Tough subject matter, good plot twist, one obvious clue... ( )

Kenzie is at his best attempting to track a murderer from his childhood. The gruesomeness of the killing is captured but he doesn't go over boar. Lehane's musing's as Kenzie fit the place and story well. Even the foreshadowing worked. The banter between K & Gennaro was forced at times but mostly it worked. I would like to see a K & G story w out an uber villain though this was subtle and had me guessing most of the way. Great sense of place. Almost a 5. ( )

4.5 really ( )

Started real slow but damn it got good. ( )

Apparently, Dennis Lehane is the king of Boston noir. I wasn't even sure if that was a thing, but I Googled it, and it seems every hit had the name Dennis Lehane in it. Patrick Kenzie fits the bill perfectly, a wise-cracking, rough and tumble PI who is equally at home with police or the Irish Mob. In fact, his partner, Angela Gennaro, is the grandaughter of some famous mob boss, and the mob will think twice, at least, before allowing anyone to mess with her although she does a pretty good job of that herself.

Together, they make a rather formidable team, and if they ever get rid of their conscience, I wouldn't want to be on their bad side. But they do, and it sometimes gets them in trouble. Even when up against a monster killer, like in this book, they don't want to just shoot him down first chance they get; at least, Patrick doesn't. I'm not so sure about Angie sometimes.

The strangest thing about this story is how they seem to know almost everyone involved, from the police, the mob, the killer. Just one big happy family. Well, maybe not exactly happy. Patrick's father was pretty despicable but he's dead now.

There are a lot of characters in this book to keep up with. Some are gone now, but I'm going to move right into the next book while the names are fresh in my mind. ( )

In this book Patrick has started a relationship with Grace, a young doctor with a daughter, and Angie has divorced Phil. But their life will soon be turned upside down. A psychiatrist hires Angie and Patrick to watch over her son who she is scared is a _target by the Irish mafia. But they never imagine what the case will do to their life...

This book grabbed a hold of me from the beginning and kept its hold until the end. The first book was good, this book was awesome. The story was tragic, disturbing and thrilling. It’s strange when I’m really into a book, then I don’t know what to write, but when a book is bad, then I have a lot to write. A part of me is still so taken with the story that I’m having trouble leaving Kenzie & Gennaro's world behind and move on to another book. But I thought I would wait a bit with Sacred and finish of the other books I have started…but it is hard... ( )

In this book Patrick has started a relationship with Grace, a young doctor with a daughter, and Angie has divorced Phil. But their life will soon be turned upside down. A psychiatrist hires Angie and Patrick to watch over her son who she is scared is a _target by the Irish mafia. But they never imagine what the case will do to their life...

This book grabbed a hold of me from the beginning and kept its hold until the end. The first book was good, this book was awesome. The story was tragic, disturbing and thrilling. It’s strange when I’m really into a book, then I don’t know what to write, but when a book is bad, then I have a lot to write. A part of me is still so taken with the story that I’m having trouble leaving Kenzie & Gennaro's world behind and move on to another book. But I thought I would wait a bit with Sacred and finish of the other books I have started…but it is hard... ( )

Really dark and violent - Thomas Harris territory, for sure. But if you're into crime fiction, I recommend it. ( )

Dear Dennis Lehane, why do you hate your characters so much?!!? I thought that because I started the series out of order and I knew that certain things had happened, I'd be okay when starting from book one. Yeah, I am most certainly not okay after finishing this one. I want to shake my fist at Dennis Lehane and then take Patrick and Angela and hug them to pieces. Humph... ( )

Gruesome, but still great. I like his books and his way of describing the world... This one was a great mystery with a twist and a lot of tension. ( )

this book is going to give me nightmares. :( BUT IT WAS AWESOME, SO IT'S WORTH IT. ( )

Is reading the graphic suffering, pain, gore, violence and vivid terror cathartic for the reader? Or, is it welcoming evil into our lives? I can understand catharsis for the writer of crime thrillers and her willingness to welcome evil as an end to means be they artistic or monetary, but more and more, I'm thinking of giving up books such as "Darkness take my Hand" by Dennis Lehane, and taking up reading travelogues.
It should be noted though that as a work of the genre it earns five stars. The graphic brutality is extreme, the vicarious terror the reader experiences keeps the pages turning and there are sufficient philosophical/ethical speculations to engage one's intellect.

Rather good, but I got the intrigue bit by bit before the end. A bit Vacchs-influenced I might say. I would have liked it more if I had liked any one in the book, but they were too neurotic and got on my nerves. But it is well written and quite exciting. ( )

Please don't read if you have not read the first book in this series since spoilers from that book are below.

Well I definitely liked this one more than the first book in the series. There is one plot hole that didn't make a lot of sense to me, but other than that I really liked how this book worked from beginning to end. It also was short, but the flow worked a lot more in this one, so I didn't notice the length of the book until I got to the end.

Patrick and Angie take a case looking into protecting the son of a psychiatrist. The woman believes her son's life is being threatened because she had a patient who was dating a local guy with connections to the mob. Once she broke things off, she claims the man became violent and threatened her. When a girl they grew up with winds up died (crucified) Patrick and Angie start to put the pieces together and realize that their first case and this recent death are connected.

Once again told in the first person, we have Patrick in a happy relationship with a woman and her young daughter. It feels a bit weird at first considering the fact that readers know how Patrick feels about Angie. Instead this is glossed over here and there with both of them (Patrick and Angie) being weird about it. Other than that I can honestly say that you can see in this one how smart Patrick is. He follows leads and puts things together. I really did like it when the light dawned so to speak.

Angie once again is just a mystery. Having only just Patrick's point of view really does hamper these books because we only can "read" his thoughts on her and what she's feeling or we have the character telling Patrick what she's feeling. When I realized the connection between Patrick and someone close to Angie I pretty much rolled my eyes. Seriously. It didn't make a lot of sense and I don't know why it wasn't brought up in the first book at all.

We get some reappearances from other characters from the first book, Devin and Oscar and also Angie's ex-husband Phil. I really didn't give two craps about the latter character and his total 180 was just weird. There's forgiveness and than just setting yourself up for crap in the future. Once again this could have been fixed if we had gotten Angie's point of view. I hated characters discussing her instead of me as a reader getting to read about how she felt.

The character of Patrick's girlfriend actually gave him depth. I liked her and wish that we got more interaction between her and Patrick. I also wanted to shake Patrick because I still don't think that he got what he did was wrong regarding keeping her in the dark.

Reading about how Patrick and Angie's investigation tied into their former friend's death was great. I couldn't believe it when you get to how everything was connected. The flow in this one was pretty good. Though I have to say that once again Patrick running from scene to scene after a while made me laugh. When does he eat and sleep?

The ending was really good in this one and left a lot of questions open about what's next for Patrick and Angie. ( )

I liked the first Lehane I read but not enough to go get another one. But friends kept telling me I was wrong and I should give him another shot. I finally listened and am ever so grateful. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro make a good pair of private detectives and this story is compelling. They are hired to find a missing son. The college student soon becomes the latest victim of a serial killer who invades their current and past lives. The story is really one you can't put down. ( )

Audio book narrator Jonathan Davis says Peabody wrong. It's not the award and it's not the hotel; it's PEEbiddy. Oy vey. ( )

This has got to be the worst title in the history of literature. Reminds me of that howler of a made-for-TV move, "Mother, May I Sleep with Danger." I hope the books is better than the title. ( )

Dennis Lehane is now added to my list of favorite authors. I love his characters and the nightmares they find themselves in. I recommend him, highly. ( )

First 75% of the book was great. Lehane is a wonderful writer, and I learned a lot from reading this book.

I don't mind violence, but this was over the top, and too extreme to be believable.

I'd say more, but I can't do so without giving things away. ( )

Si el primer libro dejó marcados a nuestros protagonistas, éste lo multiplica.

En el primer libro, A Drink Before the War, Lehane teje una trama que mezcla el poder político con las guerras entre gangas afroamericanas como una excusa para que Patrick Kenzie medite y reflexione sobre su vida pasada, sus prejuicios presentes y su postura futura. Mientras que en el que acabo de leer, Darkness, Take My Hand, el autor amenaza directamente a los protagonistas y los suelta a una búsqueda que puede resultar en fatalidades y daños emocionales (y físicos) permanentes.

Darkness, Take My Hand empieza con un prólogo desgarrador, Patrick narra cómo se siente después de los eventos que se leerá en el libro. Cicatrices, personajes que ya no están, nombres que desconoces y un desfile de eventos que tienen que ver -o no- con lo que se narrará. Un arranque que te pondrá al filo de la navaja, al margen de tu asiento, la espalda a la pared.

Está de más decir que Dennis Lehane ha creado a unos protagonistas multi-dimensionales, y hasta los personajes secundarios resaltan sobre el papel y acaban siendo memorables de una forma u otra.

En lo personal, el único defecto del libro es que descubrí -como a la mitad- quien era el villano. Aún así, ésto no le quitó nada al producto final.

Darkness, Take My Hand se merece sus cinco estrellas completitas, es algo que no tuve ni que detenerme a pensar.

Ya empecé a leer Sacred, el tercero de la serie. ( )

Great dialog; great descriptions that place the reader into the setting of the narrative. I liked the book,but the 'shoot-em-up' ending is always a disappointment. I think some of Lehanes' more recent novels are much better. ( )

If the author’s name is not immediately familiar, this is the man who wrote “Mystic River”. This is the third or fourth Lehane novel I have read and each one is incredibly gripping and well written. This novel is part of a series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, two private eyes who have grown up, live and work in the same working class Boston neighborhood.

In this book, a psychiatrist believes she is being _targeted by the Irish mob when she receives a picture of him in the mail. She is not the only one being threatened however. After she hires Patrick and Angie, more letters and more pictures appear and part of the sleuthing involves figuring out how everything connects.

Angie and Patrick are supported by a variety of interesting characters. Bubba is a childhood friend who is an enforcer and he is someone to be feared if you are on the wrong side of him. Phil is Angie’s ex-husband. An abusive alcoholic he appears to have changed his ways and is making a re-appearance in Angie’s life.

Several people who have read the book found it quite frightening. Some said it gave them nightmares. I think it taps into our primal fear about someone being able to get into our house and us not knowing. It also taps into that fear of someone finding out all about us and then threatening those who we consider close or vulnerable.

Lehane is a great neo-noir writer. Every book I have read by him has done nothing but whet my appetite for more writing by this author. Additionally, he sets his stories in the Boston area and knows the landscape, people and nature of the characters that inhabit the place inside out. To me, this is an important factor because it makes readers feel as if they also know the place.

Highly recommend. ( )

I think this book is a great example of why there shouldn't be a prologue or an epilogue in books. They diminish a perfectly good story with needless fluff. Very enjoyable story that had me hooked the entire way through. The mystery was compelling and the characters interesting enough to keep the entire book grounded. ( )

DARKNESS,TAKE MY HAND is the second book in the Kenzie & Gennaro series. It was a whole lot darker than the first. A bit more disturbing. Many cogs in a mysterious wheel spinning at once. And I loved it.

Diandra Warren is worried. She is a professor and psychiatrist. When a young woman, Moira Kenzi, comes to her for help nothing adds up. Things get worse when the doctor receives a photograph in the mail. It is of her son. She now finds herself worried about his safety, as well as her own.

If the Irish Mob isn’t directly behind the silent threats, it could be Kevin Hurlihy, Jack Rouse’s right hand man. Either way, Kevin’s involvement spells trouble. The man has no heart, and is known for his unorthodox ways of dealing with things. Delivering pain, resorting to torture, and even killing people doesn’t faze him in the slightest.

Kenzie and Gennaro are hired. Diandra wants to be absolutely sure no one is after her son. The investigation involves a lot of shadowing, keeping the doctor’s son under constant surveillance. The best the private eyes can tell, there is nothing for the family to worry about.

Nothing to worry about, that is until a young girl is found dead. Crucified. Her hands and feet were nailed into the ground. On her was Kenzie’s business card. Although seemingly separate from Kenzie and Gennaro’s initial investigation, sins of the past are brought to the present.

Someone is killing people from the old neighborhood. And before each person is killed a photograph of that person is sent to someone they love. A serial killer is on the loose. The police and the FBI find one common factor in all of the cases. Patrick Kenzie. He is in some way tied to nearly each and every one.

When those Kenzie loves are threatened, are put into harm’s way, the joint investigation is stepped-up, but it may not be enough. Finding the one responsible is no easy feat. Bodies keep turning up. And it is clear that time is running out. Kenzie receives a simple threat, not everyone you love can live.

A fantastic, fast-paced, and gritty crime novel! DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND just grabbed me from the depressing opening scene, until the very last page. I am finding this is common in the Lehane books I’ve read recently. He is quickly working his way up as one of my favorite authors!

PhillipTomasso
Author of the Severed Empire Series ( )

Crime noir and thrillers aren't usually my cuppa but this was so engrossing with its conflicted-psyche main character and sins of the fathers theme that I'll definitely be reading the next Kenzie & Gennaro book. I wasn't so sure after the first one (A Drink Before the War) but the writing in this was much better, more like the Lehane of Shutter Island and the McCoughlin series. ( )