Saturday, March 13, 2010

Shutter Island by: Dennis Lehane


Synopsis:

The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple-murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.
[from barnesandnoble.com]

I ordered this book a while ago to read before seeing the movie, and I just got around to finishing it up.

I loved this book. Right from the start it's a mystery that captures the reader, especially with the isolated environment. His details about the Hospital and its surroundings are amazing, very well written. As were the characters. I loved the little backgrounds into Teddy's past with himself and Dolores. They not only added depth to the character, but they were very well written. Teddy was, all around, a really well written main character.

This read like a good ol' mystery at first, but soon turns into a totally mind boggling story. It's definitely a psychological thriller.

I can't say a lot without giving something away, and that would definitely take away from the experience of reading the novel. But the combination of a great setting, awesome characters, and a plot that just twists and turns in the greatest of ways, makes for a great novel. Definitely one I'll be reading again, only to see if I can catch clues and hints that I missed the first time around.

Wonderful read. I'll definitely be checking out more by Dennis Lehane. Hopefully the movie does the novel justice!

My rating: 10/10

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