Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane is the fifth book in the Kenzie and Gennaro mystery series. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are private eyes who solve cases in the city of Boston. The fifth book is different from all the previous books. Kenzie and Gennaro are no more after the events in Gone, Baby, Gone. Patrick takes a stalking case. He finds the guy and threatens him. The case is initially closed, but 6 months later the client is found dead from suicide. The case haunts Patrick. Three months ago, the client called him just wanting to catch up. He did not follow up. He plays mind games with himself that he could have prevented this. Lehane can write a good mystery hook that grabs you. The hook made me interested why would a sweet lady who looked like she had everything together commit suicide? The villain is the most twisted criminal of all. This book does have a dog getting harmed scene that almost put me to tears. The villain loves to play mind games and is very good at them. The book gets very exciting when Kenzie starts playing the games too. The ending of the book is satisfying and the final twist was good. I do almost feel the book didn’t need the final twist since it made the villain not as threatening. The pacing was okay after the hook the novel slows down some. When the villain is revealed at the 50% mark the novel reads at a breakneck pace until the end. Bubba, the side character from the series, appears more in this book than in the others. I like the character, but after reading this, I think he may be better in smaller doses. Prayers for Rain was published on May 19, 1999.

Plot Summary: Patrick has been hired to get rid of a stalker that will not leave a female client alone. The client is engaged and very happy. The stalker keeps harassing her at the gym. Patrick with Bubba, a big muscled enforcer, pays this guy a visit. They scare him very badly and are pretty sure he will not bother her again. A couple of months later Patrick receives a voicemail from the client sounds a little distant. Patrick is in the middle of something and doesn’t return the call. A couple of months after that he finds out that the client has committed suicide. He does it believe it. He is shown current photos and it doesn’t even look like the same person. He finds out her fiance was killed in a freak accident, she lost her job and became homeless. Patrick needs to find out what happened as the phone call he did not respond to haunts him. His investigation leads him to the same guy as before, the stalker. Patrick will find out what happened to her, and it will take getting his partner back to do it.

What I Liked: The villain is very sinister. I’m not a violent person, but this book will make you want blood. I liked the mind game aspect of the story which is very compelling. The dog scene I hated but it was very effective in me hating the villain. The revenge that Patrick takes on the villain and the car is great. The two scenes with the client’s psychiatrist were written well and were a chess match of the mind. The kung fu scene was great and unexpected. I loved Patrick’s reaction to it and how much he is teased about it. There was a brutal scene of gore that they described just enough so I could picture it without being sick.

What I Disliked: The final twist was unnecessary and more importantly it weakened the main antagonist. Bubba was used pretty well but there were times when he was distracting. I did want a better reveal when the reader learns who the main antagonist is. The pacing could have been better after the hook. I did not like the mob getting involved. I liked the idea of the mob and the villain working together. When all is revealed, the villain did not have a real relationship with the mob, just one talk. I feel that the mob would not be that cheap to do the job the villain requested.

Recommendation: Prayers for Rain is more psychological than the other books in the series. There is only one big action scene. What the book does well is tell a compelling mystery. I reread this book. For some reason, I found it the least memorable of all the books in the series. I think Prayers for Rain is one of the weaker books in the series. However, Lehane still writes it well. I will lightly recommend this book to my followers.

Rating: Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane 3.6 out of 5.

Ranking: I have read and reviewed 5 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, 4) Prayers for Rain, and 5) A Drink Before the War.