“‘Hey, it’s nature, right? You live, you die, people cry, and then they think about where they’re gonna eat.’”
Early Dennis Lehane novels are quick and easy to read, perfect for the plane or beaches. His earlier works read more along the lines of James Patterson, with gripping storylines, a tendency to rely on cliché and prose that is in the process of being developed. You can sense the great writer just underneath, during sweeping lines of lofty prose in the midst of rather mundane dialogue; these are glimpses of the writer who truly arrived with "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island."
But "Prayers for Rain" falls into the former category, written in '99, and introducing me to the detective duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. This novel is the last in the five-book series of Kenzie-Gennaro tales, and features a gripping opening that is somewhat surreal. The writing is good, and even though Lehane tends to rely on a few too many clichés here, he does slide in some humor. The character of Bubba is a bit too much of a goodfella from Central Casting and some of the technology feels a bit dated now (again, written a decade ago), but there is no argument that Lehane spins a great yarn.
His early description of Kenzie's client, Karen Nichols, was tremendous:
“The first time I met Karen Nichols, she struck me as the kind of woman who ironed her socks … She had a stuffed animal collection, I was pretty sure. Her totaled Corolla had either a smiley face or a Jesus fish affixed to the bumper. She read John Grisham novels, listened to soft rock, loved going to bridal showers, and had never seen a Spike Lee movie.
“She had never expected anything like this to happen in her life.”
There was also an unexpectedly funny (and apropos?) description of the name Scott:
"I had to work at it to begin thinking of him as Scott and not Wesley. The name Wesley had fit him—patrician and haughty and cold. Scott seemed too bland and middle class. Wesley was the name of the guy you knew in college who was captain of the golf team and didn't like blacks at his parties. Scott was the guy who wore tank tops and loud baggy shorts, organized pickup games, and puked in the back of your car."
I finished "Prayers for Rain" in just a couple of days, and the riveting ending leaves you ready to read the next Kenzie-Gennaro tale. There is little question that Lehane has evolved as a writer, but one hopes that the somewhat unanticipated commercial and cinematic success of movies like "Gone Baby Gone," "Mystic River" and the soon-to-be-released "Shutter Island" don't lead to a diminishment of his writing skills. One hopes that, in the future, Lehane occasionally returns to his Kenzie-Gennaro roots … which may not be as refined, but may just be a little more fun.
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