Live by Night

By: Dennis Lehane

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Edgar Award Winner, Best Novel, 2013

Boston, 1926. The ‘20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world.

Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw.

Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.

©2012 Dennis Lehane (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

Ranks #1 or #2 out of the last 10 read

This story would make a great movie! Their are roles for at least a dozen good actors and enough action to keep you worried, scared, satiated, surprised, etc. The hero is a gangster who earns your support as you learn more about him. He's no angel, but his enemies are worse. I'm pretty certain you will enjoy the trip through his life's encounters.

Great Story!

Would you listen to Live by Night again? Why?

No...I never listen to books twice. Too many new books to listen to.

What did you like best about this story?

Great Characters

Which scene was your favorite?

Several

Good view of an historical age - pre WWII in FL and Cuba

Lehane is a beautiful writer with breathtaking scenes and descriptions. I also like the infusion of history to help keep me learning

First 14 hours were great then

If you could sum up Live by Night in three words, what would they be?

creative insightful wordsmith

Would you be willing to try another book from Dennis Lehane? Why or why not?

I read all of his books because they are delightful to read.

Which scene was your favorite?

Pick one - the prison uprising or the feet of clay

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The devil drinks good rum

Any additional comments?

Horrible ending. Did he run out of words? Did the publisher say we gotta get this on the shelves?

Perfect!

Would you listen to Live by Night again? Why?

I don't generally listen to a book more than once but if I were one to do that, this would certainly be one I would read again.

Any additional comments?

I can't wait for his next book.

Okay...

Better than the first book, but just okay. Lehane is fine, but i just somehow never quite connect with him.

Solid read by Frangione.

Stick it out till the end

Not so original (think Floridian Godfather with the family tradition & intricacies) but sweeping enough to get caught up in.

A Must Listen!!

Where does Live by Night rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Live by Night is the top of the list. I have read a few Dennis Lehane books before and loved them and Live by Night did not disappoint.

What did you like best about this story?

I love the prohibition era and bad guy that you can't help but love.

Any additional comments?

I don't usually listen to books more than once but I will be listening to this one again. It was excellent. I couldn't stop listening. The characters were very well developed and Lehane really knows how to bring the characters to life. The narration was great too - the story flowed very well.

An Excellent Gangster Tale

I was drawn in and stayed there, as caught up in this historical fiction piece as I was with Lehane's introduction to the Coughlin brothers. And while "Live By Night* continues the saga of the Coughlin family, it is quite different from "The Given Day" and gives the reader a gritty look at mob life during prohibition.
Live By Night is solid enough to be a stand alone novel, and a reader certainly need not have read the first to appreciate the rich characters and historical detail.
From Boston to Florida to Cuba , Lehane's story and well-written characters kept me listening !
Great narration... well read and realistically portrayed.

Lehane shows off his skills.

Dennis Lehane knows how to write. I wish he knew when to stop. The first half of this book is the former; the second half the latter. In Part 1 he sets up a good plot among a bunch of gangsters and prison inmates and crime families. There is a cherche the femme aspect of the plot, of course. There is a guy who controls his empire from inside prison walls. So far, so good, However, Part 2 becomes a giant cliche, with the bad guys blasting each others' heads off, along with deathless dialogue. The plot bogs down and sinks into the mire. We begin to forget who is who, and we begin to not give a sh...
Lehane is capable of better than this. I think maybe the pressure to produce a "blockbuster" with each new book presses him to prove Mae West wrong: too much of a good thing is not
great.