The Drop by Dennis Lehane

Ooh, this was good. This was so good I picked it up from the library at 2pm and had the whole thing done by the time I went to bed. It’s not a Patrick & Angie story, but if you like anything by Dennis Lehane (and the only way you could not is if you haven’t read anything by him, and you should really do something about that) you’ll like this.

Set in Boston (of course) just after Christmas, The Drop stars a lonely guy named Bob, who works in a bar. Bob’s cousin Marv used to own the bar, but it’s run by Chechen mobsters who use it as a “drop” for gambling profits. One night, the bar gets robbed, and Bob and Marv are not so nicely told by said mobsters that they need to get that money back. Now. Meanwhile, Bob has found a sad little pitbull puppy (who makes it to the end just fine, for those who might be worried) in a trashcan, and while taking care of the pup befriends a sad girl with a scar on her neck and a bad ex-boyfriend.

This is a short (200-odd pages), tightly wound, fast-paced book. It moves, moves, moves. It’s good, too. The story has so many twists and turns that you lose track, and Bob (who I could totally see being played by Tom Hardy in the movie) has so much density to him that I’m hoping against hope that Lehane provides this guy with background in another novel. He deserves one.

Has anyone seen the movie? Is it any good? Now that I know that the dog will be okay, I’m a bit more interested in seeing it…