Hold On

Sacred by Dennis Lehane

This was different from the first two books in the series. For starters, Kenzie and Gennaro had to be brought out of semi-retirement for the case. The two of them are different people than they had been in A Drink Before the War and Darkness, Take My Hand. One of the things I love most about the series is that Kenzie and Gennaro are affected by their experiences. Their cases damage them emotionally and, as a result, we see the result of these changes book by book.

This time around, the two detectives travel up and down the Atlantic coast on a twisted case that makes no sense to either of them. The only thing that does make any sense to them is each other.

Once again, I praise Dennis Lehane for the way he writes his characters. Patrick and Angie continue to be real, which becomes a more difficult task the longer one writes about the same people. The characters introduced in Sacred, some of whom are old to Kenzie and Gennaro while being new to us, are fleshed out in such a way that we get to know them to a point that we can believe and understand their actions. There is nothing worse than being forced to take a characters personality at the word of the author; it makes his/her actions fake to some degree. Not so in Sacred. Had Lehane failed in this, the entire novel would have been a failure. There are so many twists and turns--even the detectives say, "black is white...up is down"--that the reader must fully buy into the characters in order for the story to be at all believable.

What this book is really about, though, goes back to the second paragraph of this review. This book is about two people, the love they share, and what they can and will do for each other. This book is about how man cannot survive alone, but is meant to live with others. Sacred is the story of togetherness over individualism. Patrick and Angie have shown throughout the series that they will stop at no ends to save each other. It is only that level of commitment that allows them to survive this case.

I love these stories. They are multi-layered, fast, and fun.

B+