È inutile che io cerchi di essere obiettiva con Lehane.Ritrovare il binomio Kenzie-Gennaro dopo due mesi e passa è il calore in persona. Non che loro abbiano da offrire thé, pasticcini e chiacchierate su quanto sia bella la vita, ma è bello sapere che dopo una giornata scolastica sfiancante andrai a letto, aprirai il libro e Kenzie, per quanto abbia veramente bisogno di un antidolorifico per l'anima, sarà lì e continuerà a raccontarti dell'indagine, del suo mondo e di lui ed Angie, senza escludere naturalmente Bubba, Devin, Oscar e tutti gli altri. Sentivo proprio quel momento di relax e il "Allora, dov'eravamo rimasti, cari figaccioni?". Ah, tanto per intendersi, non ammetto altri binomi. Kenzie-Gennaro forever, qualunque altro partner sarà sbattuto fuori a calci in culo dalla sottoscritta. Fidanzatine, compagni occasionali e altre personcine poco gradite: get-out-of-my-story, okay?!Scusate, un momento di irrazionalità totale. Torniamo alla recensione.Secondo me la cosa migliore da fare dopo aver letto un libro di Lehane è..una doccia. Lavarsi via il sudiciume del quartiere malfamato di Boston che Lehane descrive senza riserve, attraverso gli occhi stanchi di Kenzie. Lavarsi via la perversione di certi uomini e la consapevolezza dolorosa che non è tutta una storia, perché c'é gente che uccide con piacere, tanto per fare, con una sorta di filosofia onnipotente. C'é, è inutile negarlo. Lavarsi via i loro cervelli bacati che non comprendono la parola "cuore", "sensibilità", "giusto", "sbagliato" etc. Lavarsi via le loro risate sadiche, stupide ed odiose. Lavarsi via anche i tentativi di prendere i guanti e cercare del buono tra le macerie di quella sorta di mafia. Ci si sente anche stupidi ad aver pensato di poter trarne qualche risultato.Il bello è che quando si chiude il libro si sente l'amarezza di Kenzie, tutte le cose elencate sopra, il viaggio per cercare il bastardo di turno che sta facendo fuori troppa gente, le battutine di Angie e Pat (e in quei momenti penso davvero "ragazzi, vi voglio proprio bene", se non ci fossero momenti del genere sarebbe tutto..troppo nero), il dolore per le parti in cui loro soffrono e si sentono sopraffatti da quell'odore insopportabile di marcio, e sopratutto la favolosa sensazione di aver letto un buon libro. Se non c'è quella, non ha senso, eh eh.Parlando del Figo (Lehane), ha fatto un buon lavoro. Anche se si risente dei bilanci che ha voluto fare nel secondo libro del ciclo. A Drink Before the War resta superiore a questo, che però è quasi una sorta di naturale continuo. Darkness, Take My Hand non supera il suo genitore, ma continua in modo assolutamente degno la storia. Il primo, lo ammetto, non era assolutamente bilanciato, non assomigliava ad un thriller (facilmente intuibile dopo la metà del libro), ma più quasi ad una sorta di introduzione sul mondo di Kenzie. L'elemento thriller passa in secondo piano, e ricordo perfettamente che c'erano molti più spazi dedicati ai personaggi. Qui Lehane fa un sacrificio ed io, che ero stata abilmente sedotta dalla personalità del libro prima, sentivo che mancava qualcosa. L'indagine proseguiva, era stata costruita bene, però mi mancava quella predilezione per l'elemento "personale". L'unicità di Lehane mi era stata quasi tolta ed avevo assunto la faccia delusa di un bambino che si vede dividere la torta a metà per fare una buona azione nei confronti del fratello Thriller. Mammina cara, io vorrei indietro la mia fetta di torta, chi se ne frega se non è così che si fa.Poi naturalmente ho finito per accettarlo e comprendere che i dosaggi sono una cosa buona e giusta. In ogni caso Lehane dimostra che se la sa cavare anche sul punto di vista della "detective story". Non credo che sia fra i migliori, però sa presentarsi bene. Il suo punto di forza è chiaramente l'indagine psicologica, mista alla caratteristica ironia.Io comunque fino a un quarto prima della fine del libro volevo dargli quattro stelle, poi Lehane, che evidentemente ci ha preso gusto, mi ha fregata di nuovo. Niente, non riesco ad essere obiettiva. É colpa sua, non si corrompe così la gente. E comunque credo di aver preso in grande simpatia Burton Bolton di Boston, ma si sa che io ho un debole per gli agenti segreti.
“If you and your partner aren’t civilians and you’re not cops, then what are you?”I shrugged. “Two idiots who aren’t half as tough as we thought we were.” - In media res is a cute little story telling trick where the writer starts in the middle or with the aftermath of the action and then drops hints and clues about what occurs in what you’re about to read. It works really well if it’s some kind series where you already know the characters. I’m a complete sucker for this tactic, and Lehane uses it beautifully in this one.In the first few pages, Patrick Kenzie tells us that he’s been through hell. He’s coping with some serious physical injuries, the detective agency he runs with his best friend, Angie Gennaro, is closed, and he ominously describes her as ‘gone’. Which of course, leaves you immediately worried about what that maniac Lehane did to the two characters he introduced just one book ago. It gives you a nasty feeling of dread as you read the rest of the book and what unfolds is probably worse than what you start fearing when you read Patrick’s introduction.Leading up to that, Patrick and Angie take a case from a female psychiatrist who had a session with a women who claimed to be in abusive relationship with a psycho Irish-mob hitman that the two detectives know from their childhood in their blue-collar Boston neighborhood. The woman disappeared without a trace and the doctor has started receiving threatening phone calls and candid pictures of her college-aged son so she’s worried that the hitman thinks she was told something incriminating and wants to shut her up. There’s also the odd coincidence that the patient told the doctor that her last name was Kenzie, but Patrick isn’t aware of any relatives who match that description. Having to try and get a sadistic mob hitman to leave someone alone is bad enough, but things quickly take an even darker turn that involves a brutal murder and a serial killer who has been in prison for years. Patrick and Angie are usually more than capable of taking care of themselves, but even with the help of the police, the FBI and their pet sociopath Bubba Rogowski, they’ll soon be overwhelmed by the horrific violence targeted at them.One of Lehane’s favorite themes is that violence can be passed along from one generation to the next, and he delves deeply into the legacy-of-violence idea here. It’s also amazing how quickly he dropped some of the standard PI-novel conventions from the first book to this one. P&A are still tough professionals, but there’s much less smart-ass banter and a darker, grittier, more realistic feel to this one. While there’s a bit of a Hannibal Lector-thing going on with the incarcerated serial killer manipulating people, Lehane didn’t let it get out of hand and become distracting. He keeps the focus on Patrick and Angela and delivers a taunt and terrifying thriller in this one. This is not for the squeamish but it never feels gratuitous.
What do You think about Darkness, Take My Hand (1997)?
In this book Patrick has started a relationship with Grace, a young doctor with a daughter, and Angie has divorced Phil. But their life will soon be turned upside down. A psychiatrist hires Angie and Patrick to watch over her son who she is scared is a target by the Irish mafia. But they never imagine what the case will do to their life...This book grabbed a hold on me from the beginning and kept it hold until the end. The first book was good, this book was awesome. The story was tragic, disturbing and thrilling. It’s strange when I’m really into a book, then I don’t know what to write, but when a book is bad, then I have a lot to write. A part of my are still so taken with the story that I’m having trouble leaving Kenzie & Gennaros world behind and move on with another book. But I thought I would wait a bit with Sacred and finish of the other books I have started…but it is hard...4 stars Review also posted on And Now for Something Completely Different and It's a Mad Mad World
—Magdalena
I know I'm supposed to reserve my adoration for authors who are stylistic experimenters, boundary pushers, pioneers in voice and structure. But damn it all if I don't find authors like Dennis Lehane more impressive for how they take familiar genres and breathe life into them. I'll wrestle manfully with the latest Pynchon, for instance, but I won't enjoy it half as much as I enjoyed Darkness, Take My Hand. The second of Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro books, it's a wholly original take on the private detective genre that isn't afraid to go dark, either in the crimes being committed or the lengths the main characters will go to in order to solve them.I think what I find most impressive about this series (I've read the first two after beginning with the fourth, Gone Baby Gone) is how the setting lends the story credibility. I've dabbled with similar series – a few Patterson (which I didn't enjoy), a lot of Sandford and Rankin (which I do) – and one of their shortcomings is the degree to which crazy cases continually fall in the protagonist's lap. Rather than populating his books with a murderer of the week the way Patterson and Sandford do, Lehane grounds the action in narrator Patrick Kenzie's Boston neighborhood. This is especially true of the plot of Darkness, Take My Hand, where Kenzie and Gennaro have to solve a particularly brutal series of murders that seem increasingly to be tied to the characters' shared past. The central mystery doesn't seem like an invention as much as it genuinely seems to be a natural outgrowth of the lives these characters led years before the events in the book take place.Lehane's work here is proof positive that genre fiction can be written with just as much grace, style, and invention as its more critically-lauded counterparts.
—Rob
Don't let the warm, familiar start fool you. The friendships that are built by the early chapters are there only to be torn apart by one of the meanest, cruelest villains you will ever read. There are plenty of dirty and dark secrets to be discovered in this tight Boston community, and you will watch on, enthralled, as each discovery takes its toll - a psychological battering as bad as any physical violence the story metes out. All of this, the violence, the terror, the deception, is orchestrated by an unseen force whose identity is dangled in front of the reader from the beginning, but never known until the perfectly handled reveal. A gripping thriller as good as anything Lehane has written.
—Tim
