I’ve been hearing great things about Dennis Lehane for some time now, and I finally bought the first book in his series of mysteries set in Boston. All I can say is, believe the hype. Great writing and a funny yet tortured hero/narrator has me eagerly anticipating the rest of the series.

Patrick Kenzie is partnered with childhood friend and longtime crush Angie Gennaro in a tiny detective agency. Two of Boston’s biggest politicians hire them for a seemingly simple job: find a missing cleaning women who they believe stole some missing documents. Of course, nothing is what it seems, and before you can say “Spenser,” Patrick and Angie are neck deep in poisonous Massachusetts politics and race relations, and are the primary targets in a sudden, vicious gang war.

There’s never all that much of a mystery, although there is some good old-fashioned detective work throughout. They figure out the who and the what relatively early; it’s surviving the fallout that occupies the rest of the book. There are mandatory chases, shoot-outs and showdowns, all of which kept me turning pages. But what will keep me coming back for more are the characters.

In between the flying bullets, Lehane does a marvelous job of creating a damaged but noble hero in Patrick Kenzie. There’s no romance as such in the book, but Kenzie is a wonderful hero; if you like the wisecracking type who wrestles with personal demons in the wee hours, you will fall at least a little in love with Patrick. I know I did.

Since the tale is told through Patrick’s eyes and voice, it’s a bit harder to get to know Angie, although she is compelling in her own right. Married to a long-time abuser and fully aware of Patrick’s unfulfilled longings for her (it’s hard not to be when he flirts with her as relentlessly as he does), she is an enigma to Patrick and ultimately to the reader. She’s tough as nails covering Patrick’s back in the streets, and then goes home to a man who is likely to send her back to work the next day wearing sunglasses or long sleeves to cover bruises. Yet she never seems like a victim.

The chemistry between the two is a delicate thing and wonderful to watch. Patrick is at least a little in love with Angie but fully aware of the dangers in that. Knowing he can’t hide it, he instead defuses it by proclaiming it constantly in flirtations and only half-joking proposals to join him at his place later. There is a truly riveting scene where Angie finally calls him on this and other personal stuff that has been haunting him throughout the story; it’s stuff like this, and not the gunfights and car chases, that make a great mystery story for me. As much as I’d love to see them together, I fear what might happen if the precarious balance between them changes in any way. It’s the same delicious yet fearful anticipation I enjoy watching “couples” like Scully and Mulder, or Spike and Buffy.

For all the romantic potential, A Drink Before the War is not a romance, and there is a level of violence and language that may turn off some readers. It’s definitely of the grim and gritty school of mystery writing, although Patrick’s humorous narration lightens things up. You may be shocked by some of the actions of the heroes, but then, so are they, and they do not walk away lightly from what they do. The best thing about A Drink Before the War is that it’s only the first in a series that so far has four more books. I can’t wait to read them all.