Live by Night: A Novel Written by: Dennis Lehane

Why hello readers, here we are at book 101! Broke my record from last year J Phew, I was actually a little worried because it’s tough to read this many books! So, 101 , and a few short weeks from the Big “C” day. I’m excited, but even I can only take so much holiday books, music, movies, etc… needed something a bit different again and so I went a hunting and had the pleasure of listening to another one of Dennis Lehane’s books! Yes! I looooved this book  fellow book readers. It was awesome! The narrator Jim Frangione really did an amazing job with his voices, accents, and voice intonations his voice reminded me so much of the actor Alan Alda that I had a tough time not picturing him! This book had a lot of history, a lot, the scene is set it’s the roaring 1920’s and a time to be a young outlaw with nothing but your wits, street smarts and connections to make it big. Even though Prohibition is enforced American’s know what they want and they want liquor, beer, wines, and they love Rum, and where’s there’s a market and a buyer there’s a market even if it’s got to be illegal, which makes it even more desirable because readers we all want what we can’t have no? This may seem like an old story that’s been done before, but with the meticulous research done by Lehane you can’t help but feel like you are witnessing history first hand as he pulls you into this world of prohibition, gangsters, and the emerging power families and groups. We have a young Irish guy with plenty of swagger and desire to live by the nights rules. Joe Coughlin is the main character in this tale and Lehane has us follow Joe throughout Boston’s underbelly and continues to educate us about this time period and world from within the walls of Charlestown Prison all the way to the sweltering Tampa Waterfront. There’s something different about Joe from other outlaw and gangsters he’s all about the bottom line and making a profit, but where other’s would solve most of their problems with a bullet Joe doesn’t seem to want to do this and of course there’s a dame, there’s always a dame readers, and of course this dame is Trouble with a capital T. If you want a bit of historic insight even if it’s fiction there’s a lot that was quite accurate in this telling and just how fast the world can change year by year, day by day, and second by second… one minute you can be alive and the next well the next you might not be. I’m sad to say this is the second book in a trilogy!  GAH! This is the second time I have done this with a Lehane book, but readers I don’t think I suffered at all as the story was so good and the cast of characters seemed to come and go to the point that is stands alone just fine.  It’s quite amazing just how Joe Coughlin lives his life and the rules he chooses to obey and the ones he breaks. There’s a lot of life questions that comes into play a lot of soul searching and you might find yourself wondering if you should like Joe, I honestly found myself cheering the guy on. A masterful read that totally lives up to his other book I had the pleasure of reading recently.