Shutter Island - Hardcover

Lehane, Dennis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688163173 ISBN 13: 9780688163174

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 2003

Synopsis

The basis for the blockbuster motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane is a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems. The New York Times calls Shutter Island, “Startlingly original.” The Washington Post raves, “Brilliantly conceived and executed.” A masterwork of suspense and surprise from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, Shutter Island carries the reader into a nightmare world of madness, mind control, and CIA Cold War paranoia and is unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

About this title

Review:

Shutter Island is something of a departure for Dennis Lehane. It is not like the private eye novels with which he made his name and it is not especially like Mystic River, his distinguished crime novel about murder, loyalty and revenge. Instead, he gives us a classic of psychological suspense--US Marshal Teddy is summoned to a remote hospital for the criminally insane to look for a missing patient and finds his own future and sanity on the line. It is the 1950s and experiments with drugs, conditioning and brain surgery are all the rage both in the psychiatric profession and in the shadow world of government agencies.

Teddy rapidly becomes aware that no-one he is talking to is remotely telling him the truth and that he cannot be wholly sure even of his charming new partner. As the island hospital is isolated by a hurricane, we find ourselves unable to trust a single thing that the narrative tells us--Lehane displays a gift for sleight of hand which is showily disorienting. At the same time, this is not just a box of tricks. We find ourselves caring deeply for Teddy and his partner Chuck, whatever is going on and whoever they really are.--Roz Kaveney

Review:

"'A psychological tour de force.  Absolutely nothing is as it seems in this effortlessly complex thriller'" (The Times Literary Supplement)

"Lehane's new novel carries an ending so shocking yet so faithful to what has come before, that it will go down as one of the most aesthetically right resolutions ever written. But as anyone who has read him knows, Lehane, despite his mastery of the mechanics of suspense, is about much more than twists; here, he's in pursuit of the nature of self-knowledge and self-deception...A tour de force." (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred))

"Lehane, you'll gradually realize, is playing tricks with your head. And by the time you get to the brilliant twist at the end, you'll be questioning your own sanity, too. Chilling, thrilling and so clever you'll be chewing it over long after the final page" (MIRROR)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0688163173
• ISBN 13: 9780688163174
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 325