Mary M. (emeraldfire) - , reviewed on 1/17/2015

Twelve years ago, private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro were brought in to investigate the disappearance of four-year-old Amanda McCready. The toddler had suddenly vanished from her Boston neighborhood late one night, and her family feared the worst. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt had led them to take on the case - one of the toughest of their careers - and despite risking everything, the pair finally found the little girl. Against their better judgement, the investigators had to return little Amanda to the custody of her neglectful mother and a broken home.

Now Amanda is sixteen - and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she had seemed destined to escape her troubled upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once again knocking at Patrick Kenzie's door, once more fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman - a woman who apparently hasn't been seen in weeks.

Haunted by their memories of the past - and determined to do something to settle their consciences - Patrick and Angela revisit the case that has troubled them the most and which, even after all this time, has stayed with them. Their exhaustive investigation leads them into the darkest depths of the criminal underworld - 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. This is a world where motives and allegiances constantly shift and where the slightest mistake can prove, or most likely will prove, fatal.

In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Patrick and Angela will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that reaches beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today are the ones that could end their lives.

Mareena had chosen this book for me at our August Library Book Sale jaunt because she knew how much I had enjoyed reading Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. In my opinion, this particular book just wasn't for me. While I certainly found it to be well-written, fast-paced and jam-packed with drama and action, I must say that the Russian Mob is really too much for me. I'm sure that there are some readers who enjoy reading that type of story; however, I am definitely not one of them. I would give this book a B+!

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