Publishers Weekly
07/28/2014
This gritty gem from Lehane (Mystic River) has a curious origin. The short story “Animal Rescue,” which appeared in 2009’s Boston Noir, was the basis for the screenplay of the soon-to-be-released film The Drop, to which this is the tie-in. Boston bartender Bob Saginowski pulls a beaten pup from a winter trash can, a small good deed with large consequences. The rescue leads Bob to Nadia Dunn, who helps him take care of the dog, and also to crazy Eric Deeds, who claims the dog is his. While Bob tries to fend off Deeds, his cousin Marv, onetime owner of Cousin Marv’s bar, contends with money issues and pride and the Chechens, who now own his bar and use it as a money drop. A parade of weary, quirky characters—thieves, thugs, and hard guys—will resonate with Lehane fans. Amid his struggles, Bob establishes a tenuous relationship with Nadia, and finally takes a stand in this stark and moving short novel. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
Lehane…is a master of the sort of deadpan-noir pioneered by the late Elmore Leonard… It’s a style full of dark situational humor, sudden mayhem and quirky regional grammar.” — Wall Street Journal
“This book is as authentically grounded in place as his earlier works and more pleasurable than any tie-in novelization…has a right to be. And The Drop benefits from bracing blasts of Lehane-ian humor.” — Boston Globe
“Understated and perfectly paced….What makes The Drop so good is not just the pacing, which is just about right, but the mood…. There’s also the very stylish writing. — Philadelphia Inquirer
“A tight, gritty little tale of working-class crime in Boston… Lehane breathes pulsing life into his story through the small details of his stoop-shouldered characters’ lives, investing their every mannerism with unspoken emotion and the weight of too many bad decisions, all of which makes Bob’s transformation from quiet desperation to quiet determination a powerful kind of existential drama.” — Booklist (starred review)
“The bard of blue-collar Boston crime returns with a sleight-of-hand novel tinged with sin and redemption.” — Kirkus Reviews
Philadelphia Inquirer
Understated and perfectly paced….What makes The Drop so good is not just the pacing, which is just about right, but the mood…. There’s also the very stylish writing.
Wall Street Journal
Lehane…is a master of the sort of deadpan-noir pioneered by the late Elmore Leonard… It’s a style full of dark situational humor, sudden mayhem and quirky regional grammar.
Boston Globe
This book is as authentically grounded in place as his earlier works and more pleasurable than any tie-in novelization…has a right to be. And The Drop benefits from bracing blasts of Lehane-ian humor.
Booklist (starred review)
A tight, gritty little tale of working-class crime in Boston… Lehane breathes pulsing life into his story through the small details of his stoop-shouldered characters’ lives, investing their every mannerism with unspoken emotion and the weight of too many bad decisions, all of which makes Bob’s transformation from quiet desperation to quiet determination a powerful kind of existential drama.”
Wall Street Journal
Lehane…is a master of the sort of deadpan-noir pioneered by the late Elmore Leonard… It’s a style full of dark situational humor, sudden mayhem and quirky regional grammar.
SEPTEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
Even before the announcement that James Gandolfini would play the lead character in the movie version of THE DROP, it was clear that the character was created with him in mind. To that end, Jim Frangione performs the audiobook with a remarkable nod toward Gandolfini as Cousin Marv. It's not an imitation but enough of an echo of Gandolfini's Tony Soprano to make this book work on many levels. The writing is expert in its simplicity: The Boston-area Mob uses local bars as drop-off points for their cash, which works until there’s a robbery. Marv and his well-meaning cousin, Bob, find themselves in a dangerous situation, even as Bob wrestles with his own demons. Frangione imparts a gentleness in Bob, making him the most decent person in the novel. M.S. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-08-27
The bard of blue-collar Boston crime returns with a sleight-of-hand novel tinged with sin and redemption. The latest from Lehane (Live by Night, 2012, etc.) is a novel with an unusual genesis, and it's shorter and less intricate than usual. It began when he was asked to adapt one of his short stories ("Animal Rescue") for a movie. Though his novels have seen success on the big screen, this was his screenwriting debut, and it preceded the writing of this book, which might be dismissed, in lesser hands, as a "novelization" of the film. It's richer than a mere re-creation of a movie on the page because the author gets inside the heads and thoughts of his characters in a way that a movie generally can't. And this particular perspective is crucial when it comes to protagonist Bob, a keep-to-himself bartender who works for Cousin Marv. Both men, like pretty much every man in their neighborhood, have some sort of shady past, but the two have apparently gone comparatively straight. Yet Cousin Marv's bar remains used by the Chechen mobsters who own it as a money drop for transferring funds. Such is the backdrop for what appears to be the main plot, in which lonesome, loveless Bob finds a beaten puppy in a trash can and is persuaded by a woman who witnesses the incident (and who has her own questionable past) to take it home. Since "all he wanted was to not be alone," the connection with both the dog and the woman proves so transforming that he "suspected they might have been brought together by something other than chance." But there's another connection, a crazy thug and rumored killer who claims that both the dog and the woman are his. As the novel progresses, every character has secrets and revelations—except maybe Rocco, the dog—as the plot pivots in some surprising directions. Even one of the novelist's lesser efforts has the signature style, edge and heart to delight fans.
