Really, I'm kind of done trying to come up with superlatives for Lehane. Maybe the strongest Patrick and Angie for me yet because I got extremely creeped out by the bad guy in this one. So, not only all of the usual extraordinarily strong writing and characterization, but also I had my pants scared off and found myself looking uneasily around as I was getting in my car in a parking lot at night. Getting scared by a book is a good thing; if writing is powerful enough to make me cry or feel afraid or laugh, then it's the most effective for me.

I only have one Kenzie and Gennaro book left. That's pretty heartbreaking.

And psssst - hey, HCL, you have the wrong cover illustration....

I've enjoyed following the Kenzie-Gennaro romance but this book lost me halfway through with too many false leads & too much speculation. I gave up. I hope Kenzie-Gennaro can make it without me =P

(The fifth book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series)

A readable book. If a person doesn't have anything better to read it's a way to waste a few hours. Not Lehane's worst pot-boiler, but not his best, either.

This book was amazing! What a plot! There were so many twists and turns, it kept me guessing until the end. I have read seven of Lehane's books, including all six in the Kenzie-Gennaro series. (Although the books are self-contained, I think that they are more enjoyable if you read them in the order of publication.) Dennis Lehane is an excellent writer, and I intend to read all of his novels.

Prayers for Rain is like the Little Girl with a Curl. When it's good it's good and when it's bad, it's very bad. Pat Kenzie is on a mission to discover the reasons for a woman's suicide. Along the way there are moments of terrific action and tension. But the good parts are glued together by sequences of weak, silly humor and the antics of a sociopathic sidekick named Bubba. These parts occasionally bang against each other and undermine the heroic nature of Kenzie's quest.

This reminded me of Grisham at his worst. Although the beginnng was somewhat gritty, it quikcly degenerated into a Keystone cop comedy due primarily to a secondary character who just wants to blow things up. All the time. And it quits being funny real quick. I lost interest totally and gave up two thirds into it.

Excellent read

Dennis Lehane is an entrancing storyteller. What a master of creating characters that are so