Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro #5)by Dennis Lehane
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads
Synopsis:
The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston’s gritty blue-collar streets.
Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why a former client, a perky woman in love with life, could, within six months, jump naked from a Boston landmark—the final fall in a spiral of self-destruction. What he finds is a sadistic stalker who targeted the young woman and methodically drove her to her death. A monster the law can’t touch. But Kenzie can. He and his former partner, Angela Gennaro, will fight a mind-twisting battle against this psychopath even as he turns his tricks on them.
You wanted to play? Well, hide-and-seek is over. Let the real games begin, motherfucker.
I can’t say this is exactly what I wanted it to be….because it wasn’t. But not for one minute did I not enjoy it. Is that weird? This book took me a week to read, which doesn’t bode well for what I thought of it-But then I take into account how busy, tired, meh I’ve been and it about evens out with my mood. The verdict?? When I felt a distance at the beginning, I should have stopped.
I drank some more Beck’s, fingered the cardboard coaster, felt a grin fighting to break across my face. I glanced at Angie. The corners of her mouth twitched, too.
“Don’t look at me,” she said.
“Why not?”
“I’m telling you-” She lost the battle and closed her eyes as the smile broke across her cheeks.
Mine followed about a half second later.
“I don’t know why I’m smiling,” Angie said.
“Me, either.”
“Prick.”
“Bitch.”
She laughed and turned on her chair, drink in hand. “Miss me?”
Like you can’t imagine.
“Not a bit,” I said.
I’ve been in no mood for tedious and detailed books seeing as I am tired beyond reason all the time now, and when I picked this up and felt like I was getting nowhere (knowing these books like I do and loving them all) I should have known to call it quits and save it for a vacation or a holiday. But I never learn my lesson it seems…
“You don’t kill a guy for trashing a woman’s car.”
“Yeah?” Bubba said. “Where’s that written?”
I have to admit he had me there.
“Plus,” Bubba said, “you know, he gets the chance he’ll rape her.”
I nodded.
“I hate rape-os,” Bubba said.
“Me, too.”
“It’d be cool if he never did it again.”
I turned in my seat. “We’re not killing him.”
Bubba shrugged.
But here’s the thing: Even after saying all that, I still love this book and my Patrick. I may not have gotten the full enjoyment because of my mood, but it can’t possibly stunt the deep love I have for these characters or this series.
She pulled her hand back, stuffed it in her pocket as if it were burning.
“I-“
She stepped back from whatever she saw in my face. “Don’t say it.”
I shrugged. “Okay. I do, though.”
“Shh.” She put a finger to her lips, smiled around it, but her eyes shimmered with moisture. “Shh,” she said again.
And, sadly, again I don’t really have time to be writing a review, but I wanted to put one out anyway-Because my Patrick and Bubba and Angie deserve one. Patrick’s love for Angie is unparalleled and makes my heart hurt with his want.
“Do you hate my hair?” Angie whispered.
“No. It’s just…”
“Short?” She smiled.
“Yeah. I don’t love you because of your hair, though.”
She shifted slightly, turned her shoulder into the holes between rungs.
“Why do you love me?”
I chuckled. “You want me to count the ways?”
She didn’t say anything, just watched me.
“I love you, Ange, because…I don’t know. Because I always have. Because you make me laugh. A lot. Because…”
He’d do anything for her-even die for her, if it kept her safe.
“Because since you left I have these dreams that you’re sleeping beside me. And I wake up and I can still smell you, and I’m still half dreaming, but I don’t know it, so I reach for you. I reach across to your pillow, and you’re not there. And I gotta lie there at five in the morning, with the birds waking up outside and you not there and your smell just fading away. It fades and there’s-” I cleared my throat. “There’s nothing but me left there. And white sheets. White sheets and those birds and it hurts, and all I can do is close my eyes and lie there and wish I didn’t feel like dying.”
And this is the basis of everything, isn’t it? Holding on dearly to those few people you cherish, keeping them safe and out of harm’s way. But that isn’t easy with a psychopath hell bent on ruining peoples’ lives, forcing them to become shells of themselves. So when Patrick is threatened, and all those around him threatened if he doesn’t back off, what does he do? Well…I’ll tell ya: He’s Patrick, so no, he doesn’t fucking back off. Would you expect any less?
The clerk behind the counter, far from being the dweeby, bespectacled, balding type one would expect to meet in a tax assessor’s office, was tall, well built, blond, and judging by Angie’s furtive glances at him, something of a male babe.
Himbos, I swear. There ought to be a law that keeps them from ever leaving the beach.
So, yeah, I probably ruined some of this book, but I also just couldn’t wait. Patrick’s dedication, loyalty, conviction to do right by those wronged when they don’t have anyone else to fight for them, his love for his friends, his partner, Angie, and his all around spunk are something I’ve been missing wholeheartedly are something I admire and force me to say I’m not sorry I pushed it. So, you know, there’s only one left and it looks like, at this point, I’ll be waiting for a good time to read it, because I wouldn’t dare ruin the final Patrick book. That would be a huge mistake…even Patrick would agree with that. 😉
Leave a Reply