Live by Night
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season432 pages, about 9 hours: the length of 1.4 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbJoe Coughlin starts on a boat off Tampa before the story flashes back to 1926 Boston and a card-game robbery.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, 6 credit the plot and 4 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesKirkus finds its page-turning momentum closer to Lehane’s own Mystic River, on the shelf at 493 pages.
The case for it
on Joe Coughlin
“One of the more compelling characters ever created by Lehane”
Unsigned review · Kirkus Reviews, 2012 on the dialogue
“The dialogue between Joe and Emma is as witty and sharp”
four stars · a book blog on the characters
“Lehane’s characters are very realistic”
Eduan Maggo · Gulf News, 2018 on the pace
“The pace is quick, almost cinematic.”
a book blog
The case against
on the period detail
“weighed down by too much lovingly researched period detail”
Jennifer Reese · NPR, 2012 on the last section
“a breathless compression of too many events”
Matthew Reed Baker · Boston Magazine, 2012 on the length
“the novel is maybe twenty pages too long”
five stars · a book blog on the last pages
“the book seemed to end very abruptly”
a book blog
