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The Drop
The Drop follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski through a cover scheme of funelling cash to local gangsters -- 'money drops' -- in the underworld of Boston bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv, Bob finds himself at the centre of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighbourhood's past where friends, families and foes all work together to make a living -- no matter the cost.
A moving, gripping thriller, from Dennie Lehane, acclaimed New York Times bestselling autor of Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River, The Drop will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
A moving, gripping thriller, from Dennie Lehane, acclaimed New York Times bestselling autor of Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River, The Drop will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
207 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2014
858 people are currently reading
7507 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Lehane
81 books14.5k followersDennis Lehane (born Aug 4th, 1966) is an American author. He has written several novels, including the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award winning film, also called Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon (Lehane can be briefly seen waving from a car in the parade scene at the end of the film). The novel was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award and won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction, and France's Prix Mystere de la Critique.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,611 reviews
January 29, 2024
NESSUNO È SENZA COLPA
Il protagonista Tom Hardy insieme a James Gandolfini, qui nella sua ultima interpretazione (prima di morire a Roma). Due attori immensi, vederli recitare insieme è pura gioia.
No, nessuno è senza colpa: né lo scrittore, né l’editore, né il traduttore, né il redattore…
In principio c’è stato un racconto, Animal Rescue. Non l’ho letto, lo cercherò: è un racconto breve che fa parte di una raccolta chiamata Boston Noir.
Il racconto è stato adattato per lo schermo dallo stesso Lehane, cioè trasformato in sceneggiatura per un film, intitolato The Drop.
Bel film, riuscito, nonostante il mix di talenti fosse pericolosamente eterogeneo (il regista e uno dei protagonisti dal Belgio, il protagonista inglese, la protagonista svedese, il coprotagonista US).
Insieme a Tom Hardy, la protagonista femminile, la svedese Noomi Rapace, che trovo sopravvalutata, non mi ha mai convinto.
Il libro che ho tra le mani è l’adattamento della sceneggiatura in romanzo.
La cosiddetta novelization, cioè la trasposizione letteraria.
Un procedimento che genera risultati dai quali di solito mi tengo alla larga.
E infatti, ho letto il libro per sbaglio, non sapendo quanto fosse solo un’operazione commerciale.
Insieme a Noomi Rapace, il belga Matthias Schoenaerts, attore dalla media di quattro film l’anno.
Non si capisce a opera di chi sia.
Tendo a ritenere Lehane innocente.
Se non che il nome sulla copertina è il suo.
A peggiorare le cose, l’edizione italiana è sciatta e trasandata.
Ma comunque, leggo i commenti dei lettori di lingua inglese e vedo che hanno fatto fatica a seguire i passaggi della trama, che qualcosa nel testo manca o non è spiegato, o non è spiegato sufficientemente bene…
Noto che un lettore italiano trova i personaggi poco definiti…
Mi si conferma l’impressione che questo romanzo sia un pastrocchio di cui si sarebbe fatto volentieri a meno.
Un confronto tra Tom Hardy e Matthias Schoenaerts.
Ciliegina su una torta venuta male: l’editore italiano adotta un altro di quei titoli che assomigliano ad altri mille, che niente hanno a che vedere con l’originale.
Il regista belga Michaël R. Roskam, che dopo aver scritto e diretto un esordio come “Rundskop-Bullhead” ha meritato un biglietto per Hollywood. Di sola andata? No, non sembra.
Il protagonista Tom Hardy insieme a James Gandolfini, qui nella sua ultima interpretazione (prima di morire a Roma). Due attori immensi, vederli recitare insieme è pura gioia.
No, nessuno è senza colpa: né lo scrittore, né l’editore, né il traduttore, né il redattore…
In principio c’è stato un racconto, Animal Rescue. Non l’ho letto, lo cercherò: è un racconto breve che fa parte di una raccolta chiamata Boston Noir.
Il racconto è stato adattato per lo schermo dallo stesso Lehane, cioè trasformato in sceneggiatura per un film, intitolato The Drop.
Bel film, riuscito, nonostante il mix di talenti fosse pericolosamente eterogeneo (il regista e uno dei protagonisti dal Belgio, il protagonista inglese, la protagonista svedese, il coprotagonista US).
Insieme a Tom Hardy, la protagonista femminile, la svedese Noomi Rapace, che trovo sopravvalutata, non mi ha mai convinto.
Il libro che ho tra le mani è l’adattamento della sceneggiatura in romanzo.
La cosiddetta novelization, cioè la trasposizione letteraria.
Un procedimento che genera risultati dai quali di solito mi tengo alla larga.
E infatti, ho letto il libro per sbaglio, non sapendo quanto fosse solo un’operazione commerciale.
Insieme a Noomi Rapace, il belga Matthias Schoenaerts, attore dalla media di quattro film l’anno.
Non si capisce a opera di chi sia.
Tendo a ritenere Lehane innocente.
Se non che il nome sulla copertina è il suo.
A peggiorare le cose, l’edizione italiana è sciatta e trasandata.
Ma comunque, leggo i commenti dei lettori di lingua inglese e vedo che hanno fatto fatica a seguire i passaggi della trama, che qualcosa nel testo manca o non è spiegato, o non è spiegato sufficientemente bene…
Noto che un lettore italiano trova i personaggi poco definiti…
Mi si conferma l’impressione che questo romanzo sia un pastrocchio di cui si sarebbe fatto volentieri a meno.
Un confronto tra Tom Hardy e Matthias Schoenaerts.
Ciliegina su una torta venuta male: l’editore italiano adotta un altro di quei titoli che assomigliano ad altri mille, che niente hanno a che vedere con l’originale.
Il regista belga Michaël R. Roskam, che dopo aver scritto e diretto un esordio come “Rundskop-Bullhead” ha meritato un biglietto per Hollywood. Di sola andata? No, non sembra.
November 1, 2014
A couple days after Christmas, Bob, a lonely bartender finds a nearly dead puppy in a garbage can. When the bar he tends is robbed one night, Bob's life circles the drain. Suddenly, a cop named Torres is asking about a decade-old murder, the Chechens that own the bar want their 5,000 dollars back, and a lowlife named Eddie Deeds wants ten thousand dollars for the dog Bob found in the trash. What's a friendless bartender to do?
I've made no secret of the fact that I like my crime books lean and mean. The Drop is certainly that.
Dennis Lehane spins another yarn of Boston's less than sparkling neighborhoods. The Drop, named after Cousin Marv's drop bar, is a tale of secrets. Who killed Glory Days? Who robbed Cousin Marv's? Why does Bob never take communion at church?
Since The Drop started it's life as a short story, it a slim tale and a departure from most of Lehane's more recent work. It could easily be mistaken for an unearthed pulp tale from the days of yore, a slim volume with very little filler. Make no mistake, though, The Drop is pure Lehane. It's pretty amazing what he does to establish a neighborhood in so few pages.
Bob is a likeable loser and I instantly liked him when he pulled Rocco out of the trash. While I was enjoying the tale, I wasn't looking forward to having my psyche shattered if something happened to the dog over the course of the story. As for the humans other than Bob, I wasn't overly concerned if any of them should happen to meet his or her maker. For a short novel, Bob sure has a lot of wolves nipping at his heels. Torres, the Chechens, Deeds, possibly Marv, the poor guy has a lot on his plate.
While I didn't enjoy it as much as the Kenzie and Gennaro books, The Drop shows that Lehane still knows how to spin a crime yarn. Four out of five stars.
I've made no secret of the fact that I like my crime books lean and mean. The Drop is certainly that.
Dennis Lehane spins another yarn of Boston's less than sparkling neighborhoods. The Drop, named after Cousin Marv's drop bar, is a tale of secrets. Who killed Glory Days? Who robbed Cousin Marv's? Why does Bob never take communion at church?
Since The Drop started it's life as a short story, it a slim tale and a departure from most of Lehane's more recent work. It could easily be mistaken for an unearthed pulp tale from the days of yore, a slim volume with very little filler. Make no mistake, though, The Drop is pure Lehane. It's pretty amazing what he does to establish a neighborhood in so few pages.
Bob is a likeable loser and I instantly liked him when he pulled Rocco out of the trash. While I was enjoying the tale, I wasn't looking forward to having my psyche shattered if something happened to the dog over the course of the story. As for the humans other than Bob, I wasn't overly concerned if any of them should happen to meet his or her maker. For a short novel, Bob sure has a lot of wolves nipping at his heels. Torres, the Chechens, Deeds, possibly Marv, the poor guy has a lot on his plate.
While I didn't enjoy it as much as the Kenzie and Gennaro books, The Drop shows that Lehane still knows how to spin a crime yarn. Four out of five stars.
October 31, 2014
This book started out as a short story called Animal Rescue that got its film rights purchased which led to Dennis Lehane writing the screenplay and then this novel. I can only assume that a version turning it into a Broadway musical is also in the works.
Bob is a lonely guy who bartends at a joint called Cousin Marv’s that was, aptly enough, once owned by his cousin Marv who he still works with. The bar is now owned by Chechen mobsters who occasionally use it as a money drop for the illicit cash they accumulate in a day's business. Bob’s quiet life starts getting interesting when he saves an abused puppy that was dumped in a trash can, and this also leads him to a meet Nadia, a woman with more than her share of physical and emotional scars. Things get even more exciting for Bob after Cousin Marv’s is robbed one night. The Chechen owners and a determined cop are pressing for answers as a strange man starts taking an interest in Bob’s new dog.
It’s remarkable how in just a couple of hundred pages that Lehane is able to create a fully realized gritty neighborhood populated with rich characters. It’s downright amazing that he makes it seem effortless. If you know the history of it being transformed from short story to movie and this, then you can see some of the seams where he’s padded out it out, but it still feels like it could have been an old school dime store pulp novel of a character based crime story and been satisfying on its own.
I saw the film version of this before reading it and liked it quite a bit, mainly for the good performances by Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini (His final film.) and Noomi Rapace. There aren’t many differences between the film and this book which isn’t surprising with Lehane working off his own blueprint. This isn’t his best novel, but it’s a very solid piece of fiction that shows what’s made Lehane one of the best crime writers working today.
Bob is a lonely guy who bartends at a joint called Cousin Marv’s that was, aptly enough, once owned by his cousin Marv who he still works with. The bar is now owned by Chechen mobsters who occasionally use it as a money drop for the illicit cash they accumulate in a day's business. Bob’s quiet life starts getting interesting when he saves an abused puppy that was dumped in a trash can, and this also leads him to a meet Nadia, a woman with more than her share of physical and emotional scars. Things get even more exciting for Bob after Cousin Marv’s is robbed one night. The Chechen owners and a determined cop are pressing for answers as a strange man starts taking an interest in Bob’s new dog.
It’s remarkable how in just a couple of hundred pages that Lehane is able to create a fully realized gritty neighborhood populated with rich characters. It’s downright amazing that he makes it seem effortless. If you know the history of it being transformed from short story to movie and this, then you can see some of the seams where he’s padded out it out, but it still feels like it could have been an old school dime store pulp novel of a character based crime story and been satisfying on its own.
I saw the film version of this before reading it and liked it quite a bit, mainly for the good performances by Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini (His final film.) and Noomi Rapace. There aren’t many differences between the film and this book which isn’t surprising with Lehane working off his own blueprint. This isn’t his best novel, but it’s a very solid piece of fiction that shows what’s made Lehane one of the best crime writers working today.
September 22, 2015
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
“What is WRONG with you?”
“Pretty much everything. I’m severely fucked in the ol’ squash.”
Welcome to round two of books that Kelly didn’t even know were movies, where I once again answer my husband’s questions about why I have to read allllllllll the books with . . .
Not that this was a stupid movie. In fact, it was probably pretty damn good, so let’s move on and get to my “review.” Let’s begin with “what is a drop?” Well . . .
“The theory is that every night, all the money [from “illicit gains”] is collected and ‘dropped’ in a preselected bar somewhere in the city. The bar takes all the money from all the illegal shit going on in the city that night and sits on it until the morning. And then some Russian in a black leather trench coat and too much aftershave shows up, takes the money, and runs it back across the city to the syndicate.”
It just is what it is and Bob has spent his entire life working for his Cousin Marv in one of said “drop bars” . . .
“A successful man could hide his past, but an unsuccessful man spent the rest of his life trying not to drown in his.”
This is Bob’s story about how his life changed after he had something worth living for . . .
Of course, since it’s Dennis Lehane it’s not a tale of rainbows and unicorn farts. Like every Lehane story I’ve read to date nothing can be taken for face value. You meet the cast of characters, determine who is bad and who is good and what is right and what is wrong – and then???? Then you realize . . .
and stuff like this . . .
and this . . .
starts to happen.
Which leads to a good news/bad news situation. The good news is, The Drop was a novelization of the movie so nothing was missing. The bad news is, The Drop was a novelization of the movie so nothing was missing. I’m not a book-to-film purist (in fact, this makes me 2 for 2 of not even knowing for sure if a book I’ve been reading really was a movie), but in this case I was left wanting more and that is how the 3.5 Star rating comes into play. I have a buddy read of Mystic River coming up around the bend, so until then I’ll continue make sure I’m living by “The List” . . .
“1. Never trust a convict.
2. No one loves you.
3. Shoot first.
4. Brush three times a day.
5. They’d do it to you.
6. Get fucking paid.
7. Work fast.
8. Always appear reasonable.
9. Get a dog.”
I’ll just go ahead and leave these Tom Hardy/puppy gifs here for the rest of you . . .
You’re welcome.
“What is WRONG with you?”
“Pretty much everything. I’m severely fucked in the ol’ squash.”
Welcome to round two of books that Kelly didn’t even know were movies, where I once again answer my husband’s questions about why I have to read allllllllll the books with . . .
Not that this was a stupid movie. In fact, it was probably pretty damn good, so let’s move on and get to my “review.” Let’s begin with “what is a drop?” Well . . .
“The theory is that every night, all the money [from “illicit gains”] is collected and ‘dropped’ in a preselected bar somewhere in the city. The bar takes all the money from all the illegal shit going on in the city that night and sits on it until the morning. And then some Russian in a black leather trench coat and too much aftershave shows up, takes the money, and runs it back across the city to the syndicate.”
It just is what it is and Bob has spent his entire life working for his Cousin Marv in one of said “drop bars” . . .
“A successful man could hide his past, but an unsuccessful man spent the rest of his life trying not to drown in his.”
This is Bob’s story about how his life changed after he had something worth living for . . .
Of course, since it’s Dennis Lehane it’s not a tale of rainbows and unicorn farts. Like every Lehane story I’ve read to date nothing can be taken for face value. You meet the cast of characters, determine who is bad and who is good and what is right and what is wrong – and then???? Then you realize . . .
and stuff like this . . .
and this . . .
starts to happen.
Which leads to a good news/bad news situation. The good news is, The Drop was a novelization of the movie so nothing was missing. The bad news is, The Drop was a novelization of the movie so nothing was missing. I’m not a book-to-film purist (in fact, this makes me 2 for 2 of not even knowing for sure if a book I’ve been reading really was a movie), but in this case I was left wanting more and that is how the 3.5 Star rating comes into play. I have a buddy read of Mystic River coming up around the bend, so until then I’ll continue make sure I’m living by “The List” . . .
“1. Never trust a convict.
2. No one loves you.
3. Shoot first.
4. Brush three times a day.
5. They’d do it to you.
6. Get fucking paid.
7. Work fast.
8. Always appear reasonable.
9. Get a dog.”
I’ll just go ahead and leave these Tom Hardy/puppy gifs here for the rest of you . . .
You’re welcome.
June 3, 2018
The Drop was originally published as part of the Boston Noir collection, so it only asks of the reader a couple of hours. It is typical Lehane. South Boston, Catholicism, guys who've known each other since high school and are now in their 40s and 50s, cold temps, two female characters in the entire novel and one perhaps matters but that would be the subject of debate. Because of its length, it's more tightly plotted than others I've read of his. It's fine. Not great. Not annoying. The reveal was well-done.
Spoiler for dog lovers:
Spoiler for dog lovers:
March 9, 2017
Fantastic! If you are one to shy away from the grit and troubling realities of a very "realistic" story, than this book may disturb you (some enjoy a more pollyanna type novel, this one definitely is not that). Extremely well written.
February 16, 2020
This is the first Dennis Lehane book I read that doesn't star Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. The Drop is based on a novella called Animal Rescue that was turned into the movie The Drop which Lehane wrote the script for and then turned into this book.
All and all was this a good book. Bob is an ordinary guy, a bit too ordinary for my liking I thought when I read the book. He works at the bar, goes to church every Sunday, but it was finding the puppy that changed his life, made him suddenly snap out of his monotone life. I mistook him throughout the book for being a too soft guy, but then the ending comes and then I realized that the person you should be worried about was not Eric Deeds, the psycho who claimed to own the puppy, but Bob, the kind, and shy bartender...
So this book gets 3.5 stars. It was not as good as other Lehane books I have read, and it would have been just 3 stars if not Lehane had turned the table and made the ending quite spectacular.
(I love Tom Hardy with the puppy so just one more pic)
All and all was this a good book. Bob is an ordinary guy, a bit too ordinary for my liking I thought when I read the book. He works at the bar, goes to church every Sunday, but it was finding the puppy that changed his life, made him suddenly snap out of his monotone life. I mistook him throughout the book for being a too soft guy, but then the ending comes and then I realized that the person you should be worried about was not Eric Deeds, the psycho who claimed to own the puppy, but Bob, the kind, and shy bartender...
So this book gets 3.5 stars. It was not as good as other Lehane books I have read, and it would have been just 3 stars if not Lehane had turned the table and made the ending quite spectacular.
(I love Tom Hardy with the puppy so just one more pic)
March 18, 2015
This is a very engaging novel that follows the life of a bartender named Bob Saginowski. Bob has very few friends; he lives alone in the house where he was raised and he still regularly attends church at St. Dominic's, the Catholic church where he's been going all his life, and which is now slowly dying on the vine. But Bob never takes communion.
He works at a bar called Cousin Marv's, which was once owned by Bob's real cousin, Marv. But several years ago, Marv lost to bar to a bunch of Chechen gangsters and it is now a "drop," or a spot through which the gangsters funnel money. Marv supervises the bar, but he's about as disillusioned as Bob is lonely.
One night on his way home, Bob stumbles across a puppy that's been badly beaten and stuffed into a trash can. Bob knows nothing about dogs, but rescues the puppy and almost immediately bonds with him. That in turn leads him to connect with a mysterious woman named Nadia who once worked at an animal shelter and who schools Bob in how to care for the dog.
Bob's world is then upset again when a couple of stick-up artists rob him and Cousin Marv, getting away with the five thousand dollars they still had in the bar at the end of the night. Fortunately, the Chechens had stopped by earlier and picked up the large sum of money that had been "dropped" there that night, but still, this is not the sort of thing that will endear either Bob or Cousin Marv to their gangster overlords.
From that point, we watch the characters, Bob in particular, play out the hands that the fates have dealt them. The story is set in Boston, which Dennis Lehane obviously knows very well; the characters are very well drawn, and it's great fun watching the story unfold. This is, in effect, the novelization of a film for which Lehane wrote the screenplay which, in turn, was based on a short story that he had written. Lehane's work usually translates very well to the screen, as exhibited by the Academy Award-winning "Mystic River," and I'm anxious to see this one as soon as I get the chance.
He works at a bar called Cousin Marv's, which was once owned by Bob's real cousin, Marv. But several years ago, Marv lost to bar to a bunch of Chechen gangsters and it is now a "drop," or a spot through which the gangsters funnel money. Marv supervises the bar, but he's about as disillusioned as Bob is lonely.
One night on his way home, Bob stumbles across a puppy that's been badly beaten and stuffed into a trash can. Bob knows nothing about dogs, but rescues the puppy and almost immediately bonds with him. That in turn leads him to connect with a mysterious woman named Nadia who once worked at an animal shelter and who schools Bob in how to care for the dog.
Bob's world is then upset again when a couple of stick-up artists rob him and Cousin Marv, getting away with the five thousand dollars they still had in the bar at the end of the night. Fortunately, the Chechens had stopped by earlier and picked up the large sum of money that had been "dropped" there that night, but still, this is not the sort of thing that will endear either Bob or Cousin Marv to their gangster overlords.
From that point, we watch the characters, Bob in particular, play out the hands that the fates have dealt them. The story is set in Boston, which Dennis Lehane obviously knows very well; the characters are very well drawn, and it's great fun watching the story unfold. This is, in effect, the novelization of a film for which Lehane wrote the screenplay which, in turn, was based on a short story that he had written. Lehane's work usually translates very well to the screen, as exhibited by the Academy Award-winning "Mystic River," and I'm anxious to see this one as soon as I get the chance.
January 9, 2015
I'm a Dennis Lehane fan. My favorite of his is "Gone, Baby, Gone". This book, however, has a different tone. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it through the first quarter of the book. Then it grabbed me. Bob and his new found dog turned a corner in their lives and "the Drop" came alive. I was really pleased with the ending.
Highly recommend for mystery/crime fans.
Highly recommend for mystery/crime fans.
March 30, 2017
Let me tell you something. If by some weird, mysterious event, all the books in the world disappeared and all I had left were Dennis LeHane's books, it would be okay. I'd survive. This man, this Dennis LeHane, he is a brilliant writer. Crazy, crazy good.
This book was like less than 300 pages but the way he managed to develop characters and a complicated, twisty plot in such a short amount of time is genius. GENIUS I TELL YOU!!
I got a feel for this rough and dangerous neighborhood straight away. The way people talk, the way LeHane built the scenery, I'm right there. I get it.
Then you have these cousins, Bob and Marv. They run this bar and there's some serious mob shit going on. It's scary. LeHane takes us around the edges of what's really going on but it's always there in the back of your mind while you're reading about Bob finding this puppy in the trash and training it up and making friends...we're distracted by this story. We're falling in love with Bob (and this dog) but always, there is an unsettled feeling because we know...we know that we know, Bob's lifestyle and his involvement with this bar, is not a good thing.
Enter two unreliable characters: Nadia and Eric.
Now things get serious.
If I could grip the sheets and hold my book at the same time for the last 100ish pages, I would have. This book is a nail biter and then at the end BAM, ultimate payoff.
Listen, there's a reason why LeHane's books all become movies. I hear Tom Hardy plays Bob and I cannot wait to watch this. SO EFFING GOOD.
This book was like less than 300 pages but the way he managed to develop characters and a complicated, twisty plot in such a short amount of time is genius. GENIUS I TELL YOU!!
I got a feel for this rough and dangerous neighborhood straight away. The way people talk, the way LeHane built the scenery, I'm right there. I get it.
Then you have these cousins, Bob and Marv. They run this bar and there's some serious mob shit going on. It's scary. LeHane takes us around the edges of what's really going on but it's always there in the back of your mind while you're reading about Bob finding this puppy in the trash and training it up and making friends...we're distracted by this story. We're falling in love with Bob (and this dog) but always, there is an unsettled feeling because we know...we know that we know, Bob's lifestyle and his involvement with this bar, is not a good thing.
Enter two unreliable characters: Nadia and Eric.
Now things get serious.
If I could grip the sheets and hold my book at the same time for the last 100ish pages, I would have. This book is a nail biter and then at the end BAM, ultimate payoff.
Listen, there's a reason why LeHane's books all become movies. I hear Tom Hardy plays Bob and I cannot wait to watch this. SO EFFING GOOD.
September 14, 2017
I just love this guy! Dennis Lehane writes the stuff I want to read. He could write my obituary and I'd be like, "Man, that was great!"
Even when his material isn't top shelf, his prose and characterization still knocks it over the green monstah....Uh-oh, I've started to slip back into my roots. Hell, it can't be helped. Lehane's Boston-based books mesh sublimely with my Masshole upbringing. I love his settings because they remind me of home.
With The Drop we enter a typical Boston dive bar and hang out with typical Southies. Like pretty much everybody else in the fuckin' place, the bartender is a hopeless nobody. But hey, this is a frickin' fairytale, so the guy finds a little ray of sunshine in the form of an emaciated dog. Yeah, that's blue collar Boston for ya, a fucking half-dead dog is enough to add some hope in this schmuck's life.
But this is a Lehane book. It ain't gonna be as simple as all that. Mobsters, petty pricks, and psychopaths gotta wave their dicks around and people are gonna die for it. Let's hope it's the douchebags, but who knows. You never know with this fucking guy. And that's why I love him!
Even when his material isn't top shelf, his prose and characterization still knocks it over the green monstah....Uh-oh, I've started to slip back into my roots. Hell, it can't be helped. Lehane's Boston-based books mesh sublimely with my Masshole upbringing. I love his settings because they remind me of home.
With The Drop we enter a typical Boston dive bar and hang out with typical Southies. Like pretty much everybody else in the fuckin' place, the bartender is a hopeless nobody. But hey, this is a frickin' fairytale, so the guy finds a little ray of sunshine in the form of an emaciated dog. Yeah, that's blue collar Boston for ya, a fucking half-dead dog is enough to add some hope in this schmuck's life.
But this is a Lehane book. It ain't gonna be as simple as all that. Mobsters, petty pricks, and psychopaths gotta wave their dicks around and people are gonna die for it. Let's hope it's the douchebags, but who knows. You never know with this fucking guy. And that's why I love him!
August 31, 2014
3.5 Such an amazing collection of characters and all set in very familiar ground for LeHane, the cruel underside of Boston. A bar robbed, the wrong bar, one that is actually owned by a Chechen mob.
A pathetic and abused pug proves to be the initialing factor that a lonely man named Bob needs to add a little something to his naturally boring life. But is Bob who he pretends to be? Are any of the people, these characters on the up and up? Do they all have hidden agendas and lives filled with secrecy and pain? Well this is a Lehane story and these are the tough gritty streets of Boston, so of course anything goes and often does.
This author is a magician, even things and circumstances that appear normal and make sense, often are twisted around, leaving this reader with a 'where did this come from?" Amazing.
ARC from NetGalley..
A pathetic and abused pug proves to be the initialing factor that a lonely man named Bob needs to add a little something to his naturally boring life. But is Bob who he pretends to be? Are any of the people, these characters on the up and up? Do they all have hidden agendas and lives filled with secrecy and pain? Well this is a Lehane story and these are the tough gritty streets of Boston, so of course anything goes and often does.
This author is a magician, even things and circumstances that appear normal and make sense, often are twisted around, leaving this reader with a 'where did this come from?" Amazing.
ARC from NetGalley..
September 26, 2014
Won this book through a GR giveaway. Thanks, GR!
This book should have been a stillborn between two covers considering the nature of its vertiginously Algerian (the rags-to-riches writer, not the People's Democratic Republic) publication history: a short story for a collection of noir set in Boston rights are purchased for a film adaptation; the short story's author gets paid to write the script for the film, which is now set in the more cinema-friendly setting of Brooklyn; concerned he isn't making enough money, the author dusts cuts and pastes the script and short story together, tinkers here and there with it, and then ships it off to be published in conjunction with the film's release...and so the writer's bank account grows fatter, and his fellow, less financially fortunate crime-writing cohorts grumble bitterly about their lack of Big Screen recognition. The end.
Fortunately, the book shrugs off this dubious lineage, and even though it never fully rises above its obvious monetary trappings, well, at least it's not as bad as the fucking pornofornocacophagomaniacal nightmare that was Thomas Harris's Hannibal Rising!
The Drop starts off with Bob, a lonely Bostonian bartender, slouching and sighing his way home late one post-Christmas eve, when he comes across a pit bull puppy that has been beaten and left for dead in a garbage barrel. Our hero rescues the puppy and as a direct result has a fateful meeting with Nadia, a kindred spirit in damage and possibly the love of his life he's been always waiting for. Luckily the nauseating, lifetime-holiday-original sensibility of this set-up is toned down once stick-up men, Chechen gangsters, a Catholic-apologist cop, and a sadistic jailbird (who happens to be the original owner of the pup) enter into the picture.
Overall, Lehane has written a sober morality play of a crime novel that works more than it doesn't; there are some genuinely fine moments of heartfelt writing, compelling characters, and satisfyingly violent set-pieces. The problem with the book is that it still feels like a screenplay and short story conflation that has been bulked-up to pass as a novel. The result of doing this makes for a quick read, but one that left this reader feeling slightly slighted. I liked this book more than I thought, but sloppy editing, awkward plotting, and underdeveloped characterization makes this book deserve the rating I have given it.
Hope the movie is better, since that is clearly what this book was meant to be.
This book should have been a stillborn between two covers considering the nature of its vertiginously Algerian (the rags-to-riches writer, not the People's Democratic Republic) publication history: a short story for a collection of noir set in Boston rights are purchased for a film adaptation; the short story's author gets paid to write the script for the film, which is now set in the more cinema-friendly setting of Brooklyn; concerned he isn't making enough money, the author dusts cuts and pastes the script and short story together, tinkers here and there with it, and then ships it off to be published in conjunction with the film's release...and so the writer's bank account grows fatter, and his fellow, less financially fortunate crime-writing cohorts grumble bitterly about their lack of Big Screen recognition. The end.
Fortunately, the book shrugs off this dubious lineage, and even though it never fully rises above its obvious monetary trappings, well, at least it's not as bad as the fucking pornofornocacophagomaniacal nightmare that was Thomas Harris's Hannibal Rising!
The Drop starts off with Bob, a lonely Bostonian bartender, slouching and sighing his way home late one post-Christmas eve, when he comes across a pit bull puppy that has been beaten and left for dead in a garbage barrel. Our hero rescues the puppy and as a direct result has a fateful meeting with Nadia, a kindred spirit in damage and possibly the love of his life he's been always waiting for. Luckily the nauseating, lifetime-holiday-original sensibility of this set-up is toned down once stick-up men, Chechen gangsters, a Catholic-apologist cop, and a sadistic jailbird (who happens to be the original owner of the pup) enter into the picture.
Overall, Lehane has written a sober morality play of a crime novel that works more than it doesn't; there are some genuinely fine moments of heartfelt writing, compelling characters, and satisfyingly violent set-pieces. The problem with the book is that it still feels like a screenplay and short story conflation that has been bulked-up to pass as a novel. The result of doing this makes for a quick read, but one that left this reader feeling slightly slighted. I liked this book more than I thought, but sloppy editing, awkward plotting, and underdeveloped characterization makes this book deserve the rating I have given it.
Hope the movie is better, since that is clearly what this book was meant to be.
November 20, 2015
The Drop is my fourth venture into the world of Dennis Lehane and I have yet to be disappointed. More often than not Lehane’s world is that of South Boston, where life is far from easy and people know better than to talk to cops, even when you are sitting across from them at mass. Bob Sagonowski and Eric Deeds come from that world but that is about all they have in common. Bob is homely, hard-working, and very quiet. Classic movie fans might be reminded of Ernest Borgnine’s character in the movie Marty. Eric is handsome, fast talking, and so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew. He’s the type of character that makes you uneasy whenever he appears; a quintessentially evil character with no moral compass whatsoever.
A reader who hasn’t read Dennis Lehane before might think that this is a simple good vs. bad confrontation. Such a reader might be in for a surprise. Nothing is black and white in Boston. There are just varying shades of gray, and some of them are rather attractive.
Bottom line: Lehane as created, in this short book, a collection of very well crafted characters. The plot is simple, yet dramatic. I enjoyed it very much.
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
A reader who hasn’t read Dennis Lehane before might think that this is a simple good vs. bad confrontation. Such a reader might be in for a surprise. Nothing is black and white in Boston. There are just varying shades of gray, and some of them are rather attractive.
Bottom line: Lehane as created, in this short book, a collection of very well crafted characters. The plot is simple, yet dramatic. I enjoyed it very much.
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
December 20, 2014
Years ago, I read and enjoyed Dennis Lehane's short story, "Animal Rescue," in the collection, Boston Noir, about a lonely bartender in a Boston mob bar that finds a beaten puppy thrown in the trash. That story became the basis for the upcoming movie The Drop, adapted by the author himself. So when this book was released, I thought it might've just been the short story collection repackaged for publicity or something. But low and behold, it turned out that the short story was originally part of a nearly-finished novel manuscript! Lehane used the material he developed for the screenplay and now finished the full-length book.
The Drop is a short novel; it's fast and reads very much like a movie, with lots of snappy dialogue and limited scene setting and description. In this way, it might feel less developed than Lehane's other work. But as usual with this writer, the characters stood out to me in this one. Although not as developed as those in Mystic River or The Given Day, I didn't think they were any less well-conceived. I empathized with both main characters Bob and Marv. I really wanted to read more about the cop character of Torres and see the relationship with him and Bob further developed. He was intriguing and I think his character deserves more story. Maybe in another book? The fast pacing and the interesting cast of characters makes this a quick and solid addition to the author's work.
The Drop is a short novel; it's fast and reads very much like a movie, with lots of snappy dialogue and limited scene setting and description. In this way, it might feel less developed than Lehane's other work. But as usual with this writer, the characters stood out to me in this one. Although not as developed as those in Mystic River or The Given Day, I didn't think they were any less well-conceived. I empathized with both main characters Bob and Marv. I really wanted to read more about the cop character of Torres and see the relationship with him and Bob further developed. He was intriguing and I think his character deserves more story. Maybe in another book? The fast pacing and the interesting cast of characters makes this a quick and solid addition to the author's work.
September 25, 2025
A slim offering, yet Lehane still manages to populate it with unique characters to fall in love with and/or be terrified by, and enough violence and humanity to warm your heart while making you want to rip your hair out or run and hide in your closet.
I can't get enough of this dude's stories!!
4 Fully Captivating Stars
I can't get enough of this dude's stories!!
4 Fully Captivating Stars
November 23, 2015
8/10
When the only complaint you have about a book is that it's too short you know you’ve read something good. That is exactly the case here, this is one of the shortest books I’ve read in a long time but it still weighs up there with some of the better books I’ve read this year. To pack all that into such a small amount of space is quite the impressive feat.
Lehane has shot up my list of favourite authors after reading through his Kenzie and Gennaro series but this is the first time I’ve read something outside of them. I needn’t have feared though as it has the same hallmarks as his other books I’ve read; it’s set in Boston, it has some well-rounded characters that are easily relatable and have you rooting for them, twists and turns throughout with a decent ending wrapping up things nicely. It also is set around Christmas so it seemed quite apt to read this around this time of year when the tv adverts are non-stop Christmas.
With it not being a long novel I won’t say much around the plot other than it’s interesting and keeps things tense until the end. The character of Eric Deeds was the thing that stood out the most for me, he was a complex and I was never sure of what he was going to do. At first I thought he was a wimp, then a badass and that kept alternating throughout. Bob and his dog, Rocco, was a nice little tale too and I enjoyed reading about Bob, Marv and Nadia.
Like I mentioned, this could have been quite a bit longer and I would have been glad about it. Lehane can do no wrong in my eyes. I’ve got a few of his books left to read but two of them I’ve seen the movies so there won’t be much of a surprise there I don’t think. This is well worth picking up if you’re new to him as it quickly showcases his skill at describing Boston, great characters and an exciting plot.
If you like this try: “The Winter of Frankie Machine” by Don Wimslow
When the only complaint you have about a book is that it's too short you know you’ve read something good. That is exactly the case here, this is one of the shortest books I’ve read in a long time but it still weighs up there with some of the better books I’ve read this year. To pack all that into such a small amount of space is quite the impressive feat.
Lehane has shot up my list of favourite authors after reading through his Kenzie and Gennaro series but this is the first time I’ve read something outside of them. I needn’t have feared though as it has the same hallmarks as his other books I’ve read; it’s set in Boston, it has some well-rounded characters that are easily relatable and have you rooting for them, twists and turns throughout with a decent ending wrapping up things nicely. It also is set around Christmas so it seemed quite apt to read this around this time of year when the tv adverts are non-stop Christmas.
With it not being a long novel I won’t say much around the plot other than it’s interesting and keeps things tense until the end. The character of Eric Deeds was the thing that stood out the most for me, he was a complex and I was never sure of what he was going to do. At first I thought he was a wimp, then a badass and that kept alternating throughout. Bob and his dog, Rocco, was a nice little tale too and I enjoyed reading about Bob, Marv and Nadia.
Like I mentioned, this could have been quite a bit longer and I would have been glad about it. Lehane can do no wrong in my eyes. I’ve got a few of his books left to read but two of them I’ve seen the movies so there won’t be much of a surprise there I don’t think. This is well worth picking up if you’re new to him as it quickly showcases his skill at describing Boston, great characters and an exciting plot.
If you like this try: “The Winter of Frankie Machine” by Don Wimslow
November 14, 2018
Wham, bam, thank you Dennis Lehane! Started at 8 last night, finished by 10 and oh boy is this good. How good is it? So good that I won't even talk smack about the seven hundred extra commas that are laced throughout the novel for some inexplicable reason, which since I am getting paid to notice stuff like that these days really, really bother me more than they usually do - but I will not to speak of them! So good that I won't even fault the denouement for taking place during the most excruciatingly muffed Super Bowl I have ever watched half of before turning the tv off in disgust in my entire life. This is perfect Lehane, dark and disturbing and funny, with brilliant dialogue and excellent characters (and best of all, no dead kids). The twist at the end that I've come to expect from him goes off perfectly and made my mouth fall open a bit - certainly, if you like to figure out what's going to happen before the book tells you, there are lots of clues to let you know what's coming, but it's books like these that make me happy that I tend to ignore foreshadowing. Now that I have context for all those pictures of Tom Hardy with a puppy that kept popping up all over the place several months back, I'm actually pretty excited to see the movie as well. A rare five stars!
September 18, 2021
6,75/10
Habiéndome gustado, a esta novela le faltan páginas para poder desarrollar todo el potencial que podría haber tenido. Un buen actor principal, una trama interesante y una ambientación con mucha fuerza, el problema es que al final el conjunto se queda algo corto.
La combinación, mafia, Boston y un buen protagonista, hacen que uno se sumerja en sus páginas sin ningún problema. Lehane es un maestro a la hora de mostrarnos la evolución del personaje principal, o más bien cual es su verdadero yo, mientras todo se va enredando a su alrededor hasta que al final se ve en la obligación de decir basta.
La ambientación nos deja un regustillo decadente en la que se nos quiere dar a entender lo mucho que ha cambiado la ciudad de Boston con los años y como la delincuencia de la vieja escuela se ha ido quedando atrás en pro de un nuevo estilo de criminales.
El desenlace cierra la trama, pero como le pasa a todo lo demás, le falta un poco más de sosiego y preparación para que el climax alcance la excelencia.
Con sus virtudes y defectos, La entrega no deja de ser una lectura bastante amena y que debido a sus escasas páginas se lee en dos ratos, algo que agradará a mucha gente, pero que a mí me ha sabido a poco y por ese motivo ha perdido una estrella que seguramente se merecía.
Habiéndome gustado, a esta novela le faltan páginas para poder desarrollar todo el potencial que podría haber tenido. Un buen actor principal, una trama interesante y una ambientación con mucha fuerza, el problema es que al final el conjunto se queda algo corto.
La combinación, mafia, Boston y un buen protagonista, hacen que uno se sumerja en sus páginas sin ningún problema. Lehane es un maestro a la hora de mostrarnos la evolución del personaje principal, o más bien cual es su verdadero yo, mientras todo se va enredando a su alrededor hasta que al final se ve en la obligación de decir basta.
La ambientación nos deja un regustillo decadente en la que se nos quiere dar a entender lo mucho que ha cambiado la ciudad de Boston con los años y como la delincuencia de la vieja escuela se ha ido quedando atrás en pro de un nuevo estilo de criminales.
El desenlace cierra la trama, pero como le pasa a todo lo demás, le falta un poco más de sosiego y preparación para que el climax alcance la excelencia.
Con sus virtudes y defectos, La entrega no deja de ser una lectura bastante amena y que debido a sus escasas páginas se lee en dos ratos, algo que agradará a mucha gente, pero que a mí me ha sabido a poco y por ese motivo ha perdido una estrella que seguramente se merecía.
August 26, 2014
How’s this for a Russian doll of a book? The Drop started life as a short story called Animal Rescue in a crime anthology before being made into a screenplay/movie called The Drop, and now this is the novelisation of the film; all different forms of the same story, all written by Dennis Lehane! Why not just republish/read the original short story, instead of the novelisation of the film it’s based upon? Well…money is probably the answer!
To be honest though I didn’t read the short story and I haven’t seen the film yet (at the time of writing, it’s due for release in Britain in two and a half months), so I can’t compare this to anything.
One night while closing, Marv’s bar is knocked over by a couple of stick-men, taking what’s in the register. Except it’s a Chechen gangster-owned bar. But, now that it’s been hit, they decide Marv’s place is going to be the drop bar for the Superbowl – a drop off point where bagmen deposit sacks of illegal betting cash to be picked up in one drop by the Chechens. And since Superbowl Sunday is the biggest betting day of the year, the jackpot is potentially millions. Meanwhile, Marv and Bob have to figure out who robbed their bar and get the Chechens’ money back by hook or by crook.
But the novel’s not really about that plot. It’s about Bob, a young-ish guy with a chequered past who’s tired of his sad life. He’s a Boston bartender who hates his job. He goes to church, he lives alone, and he’s sick of being lonely. Then an abused puppy he later names Rocco enters his life and along with him, a damaged woman called Nadia. The novel follows Bob’s slowly changing life after he lets in these two souls that make his own life, as well as theirs, less miserable.
The Drop is bleak. I can’t emphasise that enough - it’s a deeply dark story of evil and/or miserable people doing terrible things to one another. It might be “realistic” - I don’t know about crime life in New England, or anywhere really - but it’s so damn depressing to read! I know “liking” or “rooting” for the main character isn’t the point of great fiction but when I read a book for enjoyment, I actually do want to like the main character and I couldn’t really connect with Bob.
That’s because Bob is a one-note guy. He’s tough, he’s cold - he has to be, I get that, if he isn’t then the neighborhood kills him. But in other Lehane novels like Shutter Island or Moonlight Mile, I cared enough about the protagonist’s stories to want to see them through to the end. For Bob, I didn’t really know exactly what he was aiming for - I don’t think he was aiming for anything really, except survival - and I didn’t really care if he made it or not.
In the film he’s played by Tom Hardy which is actually perfect casting because I can easily see the performance. Have you seen Warrior or Lawless? Hardy’s characters in both of those movies are exactly who I saw as Bob, so it won’t be much of a stretch seeing him play this character with the same level of intensity and detachment. It’s also worth noting that The Drop was James Gandolfini’s last movie, so I’ll be checking it out to see the great man’s final performance.
Though it’s a short novel, The Drop doesn’t have much pace to it and the plot ambles for much of the book. There are short bursts of decent action and one or two brilliant dialogue exchanges between the characters but for the most part this is a weak effort from Lehane who is perhaps suffering from telling this story one too many times at this point. It’s certainly not of the same high quality as his other books like Shutter Island or Moonlight Mile.
The Drop is a forgettable crime novel with a love story awkwardly shoe-horned in. It may be dark and gritty but those qualities don’t immediately make for a great crime story – memorable characters and an engaging plot do, and, unfortunately, The Drop is lacking in both.
To be honest though I didn’t read the short story and I haven’t seen the film yet (at the time of writing, it’s due for release in Britain in two and a half months), so I can’t compare this to anything.
One night while closing, Marv’s bar is knocked over by a couple of stick-men, taking what’s in the register. Except it’s a Chechen gangster-owned bar. But, now that it’s been hit, they decide Marv’s place is going to be the drop bar for the Superbowl – a drop off point where bagmen deposit sacks of illegal betting cash to be picked up in one drop by the Chechens. And since Superbowl Sunday is the biggest betting day of the year, the jackpot is potentially millions. Meanwhile, Marv and Bob have to figure out who robbed their bar and get the Chechens’ money back by hook or by crook.
But the novel’s not really about that plot. It’s about Bob, a young-ish guy with a chequered past who’s tired of his sad life. He’s a Boston bartender who hates his job. He goes to church, he lives alone, and he’s sick of being lonely. Then an abused puppy he later names Rocco enters his life and along with him, a damaged woman called Nadia. The novel follows Bob’s slowly changing life after he lets in these two souls that make his own life, as well as theirs, less miserable.
The Drop is bleak. I can’t emphasise that enough - it’s a deeply dark story of evil and/or miserable people doing terrible things to one another. It might be “realistic” - I don’t know about crime life in New England, or anywhere really - but it’s so damn depressing to read! I know “liking” or “rooting” for the main character isn’t the point of great fiction but when I read a book for enjoyment, I actually do want to like the main character and I couldn’t really connect with Bob.
That’s because Bob is a one-note guy. He’s tough, he’s cold - he has to be, I get that, if he isn’t then the neighborhood kills him. But in other Lehane novels like Shutter Island or Moonlight Mile, I cared enough about the protagonist’s stories to want to see them through to the end. For Bob, I didn’t really know exactly what he was aiming for - I don’t think he was aiming for anything really, except survival - and I didn’t really care if he made it or not.
In the film he’s played by Tom Hardy which is actually perfect casting because I can easily see the performance. Have you seen Warrior or Lawless? Hardy’s characters in both of those movies are exactly who I saw as Bob, so it won’t be much of a stretch seeing him play this character with the same level of intensity and detachment. It’s also worth noting that The Drop was James Gandolfini’s last movie, so I’ll be checking it out to see the great man’s final performance.
Though it’s a short novel, The Drop doesn’t have much pace to it and the plot ambles for much of the book. There are short bursts of decent action and one or two brilliant dialogue exchanges between the characters but for the most part this is a weak effort from Lehane who is perhaps suffering from telling this story one too many times at this point. It’s certainly not of the same high quality as his other books like Shutter Island or Moonlight Mile.
The Drop is a forgettable crime novel with a love story awkwardly shoe-horned in. It may be dark and gritty but those qualities don’t immediately make for a great crime story – memorable characters and an engaging plot do, and, unfortunately, The Drop is lacking in both.
February 7, 2017
“Cities,” Bob’s father once told him, “aren’t run from the capitol building. They’re run from the cellar. The First City? The one you see? That’s the clothes they put over the body to make it look better. But the Second City is the body. That’s where they take the bets and sell the women and the dope and the kinda TVs and couches and things a working man can afford. Only time a working man hears from the First City is when it’s fucking him over. But the Second City is all around him every day his whole life.”
The Drop follows Bob, a lonely bartender who, alongside his cousin Marv, manages the aptly titled bar, Cousin Marv’s. A few years back, Marv sold the place to a group of Chechen gangsters who use it as a “drop bar” - a location where the mob leaves their evening take to be picked up in the morning when the heat is off. On one evening, a pair of dimwitted robbers leave with five large from the register and when the Chechens find out, the pressure is on Bob and Marv to get the money back.
If this wasn’t enough, Bob finds a beaten and bloodied dog shivering inside a garbage can not far from his home. Befriending a neighborhood woman who convinces Bob to take the dog in, Bob eventually comes face-to-face with a man claiming ownership of the pooch. This man, Eric Deeds, not only wants the dog back, he also intends to exploit Bob through his connection to a known mob bar.
Lehane keeps the cast of players small and spends a good chunk of time fully exploring each one. It would have been easy for Lehane to create them with cookie cutters based on the length of the novel and the simplicity of the plot - but that isn’t Lehane’s style. His strength lies in crafting compelling characters that normally act within their personalities - something that authors sometimes sacrifice just to throw in twist endings or swerves in the plot
Although this is very much a character-driven story, violence plays a big part in building atmosphere. Blood is spilled all over the pages as people shoot, stab and murder their way through one another as the stakes are continuously raised. Rather than just using the carnage as a way to shock readers, Lehane is more concerned with what it does to those that are left. This drives home the urgency of resolve and had me racing through the pages.
They don’t come more talented than Lehane when it comes to crime fiction. The Drop is a short, albeit fully realized tale of revenge and desperation that is some of Lehane’s best stand-alone work.
The Drop follows Bob, a lonely bartender who, alongside his cousin Marv, manages the aptly titled bar, Cousin Marv’s. A few years back, Marv sold the place to a group of Chechen gangsters who use it as a “drop bar” - a location where the mob leaves their evening take to be picked up in the morning when the heat is off. On one evening, a pair of dimwitted robbers leave with five large from the register and when the Chechens find out, the pressure is on Bob and Marv to get the money back.
If this wasn’t enough, Bob finds a beaten and bloodied dog shivering inside a garbage can not far from his home. Befriending a neighborhood woman who convinces Bob to take the dog in, Bob eventually comes face-to-face with a man claiming ownership of the pooch. This man, Eric Deeds, not only wants the dog back, he also intends to exploit Bob through his connection to a known mob bar.
Lehane keeps the cast of players small and spends a good chunk of time fully exploring each one. It would have been easy for Lehane to create them with cookie cutters based on the length of the novel and the simplicity of the plot - but that isn’t Lehane’s style. His strength lies in crafting compelling characters that normally act within their personalities - something that authors sometimes sacrifice just to throw in twist endings or swerves in the plot
Although this is very much a character-driven story, violence plays a big part in building atmosphere. Blood is spilled all over the pages as people shoot, stab and murder their way through one another as the stakes are continuously raised. Rather than just using the carnage as a way to shock readers, Lehane is more concerned with what it does to those that are left. This drives home the urgency of resolve and had me racing through the pages.
They don’t come more talented than Lehane when it comes to crime fiction. The Drop is a short, albeit fully realized tale of revenge and desperation that is some of Lehane’s best stand-alone work.
December 19, 2022
Se me quedó pendiente la reseña...
No me ha parecido la mejor de Lehane ni de lejos. De la mitad para abajo entre las muchas que tiene partiendo de que para mí este autor es prácticamente una deidad de la literatura.
Una novelita corta, no excesivamente interesante. Diálogos cojonudos, como siempre. Ambientación sin más. Se lee del tirón.
No me ha parecido la mejor de Lehane ni de lejos. De la mitad para abajo entre las muchas que tiene partiendo de que para mí este autor es prácticamente una deidad de la literatura.
Una novelita corta, no excesivamente interesante. Diálogos cojonudos, como siempre. Ambientación sin más. Se lee del tirón.
April 4, 2018
I guess I shouldn't be surprised when a book by Lehane is great, but, considering I found this one in the bargain bin at Barnes & Nobles, I wasn't expecting much. My only complaint would be that it was too short.
There is a lot of drama and action taking place at Cousin Marv's bar, but the book really had me at the bartender, Bob, finding the poor, abused puppy in the garbage bin. There was a lot that took place in this little novel, but to sum it up, it turns out Bob is a lot like me... they should have never fucked with the puppy.
October 31, 2015
What can I say,I love this author. His books are high on my list of favorite things, amongst whiskers on kittens and brown paper packages tied up with string.
Bob lives alone in his deceased parents home. He works as a bartender at a local,rundown bar. He is dependable, reliable and a loner. He lives quietly,attending mass weekly,his only human interaction is on the job. One evening,on his wasy home from work he discovers a beaten pitbull puppy in a garbage can and so it begins.
I loved this book.I loved the characters,which I thought were fully fleshed out. The writing was superb and I begrudged every moment away from this book. I highly recommend it,read this.
Bob lives alone in his deceased parents home. He works as a bartender at a local,rundown bar. He is dependable, reliable and a loner. He lives quietly,attending mass weekly,his only human interaction is on the job. One evening,on his wasy home from work he discovers a beaten pitbull puppy in a garbage can and so it begins.
I loved this book.I loved the characters,which I thought were fully fleshed out. The writing was superb and I begrudged every moment away from this book. I highly recommend it,read this.
February 11, 2015
I’ve got mixed feelings about Lehane: I loved Mystic River and Shutter Island, two of my all time favourite reads, but I disliked The Given Day and I’m lukewarm on his Kenzie and Gennaro books. I keep wondering why he can’t produce more books to the standard of his best work.
So what about The Drop? I hadn’t read any reviews but I could see from the Goodreads ratings that it had received a varied reception from readers. In advance of reading a book I always stay away from the blurb - they’re like the television series spoiler that shows you the whole next episode in less than 60 seconds – or any of the reviews, so I didn’t know what it was about. My first feeling, which lasted for much of the first half of the book, was that it was formulaic and read like a script for a film (which I also knew it had become). I was not attracted to any of the characters and the whole thing felt a little dull and a little… grubby. Then Eric Deeds made his entrance and turned the whole thing around. He’s by far the outstanding character in the book and I really wanted more of him. It’s a pity his story wasn’t fleshed out to a greater extent, to give him more time on the page – though looking back I can see that this might have unbalanced the narrative. The second half disappeared in a blur as the story stalked it’s way to its climactic denouement. By this time I’d lost the sense that it was a generic, lazy tale and was wrapped up and invested in the fate of the participants. And what a very satisfying end to the tale it was. I wouldn’t say it was a major surprise for it to end as it did, but I hadn’t worked out all of the various strands.
Lehane’s major achievement here was to make me care how it played out and to maintain a sense of brooding anticipatory tension that built through the second half of the book. At the end I still didn’t like any of the people I’d read about but I recognise that this is probably what the author would have expected. Overall it was a good, short read. Not his very best but for me it sits just below my two favourites. The man might just be coming back into form.
So what about The Drop? I hadn’t read any reviews but I could see from the Goodreads ratings that it had received a varied reception from readers. In advance of reading a book I always stay away from the blurb - they’re like the television series spoiler that shows you the whole next episode in less than 60 seconds – or any of the reviews, so I didn’t know what it was about. My first feeling, which lasted for much of the first half of the book, was that it was formulaic and read like a script for a film (which I also knew it had become). I was not attracted to any of the characters and the whole thing felt a little dull and a little… grubby. Then Eric Deeds made his entrance and turned the whole thing around. He’s by far the outstanding character in the book and I really wanted more of him. It’s a pity his story wasn’t fleshed out to a greater extent, to give him more time on the page – though looking back I can see that this might have unbalanced the narrative. The second half disappeared in a blur as the story stalked it’s way to its climactic denouement. By this time I’d lost the sense that it was a generic, lazy tale and was wrapped up and invested in the fate of the participants. And what a very satisfying end to the tale it was. I wouldn’t say it was a major surprise for it to end as it did, but I hadn’t worked out all of the various strands.
Lehane’s major achievement here was to make me care how it played out and to maintain a sense of brooding anticipatory tension that built through the second half of the book. At the end I still didn’t like any of the people I’d read about but I recognise that this is probably what the author would have expected. Overall it was a good, short read. Not his very best but for me it sits just below my two favourites. The man might just be coming back into form.
June 3, 2018
Boston is very cold in the winter. I know I've spent several there; but so are killers. The is a story about Boston killers, cold, local ones, Russian mob, and guys trying to get a lot of money quick and easy. But there are those who maybe are associated with killers who are tough, who will defend those few good people and protect the defenseless. They're in the story too.
July 29, 2018
great thriller
September 25, 2014
I usually do the reverse but this week I went to see the movie version of Dennis Lehane's 140 page short story titled "The Drop". The movie was so riveting I immediately downloaded and read the book picturing the late James Gandalfini's last acting role as Cousin Marv and Tom Hardy as the introverted bartender, Bob Saginowski. It's a fast read but an electrifying story of a pair of Boston bar managers using the bar as a money drop for their Chechen mob owners illegal operations in the city. Money, desperation, religion, intimidation, coercion, illegal gambling, violence, love and a pit bull puppy named Rocco are weaved together brilliantly by a master storyteller - Dennis Lehane. I highly recommend both this book and the movie version.
June 12, 2016
One of the best books I've ever read. I basically read this in day's time. Very good descriptive writing. Loved the story and absolutely loved the main character, Bob Saginowski, to the point where he may be my favorite character in a book ever. Top five for sure. Only 200 pages and it reads quick. A lot of memorable characters and a good story. Dennis Lehane has become my favorite fiction writer and along with The Given Day and Mystic River and a couple of McKenzie/Genaro novels. Good stuff.
June 6, 2021
Novela corta o guión cinematográfico? O ambas? El libro narra una historia ambientada en los barrios obreros de Boston. Hay traiciones y culpas con necesidad de redención.
Los personajes son grises, salvo el mafioso principal que es malo malísimo.
La trama se desarrolla rápido con muchos diálogos. Pero el argumento no llena, no te deja con sensación de misterio o intriga. El policía además es tonto, mal armado el personaje.
La traducción, españolísima, no ayuda.
Los personajes son grises, salvo el mafioso principal que es malo malísimo.
La trama se desarrolla rápido con muchos diálogos. Pero el argumento no llena, no te deja con sensación de misterio o intriga. El policía además es tonto, mal armado el personaje.
La traducción, españolísima, no ayuda.
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