Its late spring in Florida and the United States is in the
middle of a second world war. Meanwhile, former crime boss Joe Coughlin is
working for the Bartolo family in Florida and Cuba. After his wife died a
decade earlier, Joe works to raise his son to re-establish himself. So far
it’s working as he’s gained wealth and power. But then everything is on the verge of collapse as Joe learns that someone wants him dead, and he
doesn’t have long to figure out who it is.
Now, before I go any further, I have a confession to make. I
ordered this novel because the description intrigued me. What I did not realize
was that this book is the third in a series. Whoops!
Despite this little oversight, I found myself quickly
engrossed in the story. I was extremely grateful to find the story stands
fairly well on its own. There may have been some characterization I missed, and
maybe a reference here or there, but I was well over halfway through the book
before I ever realized that I may have been missing something.
Rather than depict boring, generic gangsters, Dennis Lehane
breathes life into all of his characters. This is especially true of Joe who
becomes a very sympathetic character despite his affinity for crime (much of
which is violent). One of my favorite parts of the storyline was having Joe
learn early on about the threat on his life, including specifics on when it
would occur. Not only does it set up the intrigue of who is behind the threat,
but it also sets a huge sense of urgency which kept me flipping pages. Second
to this I loved Joe’s interactions with his son, who doesn’t realize everything
his father is involved with.
The one element that I struggled with was Joe’s visions of a
ghost haunting him. Perhaps it was something carried over from the previous
novels, but I never quite understood the point of it. In the end though, it was
just a blip in an otherwise engaging read.
After finishing this story I think I might just have to find
myself a copy of the first two books in this series to see if I enjoy them as
much as I did this one, and too see if they add further insight into the story.
4/5 Stars
About World Gone By
Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: William Morrow (March 10, 2015) Late spring, 1943. The world is at war but the American mob is in its heyday. Former crime boss Joe Coughlin now works as a consigliere to the infamous Bartolo Crime Family, effortlessly handling its interests in Tampa, Boston, and Cuba. In the decade since he lost his wife in a cascade of bullets, Joe has made a home for himself and his son, and once again forged everything out of nothing: money, power, a relationship with a beautiful woman, and a privileged place in Tampa's shadowy underworld. But a rumor surfaces that someone wants Joe dead. And he has only days to figure out who, or he will die. And then there's the ghost?a young boy who appears on the fringes of Joe's vision and seems to be trying to tell him something. Racing against time and fate, Joe hurtles through a violent yet intoxicating world on the brink of total collapse or epic triumph, a world on the cusp of reinvention and rebirth?where the old codes, the old sins, and the old dreams may soon be swept away once and for all.
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I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I'm reading it right now, too, and I agree that Lehane does a really great job with Joe Coughlin, making you feel sympathy for a gangster!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being on the tour!