Mystic River
Almost every scene of this gritty, realistic mystery takes places within a few miles of my house, but I've rarely seen them and I confess the terrain of Pen Channel and Buckingham are as distant, for me, as the Sentier or Keams Canyon. This mystery starts slow and then bogs down, as terrible things happen slowly to people who deserve better (and sometimes worse). The novel is redeemed in the end by a brilliant epilogue, for once the mystery is resolved Lehane is finally free to let his characters live,