Live by Night

The story might sound a bit familiar: A cop’s son falls in with bad guys and becomes one. But in Lehane’s hands, the Prohibition-era tale of Joe Coughlin’s rise to criminal power is both fresh and nuanced, packed with guns, booze, and babes as it roars from Boston to Tampa to Cuba. As Coughlin crosses deeper into the dark side—among those who “live by night and dance fast”—he provokes the question that sustains this propulsive narrative: Can a man be a good mobster and a good person at the same time? Incredibly, Lehane, who becomes more masterful with each book, has us rooting for Coughlin even as he slowly becomes the kind of monster mobster he once reviled and rebelled against.

— Neal Thompson

“Lehane’s novel carves its own unique place in the Prohibition landscape…. This is an utterly magnetic novel on every level, a re-imagining of the great themes of popular fiction—crime, family, passion, betrayal—set against an exquisitely rendered historical backdrop.”

— Booklist (starred review)

“Masterful…. Lehane has created a mature, quintessentially American story that will appeal to readers of literary and crime fiction alike.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)