World Gone By

March 9, 2015
Edgar-winner Lehane wraps up the Joe Coughlin saga that began with The Given Day (2008) and Live by Night (2012) in fine fashion. By 1942, Irish-American gangster Joe Coughlin is almost untouchable. In his own mind, he's an irreplaceable asset not only to Dion Bartolo, the head of the Bartolo crime family, but to Mafia bosses such as Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and Frank Costello. So Joe is shocked when convicted killer Theresa Del Frisco tells him that there's a contract out for him. Life in the mob is cutthroat and treacherous, and while Joe worries about a possible hit, other matters intrude as fights over territory turn bloody and fears of a snitch create suspicions. Coughlin is a marvelous creation, loyal to his friends and fiercely protective of his nine-year-old son, Tomas. The code he operates under allows him to navigate a path between brutality and charity, a shark among sharks. Lehane's many fans will relish this stunning conclusion to Joe Coughlin's journey. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary.

Starred review from January 1, 2015
A multilayered, morally ambiguous novel of family, blood and betrayal.Working against a backdrop of World War II, Lehane continues and perhaps concludes the ambitious series of historical novels that began with the epic sweep of The Given Day (2008) and continued with Live By Night (2012). Almost a decade after the climactic carnage of that second novel, protagonist Joe Coughlin has apparently left the violence of his gangster past behind, mixing easily in the upper echelons of Tampa society, serving behind the scenes as "the fixer for the entire Florida criminal syndicate." Still a widower and now a devoted father to his young son, he appears to be above the fray, a respected figure without enemies. Yet he's haunted by the ghost of a young man he can't quite identify, and he's threatened by a rumor that someone has threatened a hit on him for reasons unknown. He experiences tension between some of the mob leaders to whom he feels loyal, amid rampant speculation of a rat in the ranks who's skimming and perhaps snitching. He's also having an affair, one that seems doomed. On the surface, this is a crime novel that adheres to convention, but Coughlin has a depth beyond genre fiction, with a sense of morality and a code of ethics that the life he has chosen frequently puts to the test. As a particularly evil adversary warns him, "You have put a lot of sin out into the world, Joseph. Maybe it's rolling back in on the tide. Maybe men like us, in order to be men like us, sacrifice peace of mind forever." While this seems to lack some of the literary ambition of Lehane's best work, its cumulative thematic power and whip-crack narrative propulsion will enrich the reader's appreciation past the last page. On one level, a very moving meditation on fathers and sons; on another, an illumination of character and fate.

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Starred review from February 15, 2015
Like Michael Corleone, Joe Coughlin, Tampa crime boss from Live by Night (2012), has had enough of gangland and seeks to carve out a separate peace for himself and his son, Tomas. It's the 1940s now, wartime, with the wild ride that was Prohibition far in the past, and Joe is happy to serve as consigliere to the crime family he once ruled, leaving his old Boston friend Dion in charge, and staying far enough out of the business to remain on the good side of everyone, on both sides of the law. Why, then, has someone apparently taken a contract out on Joe, the Teflon gangster before Teflon was invented? Jumping between Tampa and Cuba, Lehane writes the last movement of his epic, three-volume historical saga (The Given Day, 2008, preceded Live by Night) in a distinctly minor key. The reader hears Matthew Arnold's eternal note of sadness seeping into the narrative before Joe does, the ever-confident boss and fixer continuing to juggle multiple balls (competing loyalties, a politically connected mistress, the needs of his son) with little thought to the gathering storm. Joe has always been just enough smarter than everyone else, but even a shrewd man collects baggage, and the weight of that baggage, like the weight of the past itself, takes a toll. Over three volumes, Lehane has written the tragic history of a man and his family, moving from freewheeling optimism to abiding melancholy as the full force of a lifetime of choices closes the doors those same choices once opened. Yes, it's a novel of crime and passion on a grand scale, but it also brilliantly evokes the inevitably heartbreaking arc of living and dying familiar to us all. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The conclusion of Lehane's Coughlin trilogy is a landmark event in popular fiction, and it will be promoted as such.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2014

Lehane has won Edgar, Anthony, Barry, and Shamus awards for his blockbuster chillers, but this book is BISACed as literary fiction, which says something important about the latest from this vividly smart writer. Here, Lehane harks back to Joe Coughlin, protagonist of his Edgar Award winner, 2012's Live by Night, now serving as consigliere to the Bartolo crime family ten years after enemies murdered his wife. Moving between Tampa and his wife's native Cuba, Coughlin is enjoying himself even as world war rumbles onto the scene again. But of course the past comes knocking. With a 300,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015

The closer of Lehane's trilogy featuring his Boston-bred protagonist Joe Coughlin (after 2008's The Given Day and 2012's Live by Night) follows a more mystical path than its predecessors. The book has more literary aspirations as well: it's classified as literary fiction, not crime or historical fiction. After a bloody rise through the ranks of the Florida Mafia and the murder of his wife, Graciela, Joe is now the Bartolo family's consigliere. Local and regional bosses look to him for guidance and adjudication; some pine for the days when he ran things and everybody got rich. But when he hears of a plot to kill him and starts seeing ghosts, Joe ponders his violent past and worries about leaving his son Tomas an orphan. VERDICT Expect high demand for this title, no matter the BISAC classification. Fans of Lehane and of his historical series will line up to read the finale, as will those who enjoy Mafia and organized crime stories. A movie version of Live by Night (directed by and starring Ben Affleck) is in the works, which should provoke even more interest in the series. [See Prepub Alert, 7/7/14.]--Liz French, Library Journal

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.