The Charlestown Connection by Tom MacDonald

I won a signed copy of this book from LibraryThing. It's set, of course, in Charlestown/Boston, Massachusetts. I seem to be in a Boston frame of mind and these books set there are making me want to go for a visit. I hadn't heard of Tom MacDonald before but I'm certainly glad I received this novel. He's a good old-fashioned storyteller in my eyes.

The best part of this story is the characters, especially the protagonist, Dermot Sparhawk who is half Micmac Indian and half Irish. He is a recovering alcoholic thanks to AA and a strength of character he apparently hadn't realized he had. The story begins when his godfather, Jeepster Hennessey stumbles into the food pantry Dermot runs and dies at Dermot's feet. He mumbles a few words as he is dying from stab wounds. The words don't make any sense to Dermot, nor do the keys his godfather presses into his hand.

Dermot owns a house and lives on the second floor while his Boston College football friend Buck who is a paraplegic lives on the first floor. His Uncle Glooscap's son Harraseeket Kid lives in the basement. The three of them team up to solve the puzzle and find themselves in danger from several fronts. It all seems to have something to do with valuable paintings. There is also an attractive FBI agent involved, but is she who she claims to be?

This is a great story with characters who are so well depicted you'll remember them for a long time, particularly Dermot. He has a good heart but he's a realist; he is handsome but has a bad knee that kept him out of pro football and is only just maintaining his sobriety. You'll cheer for him throughout the book. Personally, I hadn't heard anything about Micmac Indians since we moved out of Maine.

I highly recommend The Charlestown Connection. It doesn't matter if you know Boston or not, MacDonald makes the scene come alive for you.

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

The name Dennis Lehane probably rings a bell since he is the author of Mystic River and Shutter Island. This one is a Kenzie and Gennaro series book, a series which I've never read but I sure did love this book.

I think the major reason I enjoyed it so much is that he can give you a character you would recognize in a minute. Like this description of a girl working the counter at a diner: "She was about nineteen. A pretty face had been damaged by acne scars and she wore an extra forty pounds on her frame like a threat. Her eyes were dull with anger disguised as apathy. If she kept on her current path, she'd grow into the type of person who fed her kids Doritos for breakfast and puchased angry bumper stickers with lots of exclamation points." Can't you just see her? And this is an extremely minor character, so imagine what he does with someone important to the story.

The story is set in Boston which is what attracted me to this library book to begin with. I know Boston well enough to recognize places where characters are, and I know what people there are like well enough to recognize that he has them down cold. I haven't felt like I was in the Boston area like this since Robert B. Parker left us.

The protagonist, Patrick Kenzie, had found a girl named Amanda many years earlier but her "rescue" didn't exactly work out well because she was returned to a stupid, drug addled, neglectful mother. Now she's 16 years old and in trouble. Her aunt comes to Patrick to ask for help and he just can't refuse because he feels guilty about what happened before. Meanwhile, he and his wife have had a little girl who is immensely entertaining to the reader, but would drive you crazy in real life. Add some Russian goons to the mix and you have a wild and crazy ride.

I was hooked on the story right from the start and surprised at the end. That and great characters are the epitome of a good crime book to me and I recommend this one.