Title: Sad and Soulful
Product review: Bursting typical genre straightjackets of 'mystery' or 'police procedural,' the brooding, melancholy Mystic River includes elements of both, but puts them in the service of a gripping, fatalistic story.Deeply involving from its first paragraphs, this unusually potent crime novel manages to consistently lay bare the wounded hearts of its hardcase protagonists without ever dipping into sentiment or genre fakery. Not since the early days of James Ellroy has pop crime fiction been so fixated on character, but where Ellroy created lurid masterpieces of near-psychotic aberration, Lehane's people are unforgettable in their ordinariness. For crime novel characters, they're shockingly real.Mystic River isn't for the faint of heart, not because of its violence but because of its genuine despair and anguish. Pulsating with a visceral sense of loss, yet thrilling and compulsively entertaining throughout, this is hands-down one of the best thrillers of recent years.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
