A Drink Before the War - A Kenzie and Gennaro Thriller #1 (Dennis Lehane)

A Drink Before the War - A Kenzie and Gennaro Thriller #1

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: Summer in Boston.

The week before Independence Day. A city steeped in history and racial strife. A city abut to be ripped apart by an unspeakable scandal and a raging gang war...

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are tough private investigators who know the blue-collar neighbourhoods and ghettos of Boston's Dorchester section as only natives can. Working out of an old church belfry, Kenzie and Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician: uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline, a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential Statehouse documents.

But finding Jenna proves easy compared to staying alive once they have. 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 state government.

ISBN: 9780553820546 (Paperback)

Year: 1994

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 334 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page on the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Goodreads page for the book

4. Author's official site

5. Review of the book

The Given Day (Dennis Lehane)

The Given Day

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, The Given Day tells the story of two families - one white, one black...

Beat cop, Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most powerful police captains, is on the hunt for hard-line radicals. Drawn into the political fray, he soon finds his loyalties compromised. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss, works for the Coughlin family, all the while desperately trying to find a way home to his pregnant wife.

As Danny, Luther and those around them face increasingly turbulent times, they are forced to ride a rising storm of hardship and deprivation that will change their lives forever.

Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the age, Dennis Lehane's masterly new novel explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in thrall of, itself.

ISBN: 9780552775588 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Black Swan

Pages: 733 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of the book

4. Another review

5. Wikipedia page for the author

Sacred (Dennis Lehane)

Sacred

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: Grief stricken over the accidental death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks - and so has the first investigator her father hired to look for her. And when the dying billionaire hires Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to continue the search for his missing daughters, they find that nothing is remotely what it seems.

Travelling from the windblown streets of Boston to the rum-punch sunsets of Florida's Gulf Coast and back again, they search for a woman and a man who could be saints or sinners, victims or victimizers, alive or dead. And the more Patrick and Angie discover, as they are led down a trail of half-truths and corruption into a dark and terrifying world, the more they realise that on this case, any wrong step will certainly be their last.

ISBN: 9780553818260 (Paperback)

Year: 1997

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 447 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official page

4. Review of the book

5. An interview with the author

Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane)

Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando.

As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C?

The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane...

ISBN: 9780553824483 (Paperback)

Year: 2003

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 414 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Author's official page

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Review of the book

5. Google books page for the book

Bad As I Wanna Be (Dennis Rodman with Tim Keown)

Bad As I Wanna Be

Dennis Rodman with Tim Keown

Blurb: Fifty percent of life in the NBA is sex. The other fifty percent is money. On an April night in 1993 I sat in the cab of my pickup truck with a rifle on my lap, deciding whether to kill myself. I don't expect Scottie Pippen to forgive me for what I did to him. I don't expect him to forget about it either. I've been homeless. I've worked at 7-Eleven. I'm a real person, with real experiences, not some image that somebody in the NBA office created. When you talk about race in basketball, the whole thing is simple: a black player knows he can go out on the court and kick a white player's ass. I used to go through the whole routine - dress up, wear makeup, act like a girl. Those guys in San Antonio can kiss my ass, especially Gregg Popovich, the general manager...Popovich wanted to be the guy who tamed Dennis Rodman. Madonna looked at me all sexy and said, 'You're staying with me, in my room.' How much do you really want to win when you have as much money, attention, and fame as Shaquille O'Neal does? White women get into relationships with black men because they think the sex is going to be better. I knew I would have been just another nigger if I didn't play basketball. I wanted to be white because I was black, and black was never the right colour. I left the table-by-myself-and went to see Madonna. We were in a stairwell, and she was saying, 'You love me. You want to be with me. Leave with me right now and forget your girlfriend.' The Spurs might be more of a basketball team if David Robinson didn't freeze every time they play a big game. You're going to have to find a way to stop me on your own, bro, and nobody's found it yet.

ISBN: 0733800556 (Paperback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 259 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Author's Wikipedia page

3. Review of the book

4. Google books page

5. Rotten Tomatoes page for the documentary of the same name

That's Ambitious: More Classic Commentary (Dennis Cometti)

That's Ambitious: More Classic Commentary

Dennis Cometti

Blurb: A follow-up to the best-selling 'Centimetre Perfect?' Some would say, 'That's Ambitious'.

From one of the most respected AFL commentators, this is another collection of Dennis Cometti's favourites, some having waited for years to bob up like corks in the ocean. There's no question of accuracy here, lots of quick thinking in heavy traffic, and centimetre perfect delivery every time.

Dennis muses about huddle breath, tries out a Billy Connolly accent, reminisces about old Eagles songs, reveals his favourite team jumper, and, in his trademark style, impresses with his extensive knowledge of the AFL game, its players and trivia.

This is definitely one for the time capsule.

ISBN: 9781741752755 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Pages: 136 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Google books page

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Fishpond

4. Publisher's page for the book

5. Buy from Boffins