Sometimes it’s difficult for me to tell if I’m really
enjoying a book while I’m reading it, until weeks later I find the story
lingering in my mind. This was the case with Since We Fell, though it has less to do with Dennis Lehane’s
writing style than it does with my not frequenting the mystery genre. When
you’re trying out something new, there’s a give and take to whether the new
stuff sticks or not. Often, the results aren’t settled immediately after
finishing the book.
I’ve read a few other reviews of this book online. Some
people claim that it took the story a while to get going when compared to other
Lehane novels. I certainly didn’t experience that. I had the advanced reader
copy on my phone and stayed up late a few nights reading it, ignoring the
inconvenience of reading ten lines of text per page and staring into the vortex
of the iPhone (sometimes with one eye shut) in the night bedroom. I often
forced myself to stay awake to gather the next piece of the puzzle.
The book opens dramatically; our protagonist has a gun in
her hand and she’s just shot her husband. She’s grappling to make sense of the
discordant feeling of love she has for him. The gun has been used, and now we
want to find out why. We jump backward in Rachel Child’s life to figure out how
she got into this situation and what could have brought this unassuming girl to
such violence.
The book has three sections with separate plot devices
pushing the narrative. In the first, we get an overview of our protagonist’s
developing years as well as the first intrigue that drives the plot—Rachel’s search for the father whose identity her mother kept secret.
Toward the end of the first section, Rachel departs for a career as a reporter.
She makes a name for herself covering large-scale events. She is sent to Haiti
upon the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake to cover the devastation and
subsequent cholera outbreak. After some extremely traumatic experiences and an
emotional outburst on camera, she loses her job.
The second section attempts to restore some normalcy to
Rachel’s life. She’s suffering severe panic attacks and stays mostly within the
confines of her apartment, but she has a seemingly comfortable relationship
with her new husband. He’s supportive of her fragile mental state and they
share a strong connection. They get each other’s sense of humor, share the same
friends, and catch each other’s pop-culture references. Toward the end of this
section, as Rachel starts to work up the courage to leave their apartment, we
begin to suspect that either her husband is leading a double life or Rachel’s
paranoia is pulling her further from stability. This triggers the next mystery
that continues through the third section.
The third section is the most action-packed and climactic of
the book. Rachel is pulled into a dangerous world beyond anything the first
part has set up. Murder, more mind games, and two ruthless men with guns keep
this section moving along.
Since We Fell was
a fast read, with a storyline full of intrigue and suspense and tied to
relevant world events from the year 2000 on. Lehane’s characters share a
sarcastic sense of humor and refer to pop culture from their formative years on
(Radiohead, Tom Waits, Beyoncé). My only gripe is, for all the background provided
and events that happen to them, the characters lack depth. They’re written as
if Lehane’s more concerned with making them hip than relatable. Rachel has suffered
traumatic events, but panic attacks aside, we don’t sense any complex emotions.
The characters tend most often to sarcasm and cultural allusion, which makes
the dark story more fun, but leaves the characters themselves rather like
clichés. The book could be taken to another level with a marriage of its wit to
more complex psychology. That would make it another kind of novel though. What
we have is still an expertly crafted, hip, and suspenseful storyline sure to be
fun for fans of the genre.
~Ben, Adult Services
~Ben, Adult Services
