Patrick and Angela are assigned by a Boston politician to find Jenna Angeline, a cleaning woman who vanished with some important papers that the politician is very eager to get his hands on. Though wary, the duo take the case and quickly discover that they'll be lucky to make it through the adventure alive. It seems that Jenna's former husband is leader of a ruthless gang who will do anything to get a hold of the papers. Worse, Jenna's son, also leader of his own gang, also wants the papers. When Jenna is murdered and Patrick and Angela have the only clue leading to the whereabouts of the documents, the city streets of Boston are turned into a battlefield as each interested party is desperate to get the papers and none will hesitate to kill for them.

So why do I describe this book as ugly? Because that is the world that Patrick and Angela live in. Both are scarred individuals. Patrick was a victim of the constant abuse of his late father. Angela is trapped in a marriage to a husband that batters her. The taint of racism permeates and infiltrates their lives. The cops who should be saving them are ineffectual. And the politicians who hired them are as corrupt and evil as the gang members who are trying to kill them. Darkness surrounds Patrick and Angela and all they can do is cling to one another and hope they survive the next ten minutes, if not the entire day.

While Lehane captures Boston and his surroundings so vividly I felt I was there, the constant bleakness was a barrier that kept me from fully immersing myself in the novel. So much time is spent with the misery that the characters are going through that it's hard to connect with them emotionally. I just kept waiting for the next tragedy to strike. It would've been nice to take a breather between the gun battles and nasty exchanges with the cops and criminals. I also would've enjoyed more attention to Patrick and Angela's growing affection for one another.

Another problem is Lehane's soapbox style of writing. The author spends a lot of time discussing the problems between blacks and whites, why they exist and the misconceptions that the races have about one another. He even forces the lead characters to look at their own racism (with surprising results). However, rather than presenting the issue and giving the reader something to think about, the characters stand around and make pages and pages of speeches about racial concerns. And when he isn't using that awkward way of getting his point across, Lehane simply puts it in the narrative, making it come across as preaching to the reader rather than letting us draw our own conclusions.

I also found it hard to believe that all the gun battles, shootouts, murders (all of which took place in broad daylight), wouldn't merit more attention by the police (racial problems aside). Lastly, I wasn't quite sure that the contents of the papers would've had two rival gangs so up in arms, killing everything in sight.

While Lehane managed to keep my interest for much of A Drink Before The War, I would only pick up future installments if the author lets a little light shine in the darkness, eases up on the implausible and over-the-top gun battles, preaches less about society's problems and spends more time developing Patrick and Angela's relationship. Here's hoping Lehane is able to do so, he is a raw talent just waiting to happen.

--Anthony D. Langford