Darkness, Take My Hand (33 page)

DENNIS LEHANE is the author of A Drink Before the War, which won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; and the New York Times bestsellers Mystic River and Shutter Island. A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, he lives in the Boston area.

www.denislehane.com

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“Lehane is one of those brave new detective stylists who is not afraid of fooling around with the genre’s traditions.”

Washington Post Book World

“It’s got the mark of a master, the kind of direct, clear but nuanced prose that carries the reader long into a believable (and extremely violent) world.”

Milwaukee Sentinel

“Outstanding…unpredictable…Lehane’s voice, original, haunting and straight from the heart, places him among the top ranks of stylists who enrich the modern mystery novel.”

Publishers Weekly
, starred review

“Stunning and shocking, relentless and terrifying…
Darkness, Take My Hand
is everything a contemporary crime novel ought to be and more. It’s creepy, chaotic, uncomfortable, and riveting. It’s funny too, but you’re almost afraid to laugh. You may want to put this book down to catch a breath, but you won’t be able to.”

John Dufresne, author of
Louisiana Power & Light

“An explosive story…heartstopping…terrifying…Lehane’s perfectly crafted plot leers, teases, taunts, and lulls, scattering bits of humor and heartbreak among the soul-chilling episodes of death and destruction. A tour de force from a truly gifted writer.”

Booklist
, starred review

“For Lehane, local color is not mere decoration but the very wellspring of character and thus of action. His thriller grabs us with its blunt talk and breathtaking pace, but what leaves a lasting impression is the brooding authenticity of its atmosphere.”

Boston Globe

“A crackling thriller, which could have been scripted by Raymond Chandler had his beat been Boston’s Back Bay instead of Brentwood, California…A sense of place as palpable as the pungent tang of garlic in the North End air, haunting characters, and a gracefully elegiac style that lingers long after you’ve closed the covers.”

People

“A truly excellent book…it gets my vote as crime novel of the year…. Lehane is an enormously gifted writer, perhaps one of the best two or three hard-boiled authors to come along in the last decade…His prose is that good, his characters are that well drawn, and his story is that well told.”

Mostly Murder

“It took only two books for Dennis Lehane to stake out the blue-collar suburb of Dorchester as prime territory for a new private-eye series…The author nails the distinctive accents and character traits of the all-too-human working stiffs who pace out their lives between Carney Hospital and the Black Emerald bar.”

New York Times Book Review

“Terrifying…The passion of Lehane’s neighborhood nightmare can hardly be denied. And he’s created a villain who’s both surprising and grimly fascinating: the kind of figure one hates but can’t stop reading about.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Masterful…gritty and sometimes hilarious…If Mr. Lehane proved last time out he knows what he is doing stylewise, in this book he adds the substance.”

Washington Times

“I’m betting Lehane is going to be a name to reckon with in years to come.”

James W. Hall

Books by
Dennis Lehane

S
HUTTER
I
SLAND

M
YSTIC
R
IVER

P
RAYERS FOR
R
AIN

G
ONE
, B
ABY
, G
ONE

S
ACRED

D
ARKNESS
, T
AKE
M
Y
H
AND

A D
RINK
B
EFORE THE
W
AR

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND
. Copyright © 2006 by Dennis Lehane. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Epub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2006 ISBN: 9780061807992

Version 08312012

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