Tangled Web UK Review September 1998
File Updated: 30/03/00
Sacred Sacred by Dennis Lehane
pbk out July 98 (Bantam) at £5.99
Dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro to track down his daughter, Desiree. Grief stricken over the accidental death of her mother and Stone's own impending death, Desiree has been missing for three weeks. What attracts Kenzie to the case is that the first investigator Stone hired is also missing. And that investigator was Patrick Kenzie's mentor.
The trail starts on the streets of Boston with a counselling organisation that looks suspiciously like a front for a mind-bending cult. But before too long, the PIs are led to the sun and sin soaked Florida Gulf Coast. By now, the one thing that is clear is that nothing and no-one can be trusted to be what they appear. Stolen millions, drug trafficking and a string of double-crossing stings stretch Kenzie and Gennaro's resources to the very limit as they try to make sense of the terrible evil humans can unleash on each other.
Sacred is the most nail-biting thriller I've read in a long time. Like a switchback mountain road, it exhilarates and terrifies in equal measure; like an Escher drawing, the picture changes every time you look at it. As well as a great story, Lehane provides crackling dialogue and hot action with a heart. With this book, he confirms his position head and shoulders above the competition.


( Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)

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