Dennis Lehane's World Gone By delivers the pulse-pounding thrills of his earlier novels while exploring deeper themes of loyalty, family and how the corrupting influences of the past haunt the present.
It's been 10 years since Joe Coughlin lost his wife and his crime empire, as depicted in Live by Night. Joe has made huge strides in legitimate business and is a mover and shaker in World War II-era Tampa, Fla. He still moonlights as consigliere to the Bartolo crime family, but he thinks he's left his past behind and is skeptical when he hears of a plot to kill him on Ash Wednesday. However, as certain facts come to light, Joe's attempts to root out the truth behind the hit before it's too late add gripping immediacy to World Gone By. Though he wants to lead a life of virtue, Joe is damned good at ferreting out criminal motivation and knows how to kill with the best of them. He's also ferociously devoted to his son, Tomas, wanting to protect him from both physical harm and the soul-deadening fact of his own sordid past.
Lehane is an expert in criminal mayhem, but he also has mastered the nuances of interior struggle, which allows his writing to transcend the noir genre boundaries. Lehane is never blind to the corrosive effects the struggle for power and prestige can have on one's life, and how it can turn a good man bad and exile him from all that he loves. --Donald Powell, freelance writer