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Dennis Lehane wrote the first five Kenzie & Gennaro books between 1994 and 1999. I didn’t discover these books until 2002. However, once I did I read all five books in the first four months of 2002! I had to wait 8 more years until he wrote book 6 in the series! Check it out here!
Needless to say I can’t recommend these books highly enough!
A Drink Before the War – Kenzie & Gennaro #1
A Drink Before the War was my introduction to the gritty, dark world of Boston PIs Kenzie and Gennaro. my post-read thoughts……
From My Reading Journal.
Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro Boston PIs investigating some disappearing documents – leads to child pornography and gang warfare. Great characters. I can’t wait to find another……
From Goodreads (for Context)
Kenzie and Gennaro are private investigators in the blue-collar neighborhoods and ghettos of South Boston-they know it as only natives can. Working out of an old church belfry, Kenzie and Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician: to uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline, a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential state documents. Finding Jenna, however, is easy compared to staying alive once they’ve got her. The investigation escalates, implicating members of Jenna’s family and rival gang leaders while uncovering extortion, assassination, and child prostitution extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of government. More at Goodreads
Read in February of 2002 and it didn’t take long! In March on 20th of 2002 I read DarknesTake My Hand
Lehane won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel for A Drink Before the War
Darkness Take My Hand – Kenzie & Gennaro #2
From My Reading Journal:
For whatever reason my only comment was Another Kenzie and Gennaro book
From Goodreads:
For Master of new noir Dennis Lehane magnificently evokes the dignity and savagery of working-class Boston in Darkness, Take My Hand, a terrifying tale of redemption.
Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro’s latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist, running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know about cold-blooded retribution. Born and bred on the mean streets of blue-collar Dorchester, they’ve seen the darkness that lives in the hearts of the unfortunate. More at Goodreads
The novel was a finalist for the 1997 Dilys Award.
I finished Book #2 on March 2oth of 20002 and started the next book on the same day!
Sacred – Kenzie & Gennaro #3
From My Reading Journal:
Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are hired to find the daughter of Desiree Stone by Trevor Stone.- gone to greif counseling over the death of her mother and boyfriend – along the was PI Jay Becker dies – good couldn’t put down the book! again the characters are great.
Goodreads Description (for context):
Dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to find his missing daughter. Grief-stricken over the death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks. so has the first investigator Stone hired to find her: Jay Becker, Patrick’s mentor.
Patrick and Angie are led down a trail of half-truths and corruption where nothing is what it seems as the detectives travel from the windblown streets of Boston to the sizzling beaches of Florida’s Gulf coast. And the more Patrick and Angie discover, the more they realize that on this case any wrong step will certainly be their last. More at Goodreads
Oops I read the next book I read was Book 5 instead of Book 4 –
Prayers for Rain – Kenzie & Gennaro # 5
From My Reading Journal
Patrick aqnd Angie face aPsychological destroyer.fter ex-client Karen Wright takes a off the top of a building, Bubba and the two take on the madman. But Who’s behind it all?
Goodreads Description (for context):
When Boston private investigator Patrick Kenzie meets Karen Nichols, she strikes him as an innocent from a protected upbringing. But six months later when Karen takes her own life, Patrick is left wondering what can change so drastically and so quickly that suicide seems the only option?
Through the final weeks of a stifling summer, and with the help of his ex-partner, Angela Gennaro, and his friend, the lethally unbalanced Bubba Rogowski, Patrick enters into psychological warfare with a brilliant sociopath who, instead of merely killing his victims, prefers to make them wish they were dead. More at Goodreads
I read my next book in May of 2002 and I went backwards from book # 5 to book #4
Gone, Baby , Gone – Kenzie & Gennaro #4
From My Reading Journal
Amanda McGready kidnapped gone! Angela and Patrick trace it back to a cop who snatches baby’s for others – many twists and turns. good characters – good book!
Goodreads Description (for context):
In this “absolutely gripping” ( Chicago Tribune ) thriller, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane vividly captures the complex beauty and darkness of working-class Boston.
The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. Its territory is defined by hard heads and even harder luck; its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, and dreams. Now one of its youngest is missing. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro don’t want the case. But after pleas from the child’s aunt, they open an investigation that will ultimately risk everything—their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives—to find a little girl lost. More at Goodreads
Moonlight Mile – Kenzie & Gennaro Book #6
After an eight-year gap, Lehane returned to Patrick and Angie — older, married, and still haunted by Amanda McCready.! You can read my thoughts on Moonlight Mile here.
