Dennis Lehane has written nine novels to date, including the New York Times bestsellers Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day and Coronado (a collection of short stories and a play).http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/about/ Several of his novels have been adapted for the screen into hit films - Shutter Island (2010), Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Mystic River (2003).http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1212331/ His private investigator characters Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro have been featured in six books.http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/dennis-lehane/ He and wife Angie live between their homes in Boston and the Gulf Coast of Florida.http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/about/

Born in Boston, the setting of many of his books, Dennis Lehane went to college in Florida after completing high school.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=883448 Lehane wrote the first draft of A Drink Before the War while at college. It was published in 1994 and won a Shamus Award (given by the Private Eye Writers of America to honor excellent work in the private eye genre.http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv72.html) It was also the first of a series of crime adventures with private investigator characters Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, who come from the same blue-collar Boston neighborhood Lehane grew up in.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=883448 Lehane soon returned to Boston and took a number of odd jobs to finance his writing. These included counselling mentally handicapped and abused children, loading trucks, parking cars, working in bookstores, and waiting tables. He said his favorite was parking cars.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=883448

Lehane's breakout novel, 2001's Mystic River, came to him while writing a Kenzie-Gennaro installment.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=883448 As a murder mystery with psychological overtones, Clint Eastwood turned the story into an award-winning film in 2003. In 2007, first-time director Ben Affleck adapted Lehane's favorite Kenzie-Gennaro novel, Gone Baby Gone, for the big screen.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=883448 Following the success of his Boston-based mysteries, Lehane has moved into television screenplays and short stories such as Until Gwen, which was adopted into a successful, limited-run play.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=883448 Despite having a number of books adapted for the screen (Shutter Island being the latest in 2010), Lehane says he never allows that to go to his head. "There is a book and there is a movie, two different animals and I write books," he has said.http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/exclusive/ His latest novel, 2008's The Given Day has been bought by Sony/Columbia with Sam Raimi lined up to direct.http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/exclusive/

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series

• A Drink Before the War (1994)
• Darkness, Take My Hand (1996)
• Sacred (1997)
• Gone, Baby, Gone (1998)
• Prayers for Rain (1999)
• Moonlight Mile (2010)

Novels

• Mystic River (2001)
• Shutter Island (2003)
• The Given Day (2008)