Moonlight Mile by Dennis LeHane

  I won Moonlight Mile over at Les's Book Nook.  Thanks again, Les!

I have not read any of the earlier books in this series that features Angie Genaro and Patrick Kenzie, and a long gap exists from this latest installment and the last one (Prayers for Rain) which was published in 1999.  The book, however, is a continuation of Gone, Baby Gone, published in 1998.

In Gone, Baby Gone, Genaro and Kenzie had worked on a kidnapping case of a four-year-old Amanda McCready.  They do find the child, but the problem is that the child's mother, a neglectful caregiver involved with a series of men and with connections to the underworld, should never have had the care of a child in the first place.  When Genaro and Kenzie find the child with a loving family, the resulting moral and legal implications of returning Amanda to an unfit mother cause a strain between Angie and Patrick.

Twelve years later, in Moonlight Mile, Amanda has once again disappeared.  The conflicts between Angie and Patrick resurface over Patrick's decision to return Amanda to her mother. 

Patrick and Angie feel different pressures when asked to find the sixteen-year-old Amanda.  Patrick wants to resist, but can't quite help himself, and eventually finds himself involved.

The book was interesting and suspenseful, but I found believing in Amanda's character difficult.  Those who have followed the series will be delighted to see the return of Angie and Patrick after this long hiatus.

Fiction.  Mystery/Crime.  2010.  324 pages.