000-05-02
Studio: HarperTorch
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Editorial Reviews:
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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-destruction. What he finds is a sadistic stalker who targeted the young woman and methodically drove her to her death. A monster the law can’t touch. But Kenzie can. He and his former partner, Angela Gennaro, will fight a mind-twisting battle against this psychopath even as he turns his tricks on them.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: "We need stuff. Illegal stuff."
Comment: Never one to be deterred by legal "technicalities" when he solves his cases, Patrick Kenzie, a Boston private detective, is up to his eyeballs in his own problems when Karen Nichols asks him to stop a stalker. Kenzie and his long-time partner/sometimes lover Angie Gennaro have worked together in four previous Dennis Lehane novels, but they have now split, and Kenzie is at loose ends. After solving Karen's problem, he ignores a later phone call, then reads six months later that she has jumped to her death. Thinking that she must have had a new problem that he was too "busy" to investigate, he wonders if he might have contributed to her death and feels honor bound to find out why she jumped.
As Kenzie investigates Karen's background and family, he turns up what may be the most dysfunctional family situation ever created. But he also discovers that Karen led a totally different life at the time of her death than the seemingly innocent and vulnerable life she led just six months before. Her mother and stepfather are unfazed by her death--and no one misses her or mourns her--except Kenzie, who is more curious than mournful. Teaming up once again with Angie, who helped him with an early aspect of the case, he continues his investigation, eventually calling upon Bubba Rogowski, another old friend, for help. Rogowski, a Vietnam War vet with "lobster tails" of scars on his chest and hidden shrapnel within his chest, has even bigger scars and "shrapnel" within his psyche.
As Kenzie uncovers Karen's long-time psychiatric problems and their origin within her family, the suspense ratchets up. Karen's little half-sister died at the age of four, and her stepbrother Wesley has had no contact with the family for ten years. Kenzie's insatiable curiosity about the family leads to new information that complicates what might have been a relatively straightforward case of family dysfunction and turns it into a case of manipulation, psychological warfare, and emotional torture.
Lehane, an absolute master of suspense, juggles plot lines and complications with aplomb, in the process creating intense scenes filled with local color and oddball details. As his characters face (and create) scenes of stomach-turning violence (and even sadism), the focus remains on people, not violence for its own sake. Though no one can claim that these are all rounded characters, they are usually unique, so fascinating that the reader always feels their behavior to be at least plausible--for them. As the plot lines converge, the novel winds up to a wild conclusion, filled with violence and several big surprises. One of Lehane's early (1999) novels, this one shows all the promise that he continues with Mystic River and Shutter Island. n Mary Whipple
The Given Day: A Novel
Darkness, Take My Hand (Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro Novels)
Sacred
A Drink Before the War
Gone, Baby, Gone (Harper Fiction)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not Great, Not bad
Comment: My first of the Gennaro/Kenzie series, my 2nd Lehane novel. Lehane has a great reputation but after reading this and Shutter Island I have not yet been blown away. They both start off very strong but fail to deliver in the end. For "Prayers" I was disappointed in the direction of the 2nd half of the book. Starts off intruiging but plateaus and does not sustain the same level of suspense throughout. It was OK.
Customer Rating:
Summary: confusing and implausible
Comment: This book was fun to read and well written. Lehane creates colorful characters, and makes them seem extremely lifelike. But this book is excessively violent, and the ultimate "reveal" is simply not believable. Nor are many of the plot twists along the way. Reading this book is like guzzling a 6 pack of diet soda -- tastes good going down, but leaves you feeling empty and slightly dirty inside.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A disappointment from Lehane
Comment: I was expecting more from Dennis Lehane after reading the epic "Gone Baby, Gone", the multilayered "Mystic River" and the hypnotic "Shutter Island". "Prayer for Rain" is good but it is also a run of the mill piece of work. In hindsight, I can understand why Lehane hasn't reunited Kenzie and Gennaro since this thriller was published back in 1999.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another winner
Comment: Dennis Lehane deserves all the praise he receives. He is truly a master writer and story teller. He always delivers a well-written, strongly plotted and entertaining story. Prayers for Rain ranks up there with Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River. This book is dark, gruesome, violent and riveting. It's well paced and Lehane provides a number of twists and turns, as usual. Nothing, however, comes out of left field. Everything makes sense once investigator Patrick Kenzie and his partner Angela Gennaro answer the dangling questions. You'll race through this book.
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