All of the characters particularly Teddy, haunted by the tragic death of his wife are wonderful creations, but no more wonderful than the spot-on dialogue with which Lehane brings them to life and the marvelous prose that enriches the narrative. Then, as a major hurricane bears down on the island, inciting a riot among the insane and cutting off all access to the mainland, they begin to fear for their lives. Cawley and pick up hints of illegal brain surgery performed at the hospital. The marshals' digging gets them nowhere fast as they learn of Rachel's apparently miraculous escape past locked doors and myriad guards, and as they encounter roadblocks and lies strewn across their path most notably by the hospital's chief physician, the enigmatic J. marshals, protagonist Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, arrive on Shutter Island, not far from Boston, to investigate the disappearance of patient Rachel Solando from the prison/hospital for the criminally insane that dominates the island. 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, and the ways in which both can be warped by violence and evil.

Know this: Lehane's new novel, his first since the highly praised and bestselling Mystic River, 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.

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