Mystic River (book)
|
|
- This article is about the novel entitled Mystic River.
- For the article about the movie based on this book, see Mystic River (movie).
- For the article about the eponymous river, see Mystic River.
Mystic River is a novel by Dennis Lehane that was published in 2001. It was made into an Oscar-nominated film by Clint Eastwood in 2003.
The book focuses on the stories of three boys who grow up as friends in Boston—Dave Boyle, Sean Devine, and Jimmy Marcus. When the story opens, we see Dave abducted by a pedophile while Dave, Sean, and Jimmy are playing on a side street. Dave is returned home days later, obviously shaken by his experience. The book then moves forward 25 years: Sean has become a policeman, Jimmy is a convenience store owner (and ex-convict), and Dave remains a fractured eggshell of a human being. Jimmy's daughter disappears and is found brutally murdered in a city park, and that same night, Dave comes home to his wife, covered in someone else's blood. Sean is assigned to investigate the murder, and the three childhood friends are caught up in each other's lives again. Complicating matters is the fact that Dave and Jimmy are now related by marriage. As Jimmy becomes more and more convinced that Dave is the killer, Sean must work even more frantically in an effort to clear Dave's name, or else bring him behind the safety of prison walls (and out of the reach of Jimmy's anger).