I loved Gone Baby Gone so much (both the book and movie), that I had to get to the rest of the books in the series. And no better place to start then Gone Baby Gone's sequel Moonlight Mile. This book set around 12 years after the events of Gone Baby Gone (henceforth GBG) carries forward the story of Amanda McCready.
At the end of GBG, Patrick has a dilemma. Should he do the morally right thing or the legally right thing? He eventually chooses an option and is haunted by whether he did the right thing. Moonlight Mile attempts to answer that question.
Note: Moonlight Mile could be read as a standalone book, but I think it really should be read after reading GBG, or at least watching the movie. It's not strong enough to be appreciated on its own terms.
About the Book
Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl - only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.
Now Amanda is sixteen - and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once more knocking on Patrick Kenzie's door, fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman - a woman who hasn't been seen in weeks.
Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It's a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal.
~ Synopsis from goodreads
My Review
In a nutshell, I liked the book, but didn't love it. You would like this book if you've already read earlier books in the Kenzie and Gennaro series, and liked them. However, if you're new to the series, this book isn't going to convince you to go back and read the other books.
What I liked in this book was the relationship between Kenzie and Gennaro - still crackling after all these years. I loved middle-aged Kenzie and Gennaro struggling to eke out a living, and balance their work with their young daughter. It was endearing to see that even tough-nut detectives face the same problems that I currently do sometimes.
What I didn't like was the development of Amanda McCready's character. She is tough and smart, but makes some incredibly dumb decisions. The book doesn't really explain the rationale behind her actions (and the actions of a bunch of Russian goons) well. We are just expected to accept her illogical actions without questioning. This I might have done in a crime thriller by a lesser author, but I have high expectations of Lehane. And he fell short of them here.
Overall, the book has a lot of promise, is well-written, and gritty. However, it loses steam in the second half and just limps along towards a tame ending.
This book acts like a swan song for Kenzie and Gennaro's detecting adventures, and I wish it had ended on a high note. Still, I liked the moody tone of the book, and I intend to read the rest of the series.
Have you read this series? Which of the Kenzie and Gennaro books should I pick up next?
