Read, Baby, Read.

When I first saw the movie Gone Baby Gone (directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck), I went online. See, when I really like something, I research the crap out of it. Through my perusing, I found out that the movie was an adaptation of a novel by the same author who wrote Mystic River and that Gone Baby Gone is the fourth book in a five-novel detective series by author Dennis Lehane. I promptly went to my crack den (also known as Barnes & Noble) and bought the fifth book in the series because that's how great this movie was (94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). I wanted to know what was going to happen next and I swear to you, I couldn't put that book down. I promptly ran back to the happiest place on earth to get the first four books and started from the beginning.

I could dedicate an entire website to these books, but that would be a bit too much. Instead, I'll give a general rundown of the two main characters and the series as a whole. Here are the books in order: A Drink Before the War; Darkness Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; and Prayers for Rain.

The series centers around the private investigating duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro--two life-long friends who grew up in the same Boston neighborhood. Each book is a separate case but these memorable characters and their story arcs weave themselves through each novel. The stories explore the shadier side of life and offer an interesting persective of the culutral and racial politics of Boston's different neighborhoods.

The novels are written in the first person voice of Patrick Kenzie, who offers insightful observations of the unforgettable characters that inhabit his world. Though these novels deal with the grim, graphic and hard-to-face realities of life, they are filled with an surprising humor that make them addictive and difficult not inhale in one sitting. I found myself laughing out loud countless of times. These books center around some pretty dark stuff but it's the humor and the easy relationship between the two main characters that keep them light and make you regret you moved through them so quickly.

The darkest book, by far, is Darkness Take My Hand that deals with the "20-year string of strangely similar killings" that brings a psychotic killer a little too close to home. Here is the summary from Barnes & Noble: "Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know something about cold-blooded retribution. Born and bred on the mean streets of blue-collar Dorchester, they've seen the darkness that lives in the hearts of the unfortunate. But an evil for which even they are unprepared is about to strike as secrets long-dormant erupt, setting off a chain of violent murders that will stain everything—including the truth." This is the first book I ever read that gave me chills. I felt that same adrenaline rush from watching really good suspense movies--it reminded me of the first time that I saw Seven.

My favorite one, however, is Prayers For Rain. Though I started backwards, it's the one that got me hooked and the one that I'll read over and over again. I would give you a synopsis but it'll give too much away as it's the fifth book.

Bottom line, read these books if you like a great page turner, witty banter, a little mystery and a little love thrown in for good measure.

Have you read any of these books? If so, did you love them as much as I did? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Here's my picture of the day, because I'm in a New York state of mind: