VJ Books announces Dennis Lehane as author of the month with the upcoming release of Moonlight Mile.

Tualatin, Oregon, November 2, 2010

Dennis Lehane has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Another novel, Gone, Baby Gone, was also adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film. His novel Shutter Island was adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese in 2010.

Now he brings us Moonlight Mile, the sixth book in the Patrick Ken­zie and Angela Gen­naro series.  Fans will recognize the story as a prequel to Prayers Before Rain, picking up after Gone, Baby Gone.

Amanda McCready was four years old when she van­ished from a Bostonsub­urb in 1997. Des­per­ate pleas for help from the child’s aunt led savvy, tough-nosed inves­ti­ga­tors Ken­zie and Gen­naro to take on the case. The pair risked every­thing to find the young girl — only to orches­trate her return to a neglect­ful mother and a bro­ken home.

Now Amanda is 16 — and gone again. A stel­lar stu­dent, bril­liant but aloof, she seemed des­tined to escape her upbring­ing. Yet Amanda’s aunt is once more knock­ing at Patrick Kenzie’s door, fear­ing the worst for the lit­tle girl who has blos­somed into a strik­ing, bright young woman who hasn’t been seen in two weeks.

Haunted by the past, Ken­zie and Gen­naro revisit the case that trou­bled them the most, fol­low­ing a 12-year trail of secrets and lies down the dark­est alleys of Boston’s gritty, blue-collar streets. Assur­ing them­selves that this time will be dif­fer­ent, they vow to make good on their promise to find Amanda and see that she is safe. But their deter­mi­na­tion to do the right thing holds dark impli­ca­tions Ken­zie and Gen­naro aren’t pre­pared for … con­se­quences that could cost them not only Amanda’s life, but their own

Author Dennis Lehane, 45, has been writing since college, and he knows mornings are when he's at his creative best. But with age comes marriage, children and responsibility — and Lehane's schedule, just like himself, is more mature now.

"The older you get, the more domesticated you get, the more you have other responsibilities, the more you can't just whip out the bottle of Scotch and the pack of Marlboros and write until 5 in the morning, that just doesn't fly anymore." said Lehane in a recent interview.  Despite his changing writing schedule, Lehane's output is consistent: intense, dramatic portraits of life in Boston.

VJ Books is proud to offer hand-signed copies of his new novel, Moonlight Mile, as well as collector grade copies of many of his earlier titles.  “With Moonlight Mile coming out, it was easy to choose Dennis Lehane as our author of the month for November!  A no brainer.” said John Hutchinson of VJ Books.

Previous Dennis Lehane titles include: A Drink Before the War (1994), Darkness, Take My Hand (1996), Sacred (1997), Gone, Baby Gone (1998),  Prayers for Rain (1999), Mystic River (2001), Shutter Island (2003), Coronado: Stories (2006),  and The Given Day (2008).