Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane is a tense, gritty, mystery about a kidnapped child. Gone, Baby, Gone is the 4th book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series. The series follows Patrick Kenzie and Angela/ Angie Gennaro who are private eyes. Over the series, we have watched these colleagues become lovers. However, this case will rock the foundation of that relationship. They plan to start a family while helping a fractured family find a missing child. Gone, Baby, Gone is the best book in the series. The book has an incredible mystery with a lot of layers. The book’s ending is so emotional it ends in a moral quandary. Is saving a child worth killing people? And when should a parent’s rights be absolved? A good book for me is once I’m done with it, I keep thinking about it. Gone, Baby, Gone is that book. The story hooked me from the start. There is a missing child that the police can’t find. Kenzie and Gennaro are brought in after 72 hours. They each have misgivings about the case but the pleas from an aunt seal it. The mother could be one of the most hated characters. She is not malicious on purpose. She is just too selfish to raise a child. The pace of the book is pretty good. The middle got a little bit confusing. Yet, the end is great at explaining all the moves. It also clarifies what some characters were plotting. Gone, Baby, Gone was made into a film. Ben Affleck directed the film. It stars Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, and Morgan Freeman. The film is very faithful using a lot of lines from the book. It changes the ending slightly but makes a character watch the full effects of their choices. Gone, Baby, Gone was published on July 22, 1998.

Plot Summary: Kenzie and Gennaro have started slowly taking cases again after their last run-in. Kenzie and Gennaro have upped their relationship by moving in with one another. They have both had marriage and baby talks. Kenzie and Gennaro meet a grieving aunt about a missing child Amanda in all the headlines. Amanda has gone missing for 72 hours which is the window to find someone as the odds go way down. Kenzie and Gennaro are both confused because the police are working on it. Nevertheless, the aunt’s plea and their recent baby discussions make them agree to try. The mother has stayed mostly drunk, she left the child alone to go to the bar when it went missing. The mother, Helene seems more concerned about how she looked on camera than about Amanda missing. She tells Patrick about the sketchy bar she was at and the sketchy neighborhood guy she was seeing. Kenzie and Gennaro go to the bar. They barely make it out alive. The man they want to talk to escapes. Barley making it out they run into two detectives that are working the missing girl case. They decide to work it together. Patrick and Kenzie watch old videos of Helene and Amanda. They want to see who she was hanging out with. They notice a known drug dealer. They interview Helene and find out she collaborated with the missing guy. Together, they ripped off the drug dealers at the bar for 200,000 dollars. Kenzie and Gennaro have to tell Helene that drug dealers probably have her kid. Kenzie and Gennaro

What I Liked: Kenzie and Gennaro are great characters it has been fun to watch them grow. This story shows how characters who have broken the law in the past fall on different sides of it. The ending scene is deeply emotional. It features four characters. They debate about a broken system with a life on the line. The choices will affect an innocent person and can they live with the consequences of that action? The mystery is very well plotted with a lot of twists and turns. Helene is the character that you love to hate, but her character is so real. I have met people like Helene and I did not like what I saw. I liked that the villains still had humanity. They do horrible things. But, from their perspective, it was all necessary to do good in a bad way. The side character of Bubba shines in this book. He has been in every book in the series. However, this story shows his humanity. It also shows why he is so scary. The gun deal scene is one of the most intense scenes I have read. It features a slow count of money. At the same time crazed, drugged out people yell at them to give them ammo. There are a couple of shoot-out scenes in this book. They had me on the edge of my seat. Each scene has moments of humanity intertwined. The humor in the book is dark but is written very well. One scene is a death scene filled with humor that reminded me so much of Elmore Leonard’s writing. I have compared Leonard’s and Lehane’s writing before but Gone, Baby, Gone is the most effective use of it. I liked how the previous 3 books were all worked into the story. The mentions of actions in the previous stories explain characters actions and some are used against the characters.

What I Disliked: I don’t know if I got the beginning and end of Gone, Baby, Gone. There is a one-page story at the beginning that wraps up in the end which is also one page. The story takes place in Texas where the main story takes place in Boston. People are discussing what to kill for, it parallels the end with a mother chiming in for a child. But it was not necessary, and a waste of two pages. The leading up to the gorge scene was confusing and happening too fast. The characters when re-examining it walk you through it very well. As a reader I was confused. But you find out later that was the point, confusion.

Recommendation: Gone, Baby, Gone is one of the best mysteries that I have read. The story is great with a lot of layers. The mystery is very compelling to return a missing 4-year-old. The story goes beyond the mystery and asks the reader if you were in this situation what would you do. I recommend to all my followers to read this series, especially Gone, Baby Gone. Shutter Island is my favorite book by Dennis Lehane and Gone, Baby, Gone is a close second. The ending of this book ties in directly with Moonlight Mile. It is book 6 in the Kenzie and Gennaro series.

Rating: Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane I rated 4.8 out of 5.

Ranking: I have read and reviewed 4 books from the Kenzie and Gennaro series. I will rank the books in order from favorite to least favorite: 1) Gone, Baby, Gone, 2) Darkness, Take My Hand, 3) Sacred, and 4) A Drink Before the War.