Mystic River

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Ever since blasting onto the literary scene with the Shamus Award-winning A Drink Before the War, Dennis Lehane has been the golden boy of noir. His Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro novels are marvels of tight pacing, dialogue so good it gets under your skin and stays there, with dead-on portrayals of working-class Boston neighborhoods. Sure, he's the oft-proclaimed, hard-boiled heir to Hammett and Chandler, but Lehane also takes a page from the Hemingway school of hyper-intense writing. He pares away and pares away until he's left with the absolute essentials--and then those essentials just explode off the page.

In his five Kenzie-Gennaro novels, the detective duo is at the nexus of Lehane's big bang. Darkly funny and just this side of jaded, Angie and Patrick move through Dorchester's bleak streets with an assurance born of familiarity. It's impossible to imagine these streets without the pair, or to imagine the pair away from those streets. Mystic River, then, arrives as a bit of a gamble, as Lehane moves from the sharp edges of portraiture to the broader strokes of landscape. No Angie, no Patrick: this neighborhood is on its own. It's not any prettier and certainly no friendlier, and its working-class façade still barely masks the irresistible tug of violent ways, means, and ends.

Twenty-five years ago, Dave Boyle got into a car. When he came back four days later, he was different in a way that destroyed his friendship with Sean Devine and Jimmy Marcus. Now Sean's a cop, Jimmy's a store owner with a prison record and mob connections, and Dave's trying hard to keep his demons safely submerged. When Jimmy's daughter Katie is found murdered, each of the men must confront a past that none is eager to acknowledge. Lehane tugs delicately on the strands that weave this neighborhood together, testing for their strengths and weaknesses; this novel seems as much anthropological case study as thriller.

By turns violent and pensive, Mystic River is vintage Lehane. How good is it? You may go in missing Angie and Patrick, but after a few pages you won't even realize they're gone. Lehane's noir is still black magic. --Kelly Flynn

Book Description

When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever.

Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood.

A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book.......2007-09-06

I read Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island", which sucked. This, however, was a great and absorbing read. Lots of complexity and unexpected events. This is just a marvelous read and it draws you back into it. It's a book where you do not find yourself looking ahead to see what page you're on and how much farther you have to go. Recommended highly.

Shakespearean.......2007-07-09

As someone who spent most of his life in Boston, I naturally gravitated to Lehane's earlier private eye novels. They wonderfully capture the flavor of Dorchester and the whole Boston townie phenomenon. They are also very intelligent, with nuances and layers and themes that most private eye books never come close to. On the strength of the PI books alone, Lehane would have a distinguished place in the pantheon of American fiction writers.

But none of his private eye stories can prepare you for Mystic River. It is a shattering, intense tragedy played on an Irish Catholic Boston stage. It is haunting. It truly is Shakespearean in its scope. Mystic River is not clever entertainment. It is an astounding, original, tragic masterpiece.

In real life, your death was a mundane and forgettable event to everyone but you........2007-04-04

WOW! As a reader, and aspiring writer myself, I was thoroughly, completely impressed with this novel...! This was a good introduction to Mr. Lehane's work!

His worst book.......2007-03-11

First time I tried this book it turned me off Lehane. Fortunately I ran across some of his other work later. I recently tried again and same reaction. Rambling, repetitive, etc. Like listening to a drunk telling a long story meandering story. Try Shutter Island or some other of his work.

Brilliant Book (That Slightly Cheated).......2007-02-06

Lehane's lush characterizations at first were a bit overwhelming, but they won me over completely. Damn, but Lehane can write! The story drew me in and held me until the very last page. Totally compelling, I loved the setup of three boys who go different ways in life, their lives all changed forever by a car that takes one of them away. Everything from the crazy silent calls of the cop's wife to the bad boy redeemed (mostly) by the love of his daughter moved every inch of me. Lehane crept comfortably into everyone's head, which really opened up the tale and forged a special bond between the reader and each character.

However, Lehane slightly cheated. In that process of moving from character to character, he delved slightly less directly into the head of one important character to preserve the mystery of his actions. I felt a bit manipulated by that tactic and suspected something was amiss. In a way, I wish he'd not introduced me at all to that character's mind and stayed with the POV of everyone around him. The story would not have suffered and the mystery would have been more intense.

That said, I can't wait to read his other books. He's obviously a tremendously talented writer who can build character like no other.

Historic Glimpses: Recollections of Days Past in the Mystic River Valley

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Historic Glimpses: Recollections of Days Past in the Mystic River Valley
Carol W. Kimball
Manufacturer: Flat Hammock Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

Mystic, Connecticut is one of New England's most picturesque villages and it has a colorful history to match. Historic Glimpses is a collection of wonderful vignettes highlighting the history of Mystic and its surrounding communities, written by local historian Carol W. Kimball and culled from the pages of The Day newspaper. More than 130 columns and illustrations revisit the people, places, events, businesses and vessels that built, shaped and impacted the region - from explorers to entrepreneurs, quarries to factories, tragic fires to celebrations, and fishing smacks to warships. Readable and perusable, it provides fascinating insight into this wonderful and special place. Historic Glimpses will stir memories for some and have others discovering new and surprising episodes of the past.

Witch-Doctor's Apprentice: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon (Library of the Mystic Arts)

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Remarkable woman, ethnobotanical classic
Witch-Doctor's Apprentice : Hunting for Medicinal Plants in
Witch Doctor's Apprentice Review
Waste of Paper
The essence of the Amazon is "captured" in words.

Witch-Doctor's Apprentice: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon (Library of the Mystic Arts)
Nicole Maxwell
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0806511745
Release Date: 1998-01-27

Amazon.com

This memoir of travels in the Amazon has an agreeable twist: Nicole Maxwell was hunting for medicinal plants with the triple goal of conserving the jungle, improving the lot of humanity and having a great deal of fun. Her tales span countries and decades, as we watch her mature from an enthusiastic if somewhat naive idealist to a true trouper. Despite setbacks and disillusionment, she never lost sight of her goal, and lived to see others pick up the task of cultivating important medicinal plants and knowledge, and further her cause of preserving the jungle through wiser use.

Book Description

When Nicole Maxwell first visited the Amazon more than forty years ago, she had no idea that she would make a life's work of the people, plants and lore to be found there. Decades before Americans became aware of the riches to be found in the knowledge of plant medicines which native shamans had passed down over thousands of years, Ms. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon ram forest for clues to this ancient medical tradition.

Now, on the eve of the decade in which mankind will have its last chance to determine the fate of this region and its wealth of traditional knowledge, Citadel Press's Library of the Mystic Arts is proud to bring out a newly revised edition of this classic work. Long hailed as one of the major works of popular ethno-medicine, this book is both an engaging adventure story and an engrossing account of the traditions of plant medicine to be found among the tribes of Amazonia -- and its re-release could not be more timely.

Scientists now fear that one plant species per day is being made extinct by man's ravenous appetite for "progress". Of the plants which are found only in the Amazon rain forest, only a tiny percentage have been tested for their full medical possibilities. Witch-Doctor's Apprentice is an inspiring and amusing plea to modern civilization to save these plants -- and the people who know how to use them -- before they are destroyed forever.

On the occasion of this newly revised edition, Ms. Maxwell has created an appendix which catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a newintroduction by the noted ethno-botanist Terence McKenna.

"A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts and dangers, the beauty of the jungle and the arc-leap of wordless communication across cultural barriers, as it is about... bringing natu

Customer Reviews:

Remarkable woman, ethnobotanical classic.......2005-07-30

Nicole Maxwell was an amazing woman who devoted much of her life to collecting and studying jungle plants for medicinal purposes. I read the first edition twenty years ago before leaving for the same location she had been to in the late 1950's of the Peruvian Amazon. This third edition is also first class.
After putting up with remote jungle river travel, wading through swamps knee deep, fighting off persistent insects, confronting the hot, humid climate and accommodations of isolated tropical living, plus other dangers and hazards of the rainforest too numerous to mention, she was snubbed by major pharmaceutical companies for the plant cures she discovered from local natives.
She had found plants that cured arthritis, eye diseases, diabetes, forms of cancer and plants that enhanced healing. Along with plants used as contraceptives, she also located ones which increased fertility and some that assisted in childbirth. Plants for infections, intestinal parasites, tooth and gum disorders, etc. are a few more to mention. The list goes on.
An extraordinary woman whose sole purpose in life was to benefit the well-being of humanity but unfortunately had it fall upon deaf ears.

Witch-Doctor's Apprentice : Hunting for Medicinal Plants in.......2001-06-21

This was a great read for me back in '94 when it was presented as a gift and I have often recommended it. Nicole shares her life story when she is in her 80s. One needs to keep in mind the prevalence of ethnocentricity of our society back in the 50's and 60's. And to her credit she tells the WHOLE story, including all her fumbling bumblings of an imperfect human. As one who has ventured a little into the Bolivian and Belizian jungle her misadventures are only to be expected and provide great humor and reading. An example of her humor is while she is deep in the amazon jungle she relates that she wasn't all that concerned because what self respecting warrior would want a meazly female head for a trophy. Nicole was way ahead of her time in two areas: collecting ethnobotanical information and plants, and fighting multinational corporations in the pharmaceutical industry by bringing information directly to the people. I wonder if anyone has ever discovered what that one plant was that given one tbsp a woman was sterile until given a tbsp of another plant and she was fertile again! One may only be able to realize what an adventuresome and hardy soul she is, if you have taken steps into the amazon jungle yourself.

Witch Doctor's Apprentice Review.......2000-10-31

The book Witch Doctor's Apprentice is a personal narrative about Nicole Maxell's Journey into the Amazon. On her quest to find medicinal plants of the Amazon she is forced to overcome many obstacles. The book appealed to me as a nature enthusiast and an aspiring physician. I expected to learn about tropical plants and their uses in modern medicine. Instead it was a boring journey where she spent most of her time wandering around.

Maxell did do a good job using sensory detail. For instance, "She changes her distinction on every new fashion she follows. She changes the length of her hemline, the shape of her hate, the way she does her hair without altering her own strikingly individual personality." That description of a chic woman was used in a comparison with the town of Lima in Peru. The purpose of the book was informative, but it was nice when she did include the detail. Details helped move the story along and let us relate to the people/characters. She included a few travel troubles but instead of allowing the reader to find humor in them she made her dilemmas into catastrophies. In a similar book, Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams, he is looking for nearly extinct animals. That book was much more enjoyable because he was able to include humor. His book also included photographs. Often Maxwell would attempt to describe a complex plant and a photo would have been useful. She tried to include every detail of her trip, which made it boring. If she could have focused more on a few major events the book would have flowed better. Some chapters were extremely dull.

I liked how this non-fiction story included character evolution. Maxwell started out almost naïve about the Amazon and ended up far wiser. If she had done more research it would have cut out half of the story, which was made up of her messing around. Throughout the book Maxwell insults the indigenous people many times. At one point she states that, the Indian is the 'best looking male animal she has seen.' She is also surprised that the Indians are not savages. I hope her stereotypes can be attributed to the fact that she set out on her journey in 1958. She seems to think she is better than the people instead of treating them as equals. If she had valued the information they gave her, perhaps she would have had a more successful journey.

In my own writing I would like to use better imagery. She was able to describe things I've never seen before exceptionally well. I learned from her how difficult it could be to write a personal narrative. There are always ways to improve and she definitely had some improvements to make. The language she used made the time period clear and also showed how inexperienced the people were. This book was interesting but it was an un-enjoyable slow read.

Waste of Paper.......2000-09-04

I am a big fan of ethnobotany and Amazon stories but this is pathetic. She gets nearly no medicines on her journey, ends up chasing Indians around becuase she never meets them, and has racial slurs (published in 1961 originally) about how suprised she is that the Indians are not savages and unpolite ,etc.. She actually says that one Indian was the 'best looking male animal she has seen' Insane. Not a good book.

The essence of the Amazon is "captured" in words........2000-03-18

An excellent book on the amazing Amazon jungle written by atrue "worldly treasure," Nicole Maxwell. END

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Enhanced with a charming, original music CD
A Great Inspiration
Adventuresome and historical
A story about courage, hope, victory.
A Great Book for Young People

Tagger, Alone Along the Mystic River
J. A. Louthain
Manufacturer: Not Avail
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0967941601

Book Description

Tagger is a strong-willed girl who realizes her lonely life of servitude at the Light Horse Inn in Groton, Connecticut, will be hers forever if she doesn't escape. For reasons unknown to Tagger, her mother left her at the Inn when she is only four years old, promising to return soon, but she never does.

When Tagger finally flees fom her barren life at the Inn, she is only eight years old and the year is 1828--certainly not an era for a young girl to make it on her own. But no one understands Tagger's determination. Dressed in the disguise of a boy, Tagger heads for the Mystic River in search of her grandmother, an education and a new life.

By a stroke of luck, Tagger finds a fishing line and hook while she's searching the woods for food. These two items become her means of survival. This charming children's story unfolds in the seaport villages of Portersville, Mystic Bridge and Noank where the Mystic River flows into Fishers Island Sound on the Atlantic coast. Follow Tagger's adventures in the romantic New England setting as she finds success and love through hard work, determination, and courage.

Beautifully illustrated by nationally known artist Andrea Eberbach, this historically accurate novel is geared to children in the 9-12 year old age group. A song CD, Along the Mystic River by P. Alex Shaurette, is included with the purchase of each book.

Customer Reviews:

Enhanced with a charming, original music CD.......2002-05-17

Superbly written by J.A. Louthain and illustrated by Andrea Eberbach, Tagger: Alone Along The Mystic River is an historical novel for young adults which is set in Connecticut in the early 1800s. Tagger is a young girl who is sold into servitude. She escapes to the Mystic River seeking to pursue an education and a new life. Tagger survives by catching and selling fish. Well researched, historically accurate, and with a strong message of independence and self-reliance, Tagger: Alone Along The Mystic River is engaging, rewarding, and highly recommended for young readers and enhanced with a charming, original music CD that comes packaged with the trade paperback book.

A Great Inspiration.......2002-03-03

What a wonderful book, and such a great inspiration for young people. Through Taggers' adventures you will learn that honesty, hard work and sharing, builds lifetime rewards and friendships. There is a big emphasis on the importance of an education. Tagger's different relationships with all of the characters in this book are heartwarming, some happy and some sad; which is all a part of growing up. The book brings Mystic River villages to life with it's colorful descriptions. I bought this book for my 8 year old niece and she just loves it. She took it to her school and her teacher is reading small parts from a couple of the chapters to the class.

Adventuresome and historical.......2002-03-01

An adventurous and compelling story for people of all ages. The historical and geographical references were educational too. I highly recommend it; I read it in 1 sitting!

A story about courage, hope, victory........2002-02-14

I first read the book to see if my grandaughters would like it. They are 12 and 9 years old. I really enjoyed the book myself. It is a story about courage, hope, victory, people caring about each other and the good guys win in the end. It is everything that makes America great. It has both the good parts of us and the bad parts. I never felt that I was being "preached" at but there was definetely a "lesson" being taught. I would like to know more about some of the other characters and hope J. A. Louthain writes more about the people in the story, the school teacher Mr. Jenson, Mary, Gina, the Fish Children. I feel like we get to know them a little but I would like to know them better. It is an enjoyable book for any age.

A Great Book for Young People.......2002-02-13

"Tagger" allows a young person to see that being independent is a good thing! It shows how a young person can use their intelligence to help people and make friends.
I really liked this booked and so did my 12 year old daughter.
I would recommend it to anyone with children that enjoy adventures and light mystery.

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Another amazing book from this series...

Mystic (CT) (Images of America)
Mystic River Historical Society
Manufacturer: Arcadia Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews:

Another amazing book from this series..........2004-11-22

Living in Groton and Gales Ferry pretty much my whole life, I'm very familiar with Mystic, my husband and I even lived there for a couple years before coming back to Groton (1 town over). This book is amazing in all the pictures and history it gives you on the little town of Mystic. I was surprised to learn so much about the town, to see all the photos of farmland, and shipbuilding, the way it was before it became such a tourist trap. I love these books, and really recommend people pick one up about their own town. There are hundreds of them, and chances are there's one about your town. They are full of history and information. I still have 2 more to go through! Can't wait till they get here!

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Mystic River (Spanish version)
Dennis Lehane , and Maria Via
Manufacturer: Rba Libros
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Sean, Jimmy and Dave were childhood friends. One day one of the boys got into a strange car where something terrible happened that ended their friendship and changed them all forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean works as a homicides detective, Jimmy is an ex-convict, and Dave tries to maintain his demons hidden: demons that make him do terrible things. Mystic River has been made into film by Clint Eastwood, carried out by Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon.

Description in Spanish:
Cuando eran niños, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus y Dave Boyle eran amigos. Un día, un extraño coche se detuvo en su calle. Uno de los chicos subió al coche, pero los otros dos no lo hicieron. Y sucedió algo terrible, algo que acabó con su amistad y que les cambió a los tres para siempre.

Veinticinco años más tarde, Devine trabaja de detective para el Departamento de Homicidios, Marcus es un ex convicto que tiene una tienda de barrio, y Boyle intenta salvar su matrimonio y mantener sus demonios a raya: demonios que le incitan a hacer cosas terribles.

Book Description

When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car drove up their street. One boy got in the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed the boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do horrific things.

When Jimmy's daughter is murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood. While Sean attempts to use the law to return peace and order to the neighborhood, Jimmy finds his need for vengeance pushing him ever closer to a moral abyss from which he won't be able to return.

Drifting;: Being the author's account of his voyages in dooryards, alleys, bayous, millraces, swamps, sumps, rivers, creeks, canals, lakes, bays & open ... Mystic, Noank, and Westerly, Rhode Island

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Drifting;: Being the author's account of his voyages in dooryards, alleys, bayous, millraces, swamps, sumps, rivers, creeks, canals, lakes, bays & open ... Mystic, Noank, and Westerly, Rhode Island
Stephen Jones
Manufacturer: MacMillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006CKDTK

3 Thrillers By Dennis Lehane: (1) Mystic River; (2) Shutter Island; (3) Gone, Baby, Gone (Set of 3)

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3 Thrillers By Dennis Lehane: (1) Mystic River; (2) Shutter Island; (3) Gone, Baby, Gone (Set of 3)
Dennis Lehane
Manufacturer: Various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WYEJYC

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