The Washington Times says, “The first page of Live By Night hooks you with a paragraph written in the quintessentially unemotional style of Dennis Lehane, an author who takes no prisoners. This is a vivid and coldblooded summary of the life of a modern American outlaw. In less expert hands, this would be one more book about a Boston gangster. From Mr. Lehane it is a classic take on the underworld and how to survive in it.”

 

Across the pond, the Daily Mail declares, “Dennis Lehane is the crime writer’s crime writer; with a spare, stark edge to his work that lifts it into the truly great class. The gangster world is superbly evoked and the story is as tight and powerful as the trigger on a Thompson sub-machine gun.”

“This is not just brilliant period crime writing but brilliant writing full stop,” proclaims The Independent.

The Guardian says, “This is noir with added value: Lehane is terrific on family ties and at conveying the buzz of a city powered by immigrant labour of often dubious legality.”

“History is merely a backdrop in a story that seeks just to be exciting, sexy and atmospheric,” says The Sunday Times. “The author’s trademark combination of dark deeds, graceful pose and sassy dialogue ensures it succeeds.”

Reader’s Digest warns, “Don’t open it at a time when you need to do anything else, such as work sleep because I guarantee that all you’ll be able to do is keep on turning the pages. The prose crackles with Chandleresque jokes, the narrative never flags and there’s even a genuinely heart-stopping love story.”

Big Issue calls the book “a fantastic piece of work, a mesmerising page-turner with buckets of character and social comment thrown in,” adding, “when a story is delivered with this much style, class and skill it doesn’t really matter which category it’s filed under in bookshops or online. Suffice to say, Live by Night is a cracking read and you be hard pushed to better it.”

“This is an assured and fascinating novel about moral choices, fate and the harm we do ourselves,” states the Catholic Herald.

The Spectator says, “Lehane’s tough, muscular prose captures the era well; and his dialogue brings to life the inhabitants of its underworld – something one might have expected from an author who wrote several episodes of The Wire.”

Lastly, we wanted to share a fantastic interview with Dennis in this week’s By the Book column in The New York Times Sunday Book Review!