World Gone By (Lehane)

Book Reviews
World Gone By is…suspenseful, devious, well-constructed and as filled with ethical questions as it is with gangsters. You've been through a lot by the time you finish it, including a few figurative choruses of "Danny Boy.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


Lehane is such a master plotter, you needn't have read the previous novels to know exactly who Joe is and where he came from…. [Lehane's] mordant wit entrances readers who want more from a crime novel than endless scenes of stomach-turning violence. Which, by the way, Lehane also delivers, in a tightly coiled narrative…. Plot, wit, violence, colorful characters—what more do you want.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review


Edgar-winner Lehane wraps up the Joe Coughlin saga...in fine fashion.... Lehane's many fans will relish this stunning conclusion to Joe Coughlin's journey.
Publishers Weekly


The closer of Lehane's trilogy featuring his Boston-bred protagonist Joe Coughlin (after 2008's The Given Day and 2012's Live by Night) follows a more mystical path than its predecessors. The book has more literary aspirations as well: it's classified as literary fiction, not crime or historical fiction. —Liz French
Library Journal


(Starred review.) A multilayered, morally ambiguous novel of family, blood and betrayal.... While this seems to lack some of the literary ambition of Lehane's best work, its cumulative thematic power and whip-crack narrative propulsion will enrich the reader's appreciation past the last page. On one level, a very moving meditation on fathers and sons; on another, an illumination of character and fate.
Kirkus Reviews