Moonlight Mile

By: Dennis Lehane

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Dennis Lehane delivers an explosive tale of integrity and vengeance - heralding the long-awaited return of private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood 12 years ago. Kenzie and Gennaro risked everything to find the young girl - only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.

Now Amanda is 16 - and gone again. Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It's a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal.

In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried, and the crimes of today could end their lives.

©2010 Dennis Lehane (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

i liked this return to an old series

nice to see that Jonathan Davis finally gave patrick kenzie a proper boston accent.

Not what I expected

I'd heard such rave reviews of Dennis Lehane that I was expecting a really terrific detective novel. Characters were thin and plot predictable. I was hoping for another Michael Connelly, and got a hard-boiled Miss Marple. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was really disappointed and don't think I'll look for any more by this author.

Clever Revisit

Odd small inconsistencies among the characters here and past Kenzie and Gennaros. But I don't agree with those who found this so disappointing. I like it that the characters have grown in a decade... No evolved. Like it that they tied together the ends from the past. Definitely felt closure and an end to an extended multi novel epic.

Only one BUT.... don't start with Moonlight MIle. Begin this series from the beginning. It is so cleverly and richly constructed that you'll cheat yourself of a great deal of pleasure if you don't drive this path from its start.

Hard to listen to

If you can't do a passable Boston accent, please don't do it. Mr. Lehane, I would expect you to know better. I am having a hard time taking this book seriously with the this narrator.

Continues Lehane's storyline but a weaker attempt

If you???ve listened to books by Dennis Lehane before, how does this one compare?

This is my least favorite Lehane so far, Still a decent listen but seemed to lack the suspense and depth of the others. Without providing a spoiler it was a weaker ending then I have grown to expect from Lehane.

Good story

I have gotten hooked on this series by Lehane. Patrick and Angie, the excellent dialogue, the characters are wonderful. However, this particular book seems to have been recorded first in the series in spite of being the last written. The result is that Jonathan Davis, whom I loved in the other books, sounds a bit more like Elmer Fudd than Dorchester...the Bostonian R's and other pronunciations are just wrong. But in the later books, the accent is more subtle and Davis' narration really makes for a terrific listening experience. I hope Dennis Lehane hasn't permanently abandoned Boston as a setting for his wonderful writing.

Decent Lehane Story

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I was somewhat disappointed, but it was not a terrible book. I'm not sure I wanted them to have a kid and be "grown ups"

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

Yes, he is one of my favorite writers.

Which character – as performed by Jonathan Davis – was your favorite?

I liked him as all characters except the little girl, he didn't pull that off very well.

Do you think Moonlight Mile needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No.

Boston accent

Jonathan Davis did a great job narrating the five previous books. He shouldn’t have attempted the Boston accent in this one. Huge fail and very distracting to readers who actually have a Boston accent. The attempt added nothing to the story.

Not the Patrick and Angie I know

What did you like best about Moonlight Mile? What did you like least?

The Russian Mobsters. It was always funny to hear them stumble over the English language.

What does Jonathan Davis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He is a great narrator, was good with all the accents except Patrick's. In all the other Dennis Lehane audio books Johnathon didn't do a Boston accent for Patrick, for this one he did and it wasn't good. All the other characters were voiced great.

Any additional comments?

Not at all how I was hoping to say goodbye to Patrick and Angie. I have really enjoyed most of the other books in this series but this one felt like Mr. Lehane was having to write this with a gun to his head. I didn't feel he really cared much about this story and was simply looking to tidy up the series. Not a great way to end with such good characters. I want a Bubba series ASAP!

wishing there had been more than 6

I just discovered Lehane this year (2020) when I picked up Shutter Island at a thrift shop. And I quickly followed that read with this series. I am glad that it happened that way, because the decade long wait between books 5 and 6 would have killed me!

The fourth book Gone, Baby Gone was published in 1998 and was my favorite entry in the series. The book revolved around a missing child who Kenzie & Gennaro were paid to find. That book was devastating to me as the reader and to both Patrick and Angie. In fact it resulted in their separation both as a couple and a partnership. Eventually they found their lives intertwined again, but the case changed them.

In 2010, (twelve years later), Lehane published the final book in the series, Moonlight Mile. Kenzie & Gennaro married and now have a four year old daughter. Patrick is still working as a detective but seems to be only partly in it. He comes off as unhappy in his career choice but struggling to know what else he could do.

And then the case that haunts him takes priority again when they learn that Amanda, who is now 16, is once again missing. The two become tangled in a world of mobsters and teenagers. They are desperate to help this girl and concerned about what it could mean to them.

I was a bit disappointed in this book. It is my least favorite of the series. It felt very much like the author tried to give his fans a resolution and a happy ending. But by doing that he also took away some of the impact of these stories and this relationship. I think this series maybe needed a couple more books between numbers 5 and 6. We deserved to see this couple grow and change and accept each other.

I did love seeing the softer side of Bubba -- his relationship with their daughter was sweet and heartwarming. It is obvious that she brought out the warm and gooey center in this brutal, crazy man. And I was glad to see Kenzie coming to some difficult decisions about his life at the end of the story. It felt like it was overdue.