A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR
By Dennis Lehane

Sherman Alexie:

My favorite novel [this year] is a mystery called A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR ... Set in Boston, and featuring a wonderful pair of private detectives in Patrcik Kenize and Angela Gennaro, this first novel is a racially charged, violent, humorous, and tragic work. Lehane is not afraid to be nakedly political, didactic even, while offering us a thrilling ride through the mean streets of Boston. Read this guy now and you'll be able to brag about it later when his career really takes off.

John Dufresne:

Reading A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR is like watching Robert B. Parker and John Updike duke it out phrase by phrase on some steamy night in Boston's Combat Zone. Christ, Lehane writes beautiful sentences!

Booklist:

A terrific first novel and, one hopes, the beginning of a superb series.

Kirkus Reviews:

A lively debut about residents of the Boston metropolitan area who don't summer in Hyannisport.