Mystic River

By: Dennis Lehane

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car drove up their street. One boy got in the car, two did not, and something terrible happened - something that ended their friendship and changed the boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay - demons that urge him to do horrific things.

When Jimmy's daughter is murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood. While Sean attempts to use the law to return peace and order to the neighborhood, Jimmy finds his need for vengeance pushing him ever closer to a moral abyss from which he won't be able to return.

©2001 Dennis Lehane (P)2003 HarperCollins Publishers

Multi Faceted Story, well written

I found the first few chapters rather dull and a bit hard to follow. A lot of characters introduced. Hard to keep them categorized. But after that, the story takes off and it’s difficult to put it down. Enjoyed it. Off to watch the film now.

Desperately Lacking the Boston Accent

Would have benefited immensely from a narrator with a Boston accent. It hurt hearing so much of the “r” in “Jimmy Marcus”. Still adequate. I made it through to the end, but missed opportunity.

Darkly compelling.

This is not a crime novel for the faint of heart. The story spans generations and shows how a single evil act can have broad repercussions. Megan's is a truly gifted writer. My only caveat is a conversation in which a character opines that children who are molested invariably become molesters themselves.

Punches you in the face!

I hit a dry spell in finding new novels that would engage my interest. As a result, I started searching for notable American novels I missed during the height of their popularity. Mystic River shows up on every book critic’s top 25 lists of great American modern novels. Since I had not seen the movie, I gave it a listen.

It would be misleading to characterize Mystic River (MR) as a murder mystery or detective story. Any reader who watched more than three episodes of “Law & Order” will figure out the mystery of MR by the end of the fourth chapter. The value of MR comes in the author’s, Dennis Lahane, skills at making the reader feel the anguish of the characters and intensity of the storyline. MR is a dark serious drama devoid of humor. The three main characters carry a deep sense of misery and psychological trauma that cannot be conventionally expressed due the machismo cultural standards of South Boston. The culture of machismo results in a basic breakdown in social communication, isolation, rejection, and pointless death. Lahane expertly takes the reader into an insular community where most of us would rarely venture. MR is always moving toward the conclusion, where the reader feels a tension similar to watching a car speeding obliviously in the wrong direction of a busy one way street and waiting for the eventual crash. The drama of the book occurs as characters rush to judgments based on community standards and spurious information.

Although the audio book runs roughly 15 hours, every detail is important to understanding the eventual finale. The interplay between the environment and characters makes this book special. After completing the book I watched the film. MR the movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, is almost 100% faithful to the book in plot and tone. I recommend reading MR instead of watching the film to capture Lahane’s masterful writing. However, if you already watched the film, the book will lose much of its punch.

Captivating

Probably the best crime drama I've ever read. Narrator was terrific. Captivating from beginning to end.

phenomenal edge-of-your-seat horror murder mystery

I've only read one other Lehane book--The Given Day--which was great but didn't keep me on the edge of my seat. This book combines enough characterization to make us care about the characters as individuals with horror/murder and the classic whodunit mystery to avoid being cheesy and to get me to clean house until the book was finished. Narration was perfect for this book. Don't think I'd care anything about seeing the movie--it couldn't improve on this book with this narrator. (Someone mentioned bad stuff happening to children--a good caveat, since even The Walking Dead doesn't gratuitously off kids--but in this case the lives of the children in the story are an integral part of the story and actually constitute some of the most important tragic elements. Without spoilers let's just say bad things do happen to kids, but not indiscriminately and not like they would in some sort of sick Halloween-horror flick.) This book could perhaps best be classified as a suspense-filled Greek tragedy.

...

5 if you haven't seen the movie
4 if you have
worth the read either way

Yes, the Book is Better!

Mystic River was made into a movie in the early 90's and it was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. It was a really good movie and I remember being enthralled by it and the story it told. Then, not too long ago, I saw Dennis Lehane's name on list of mystery writers not to miss. Listed among his best works was Mystic River. Remembering the movie, I decided to listen to the book. From the first few words I was blown away by the excellence of the writing, the vivid descriptions, not only of places, but of people's pysche's and their hopes and fears. The book was a rich, revealing experience into a world I have missed in person but read about and seen on numerous movie screens. It's about life on the East Coast in the many small communities where loyalties run deep and where the ethnic identities of the residents are an all important part of their relationships. It's a working class world, where small time crime is often an additional income to a family. The horrific murder that is at the core of this book is puzzling and challenging to the detective, a neighborhood boy and childhood friend of the murdered girl's father. As the solving of the crime unfolds, we see the pain and suffering and love and misunderstandings of the characters made so real. It is one of those books to which you will not want to stop listening.

Mystic River

Scott brick does a wonderful job with narration in this book. I really enjoyed the long book because it helped me understand more about the movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

Awesome!

I gotta give everybody 5 stars here. Story was great, narrator was great. Well done!