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Since We Fell: A Novel
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Since We Fell: A Novel
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Since We Fell: A Novel
Ebook463 pages7 hours

Since We Fell: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Barnes and Noble Best Book of the Year

Bookpage Best of 2017

Booklist Best Crime Novel

PopSugar Best Book of 2017

The new novel from New York Times bestseller Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island

“Lehane is the master of complex human characters thrust into suspenseful, page-turning situations.” —Gillian Flynn

Since We Fell follows Rachel Childs, a former journalist who, after an on-air mental breakdown, now lives as a virtual shut-in. In all other respects, however, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband. Until a chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray. As does Rachel’s marriage. As does Rachel herself. Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence, and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer unimaginable fears and mind-altering truths. By turns heart- breaking, suspenseful, romantic, and sophisticated, Since We Fell is a novel of profound psychological insight and tension. It is Dennis Lehane at his very best.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMay 9, 2017
ISBN9780062129406
Author

Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane is the author of thirteen novels—including the New York Times bestsellers Live by Night; Moonlight Mile; Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island; and The Given Day—as well as Coronado, a collection of short stories and a play. He grew up in Boston, MA and now lives in California with his family.

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Reviews for Since We Fell

Rating: 3.6730337761797753 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

445 ratings49 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is kind of like a snowball rolling downhill. It starts off rather slowly, but once it picks up speed, watch out! The first part is more informative, where readers get to know characters, at least, we think we do. But then the action starts, complete with deceptions, chase scenes, and murders. But don’t be too confident that you can predict what will happen next. Author Dennis Lehane has inserted enough twists to keep things very interesting. Once you make it to the second half, you won’t want to put the book down.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This one started slowly for a Lehane book, but it picked up steam about mid-book and ended up as a solid thriller. Highly innovative story line, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not your typical Lehane mystery (is that why it's marketed as "a novel"?), but a very good read, nonetheless. There are some atypically exceptional characters here, and some clever plot twists. (Brian)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It gets off to a slow start, but really picks up around the halfway mark. The ending, unfortunately, didn't work for me—it just felt rushed and implausible—which affected my overall impression and left me feeling "meh".
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It didn't seem like a typical Dennis Lehane novel for a while but it held my interest so I kept reading. Plots and subplots. Many surprises. Loved it. Love him.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rachel, a journalist, loses her nerve after covering Haiti. She will not go anywhere until she gets together with Brian who's failed private eye who brings her out of her shell. He turns out to have many secrets and as Rachel finds out about his double life she is drawn into it. WIll she go along with him or not?Novel is suspenseful and romantic at times. There is tension and quirks. Pretty good.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Disappointed with how this story eventually played out. Suspense ending in total unbelievability.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    For the first third I had no idea what the point of the book was and where it was going. But it was interesting. The last two thirds, I couldn't put it down. So good! The last page: WHAT THE HELL!?!? I needed a lot more to happen before the book ended. It went from 4 stars to 3 based on that last page alone. There'd better be a sequel: I'm just saying.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Very slow first half but made up for it at the end!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Living in the Boston area, it is hard for me to admit that I never read a Dennis Lehane novel before. Sometimes, reading a book about your local area comes with happiness when you read about streets you walk down or makes you cringe when you see the stereotypes that other readers will see as fact.In 'Since We Fell' we meet Rachel, a report who paid her dues in the news industry only to have a very public on air meltdown while covering the earthquake in Haiti. You read about her parentage (or lack thereof), her panic attacks and the loss of her marriage. When Rachel reconnects with Brian Delacrouix, it seems that Rachel may be able to claw her way back up. Then the 2nd half of the book begins....I feel conflicted about this book - I read it within 48 hours of starting it because it engaged me from the first and kept me guessing (even though you know that Brian is too good to be true!). What put me off was the abrupt turnaround Rachel and Brian had in the last 1/3 of the book. I understand that people rise to the occasion however Rachel's turnaround required me to suspend my belief. I am still a little fuzzy on Brian's motivation.I enjoyed this book and will recommend it (and to people who live in Boston!) without hesitation. The story covered a lot of territory but all of the plot lines seemed to come together to create Rachel and Brian and the mystery at the heart of the story. Do we define ourselves by our job or our career? What happens when both our job and our career are gone - do we cease to exist? Does our past define who we are or who we become? These are just a few questions that i walked away with after reading this book. I may go back and read a few of Lehane's other books, i just need to get past the bad Boston accents when I do it!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Written to be a movie given all the twists and turns right up until the very end. Who is Brian? an investigator, a rich playboy, a con man, a killer, or all? Is he dead or alive? What sort of person is Rachel--tough? too damanged? too anxious? No one is who they seem in this novel but it was good fun to read and to recognize all the landmarks in MA and ME, even RI.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A real tour de force, ranging from a woman's paranoia to an intense thriller
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lehane is one of my favorite authors. He writes gritty violent crime novels. This is one in the same genre. The plot is very complex and a bit hard to follow. For quite a while I was not sure where it was going. The primary characters are not ones I am too interested in seeing again - once is enough - they are not very appealing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    'Since We Fell' is an unusual Dennis Lehane novel. The writing is still high quality, the plotting very deftly done, the characters nicely developed, but the story is far away from 'typical' Lehane. It's not a detective novel and not really a 'crime' novel per se, but it does have parallels to a few of his other efforts.The first half of 'Since We Fell' is very slow, with lots of background and character development taking place for the main character, a young lady with an unusual background who experiences a career-ending/marriage-ending problem due to her agoraphobia and becomes a near-hermit. She eventually finds love once again with a guy who seems perfect. Or is he?The 2nd half of the book picks up the pace, and the level of intrigue scales up almost by the page. Things most definitely aren't what they seem and that's about all I can say without spoiling a huge plot turn that makes the book such a great read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite writers. Much like Kate Atkinson he not only can write good thrillers but he also has good literary skill that infuses his characters with many layers. It ends up making for both a character and plot driven novel and in this case a page turner. When you are dealing with thrillers, you don't want to give away too much of the plot but Dennis Lehane has written Mystic Rive and Gone Baby Gone so if you are familiar with these books(and good movies) and like them then you will like this. A prolific author like Lehane will always be judged against his previous work which can be slightly unfair but it is hard to not compare an authors work to things that you have read previously. This story's lead character Rachel is a first for Lehane being a female. He spends the beginning of the work really setting us up with her character as she deals with looking for her unknown father, dealing with her somewhat cruel mother, and just trying to get on with her life. She becomes a successful print and TV journalist and we see her involvement with men and psychological problems that plague her. With this foundation in place Lehane creates a real page turner. I actually read the last 300 pages in a day. Whether you have read Lehane or not this is a good choice. Hopefully, once you read it you will go back and read some of his other books. An excellent author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In his latest page-turner, Lehane takes us on a roller coaster ride of family relationships, romance, personal journey, and intrigue. From its opening sentence, we know the novel will be a page-turner, and it doesn't disappoint. Along the way, we get to know the main character Rachel as she tries to locate her biological father in order to achieve a sense of belonging in spite of her mother's extreme distancing and frigidity. We suffer with her through an unhappy marriage and the trauma of covering the tragedies and evil in Haiti as a journalist, leading to ptsd. We are relieved when she finds true romance and security in the loving relationship with Brian. However, all is not as it seems, and finally Rachel is in flight from extreme danger, law enforcement, and international hit men. This novel works so well because of the complex characters and intricate plotting make it possible for us to gladly ignore implausibility. We can hope there will be a follow-up in the future.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed the book right up until the end. I felt like the story needed to go a little further to provide some closure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rachel Childs is a former journalist who has an on-air breakdown, and retreats from life. However, her search for her unknown father leads her to an acquaintance with a man who eventually becomes her husband. She appears to have the perfect life, but no one is who they seem to be in this psychological thriller.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I feel like there is more than one story in here. I didn't particularly like the first half but by the time I got to the second half it's a thriller and everything has turned on it's head and I got jacked! I really enjoyed the story once the pacing picked up, but it was like two separate stories were mushed together. A reporter turns recluse after an embarrassing meltdown on live TV in Haiti and her divorce. Then she runs into a private detective that she hired when she was younger and was trying to find out the identity of her father. The reporter and the former PI get married and everything is fine until Rachel discovers that her husband may be lying and leading a second life. Once that happens shit hits the fan and everything picks up quickly. Overall not a bad read.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This was such a let down after the last Lehane book I read. The book falls into two halves and the two halves just don't glue together. The plotting is corny and so is the attempt at hard boiled dialogue. The action sounds like a description of a film which is what I guess this novel is pitched at. What a falling off in quality.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not up to part with Dennis Lehane’s other novels. Characters are annoying and stereotypical.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Having fallen behind in keeping up with Mr. Lehane's books, I was very happy to find this. I settled in for the read I was sure to get.

    Rachel is a woman on a career track most people would kill for - she's a widely regarded investigative reporter.

    Rachel wants nothing more than to find the father whose identity her mother took to her grave. She hires Brian to help her find him. He refuses in the long run.

    Years later, Rachel's career took a total nose dive when it became obvious she had lost her objectivity. Disgraced, she turns back to the search for her father. Does she find him?

    Rachel loses herself to panic attacks to the point she won't leave the house. Reenter Brian.

    The story of how Brian coaxes Rachel back to the land of living is incredibly touching. Sure, there are setbacks even with the most devoted of couples. But there is nothing but trust between them (well, that and love).

    Then Rachel sees Brian in one place when he's supposed to be in another.

    And from there is a good Lehane mystery. I won't say it's my favorite, but it is excellent entertainment by one of the best.

    If you love stories with twists you will never see coming, then twists the other way that make you say, "Whoa!" this is the book for you.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    All over the place, a great ride, but a "say what?!" Unsatisfactory ending.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not terrible, seemed more like a mediocre movie then a good book. I read this after reading "mystic river" which was much better. Mystic river was able to set a tone and carry that through the plot. This book has a much weaker plot, to many instances of a main character pulling off last minute feats. It wasn't slick enough or realistic enough, it straddled both poorly.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've enjoyed the couple of Dennis Lehane books I've read, and I enjoyed this one. It's full of gullibility, con men, bad choices, panic attacks, difficult relationships, and someone who is afraid to leave her house. And it was entertaining; I enjoyed reading it. But for me, it doesn't hold a candle to Lehane's Shutter Island. Instead, it's more in line with other psychological thrillers/mysteries I've read by countless authors. This one doesn't really set itself apart.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rachel Childs is a television journalist in Boston whose career is on a steep upward trajectory until she is sent to Haiti on assignment after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The horrors that she sees and experiences there leave her with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder that becomes apparent when she breaks down during a live report.Back in Boston, her news career in shambles, Rachel struggles with panic attacks that leave her afraid to even leave her apartment. Her marriage doesn’t survive, but when she meets an old acquaintance by chance, his patient understanding of her problems leads to romance and eventually marriage. With Brian’s help, Rachel starts to re-emerge from her self-imposed exile. Her tentative journey back to normalcy is jolted, however, when she inadvertently ventures downtown and discovers Brian in a place where he shouldn’t be. Her furtive attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery without tipping him off to her suspicions leads her deeper and deeper into a dangerous situation where no one is who they seem.For my money, Dennis Lehane is one of the most underrated mystery/thriller writers in the business. Yes, several of his previous novels, Mystic River and Shutter Island among them, were turned into feature films, but the books themselves never generate much discussion among my friends who enjoy Harlan Coben, Linwood Barclay, and others. With Since We Fell (Ecco, 2017), Lehane has delivered another intricately plotted examination of people who are not what they seem being driven to extremes by circumstances they can’t control. I appreciated that Rachel, despite her emotional fragility through much of the first part of the novel, is far from a hapless victim waiting to be rescued. She manages to engineer her own rescue on her own terms, even as she accepts the consequences of what she has to do in the process.Lehane builds the narrative tension slowly but surely (perhaps a little too slowly) to a white-knuckle finish that seems both unexpected and inevitable. Nothing about this book made me any less eager to read the next offering from a first-rate writer.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Since We Fell by Dennis LehaneRachel is a former journalist who has some what of a break down on-air. Her life is greatly altered and she lives a secluded life. Once having the perfect life she finds her marriage in shambles. Soon she is filled with deep thoughts, and things may not be exactly what she thought they would be.The story starts slow, then moves at at more even pace. Rachel is definitely at a cross-roads in life and you can feel her emotions on every page. I was pulled in and not able to let go. An intense psychological thriller, those who like this genre should enjoy it as well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4.5 stars. Dennis Lehane is a masterful writer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a review of a free book I received via the Amazon Vine Programme.

    I am reviewing the book Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane. This is essentially a love story, shrouded in suspense and family drama. When Rachel meets Brian, they're made for each other, but can their love sustain the choices they make? Here are my thoughts:

    ^^ I am a fan of Dennis Leahane's work, so was eager to read his latest book. But, I have to admit at first I thought this was a bit slow going at the beginning. Part One covered the searching for her father, and hearing how her relationship with her toxic mother had affected her, and was still affecting her after her death.

    ^^ Then it sped up and by the last third I was reading unbelievably super-fast and only then realising how it all came together, and why I needed so much background detail earlier. What I thought was slow going was actually providing a deep insight to why she'd have trust issues and provide motivation for her actions years later. I understood how Rachel's mother abandoning her contributed to her own lack of self-worth, and why she carried around with her so much guilt about a girl in Hati. After my original slow start I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did.

    ^^ Once again Lehane has proved to me (not that he really needs to!) just how much of a superb writer he is. He has such a distinctive way of writing which makes me feel like I'm seeing this played out on a screen, watching a movie in my mind.

    ^^ It's not one of those books that you're trying to work out who did it. You know straight away from the first line: "On a Tuesday in May, in her thirty-fifth year, Rachel shot her husband dead. He stumbled backward with an odd look of confirmation on his face, as if some part of him had always known she’d do it."

    ^^ What this story does it raise the question, "Why?"

    ^^ I also love Rachel and Brian's relationship. They mess each other about something chronic. They love each other, they hate each other. It seems like their relationship shouldn't work, yet it does. In fact, Brian is good for her! Honesty, if this sounds complicated it's only because their love story is complicated. They are two messed up characters, and pretty realistic with it.

    ^^ The ending has some great plot twists, and was quite emotional. It's one of those books that kept me thinkin g long after I'd read "The End".

    Overall: Characterisation is a big part of what I love about Dennis Lehane's writing, his characters are never boring or straightforward, even the good guys have issues. You get to see into the lives of the main two characters and see how they touched the lives of others. Everyone is looking for something in their life, or wanting to be something they're not. What this book asks is "Why?"

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Marriage is a topic that has been covered extensively in books, from self-help books to romance novels to literary fiction to mysteries and thrillers. Today’s column reviews two novels with the theme of marriage, albeit with a slightly different take.In Dennis Lehane’s newest novel “Since We Fell”, Rachel Childs is a local TV reporter sent to cover Haiti after a disaster. Her reporting earns her a chance at a network TV assignment, but when she has an on-air breakdown, she loses her opportunity and her husband leaves her. She becomes a recluse, rarely leaving her apartment. She reconnects with Brian, a man she knew as a private investigator while looking for information about her birth father. Brian rescues her from a man in a bar, and they begin to date.Brian is patient and loving with Rachel, and soon they marry. One day Rachel sees Brian coming out of hotel in Boston when he was supposed to be in London, and she begins to question if he is the man she believes him to be.The beginning of this fast-paced novel hooks you right away. “On a Tuesday in May, in her thirty-seventh year, Rachel shot her husband dead. He stumbled backward with an odd look of confirmation on his face, as if some part of him had always known she’d do it.” How can you not read on?“Since We Fell” packs so much in this fast-paced novel. At first it’s about a young woman looking for her father. Then the story moves to cover Rachel’s breakdown and her subsequent marriage to a seemingly wonderful man. The last third of the book is a straight-out thriller, as Rachel uncovers the truth about her husband and fights to stay alive.Fans of “The Girl On The Train” and “In A Dark, Dark Wood” will love “Since We Fell”, and I liked it better than those; Lehane is a superb writer who knows how to write terrific characters while ratcheting up the tension.