Today's Read: Live by Night by Dennis Lehane

What happens to the youngest son of a law-enforcement family who decides to take a walk on the wild side? Now imagine it's Prohibition and young Joe Coughlin has built quite the reputation as a rum runner. Here's the situation when we first meet him:

Some years later, on a tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico, Joe Coughlin's feet were placed in a tub of cement. Twelve gunmen stood waiting until they got far enough out to sea to throw him overboard, while Joe listened to the engine chug and watched the water churn white at the stern. And it occurred to him that almost everything of note that had ever happened in his life—good or bad—had been set in motion that morning he first crossed paths with Emma Gould. (p. 3)

—Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins / William Morrow, 2012; quote from uncorrected proofs)

Quick Facts

• Setting: Boston, Tampa, and Havana; Prohibition
• Circumstances: Joe Coughlin rises and falls in the rum running game
• Characters: Joe, Boston friends, a couple of dames, various gangsters
• Themes: family, power, morality, racism, crime, betrayal
• Audience: Lehane fans, gangster fans,
• Miscellaneous: Leonardo DiCaprio has bought the film rights.

Want to know more? Watch the following interview with Lehane, in which he discusses the book and his love for the Prohibition era.

Buy Live by Night at an indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
ISBN-13: 9780060004873
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