#04 – Shutter Island

I will start by saying that this was a difficult book to finally get through reading.  It was the first book I purchased and started reading on my Kindle back in early February.  I found the book when I had seen information on the upcoming movie Shutter Island.  I had not heard of Dennis Lehane before, but that is not surprising given I have not read much in the past.  I first noticed that this was his third book that was made into a movie joining Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone.  I had not read either of those books, but enjoyed both movies.  I figured that they had to be somewhat good enough and I picked Shutter Island because I could finish it by the time the movie came out.

I was reading this book the morning that Caroline passed away.  The truly odd connection was that the part I was reading that morning was where the main character was describing his trouble following his wife’s death.  I am completely serious about that.  I could care less about a lot of trivial things including this book for a long while, that once things settled down and I was looking for a diversion I had a lot of trouble returning to this book.  The fact that I was reading it just 20 minutes before the police showed up at our door pushed me away from this book like we were both magnets.  I was afraid to read anymore for awhile for fear it would just bring me right back to that day.  It was over four months before I could pick up this book again.  It was not as difficult as I had anticipated, perhaps that amount of time had helped.  At any rate, I was able to finish it even if I was just trying to get it over with.

I had not read a suspense thriller in a while, so this was a nice change from my typical leanings toward non-fiction.  I felt pulled into the story, although it did take a little longer to get going.  It was not action-packed and I always felt it was just on the verge of just taking off but it never quite got there.  I thought this book could have been just a little bit more of several things.  Faster-paced at times – I did not feel like the action was as thrilling as it could have been.  Scarier – I thought there was a lot of opportunity to really freak you out given they were trapped with psycho criminals.  Darker – it never gave me a really creeped-out feeling and it seemed primed for that.

It all led to a big twist that was better played out then in the movie version.  I certainly did wonder, in the book, who to believe in the final chapters as it did a much better job of setting that twist up for you.

I make it seem bad, but it is a good read.  I did enjoy it and would recommend if you are a fan of his others or anything set in Massachusetts.  Run out and read it next?  Not necessarily.

Next up…non-fiction again with a biography of the late Chris Farley.