Have you ever picked up a volume of something, whether a novel, a historical study, even a cookbook, and after reading just a few words became so wrapped up in it that the rest of the world completely disappeared? OK, maybe this doesn't happen much with cookbooks, unless you're a chef and cooking is your thing. As a dedicated reader, I have sunk my fangs into untold books and have become very good at spotting something that will turn my knob within the first few paragraphs. And I'm definitely not the kind of person who will force myself to sit through an entire story, ten or so hours of my life, if those first sentences don't do it for me. There are so many wonderful books out there, there's no reason to make them wait on the less wonderful books (and by less wonderful, I just mean the ones that don't work for me personally, it doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with the writing).Mystic River is one of those books that stripped the outside world away and made me want to stay on the couch until I'd read the entire 500 or so pages. A lot of you probably saw the movie by the same name starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon that won quite a number of awards a few years ago, and deservedly so. When I saw the movie, I was quite moved by the entire story. The plot, the dramatic turns, and the heartwrenching emotional impact of it all was profound. It seemed that if a movie, which is often a poorly modified version of the original story when coming from a book, could be so well done, the book must be an amazing piece of work. And in the case of Mystic River, that's true times ten.Dennis Lehane has drawn the three main characters and all of his supporting characters with a pen made of part gold and part brilliance. It's not often that I read a book where at least at some point I feel like the author has to resort to at least a little bit of a laundry list to get across all the character details s/he wants. Not so with Mystic River. The story Lehane tells is so viscerally and subtly powerful that it's almost as if you're there, not reading about these people and the tragedy that befalls them, but witnessing it, a passer-by on the sidewalk.For those who don't know, here's just a quick synopsis of the story. In the mid-seventies, three boys, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle are just typical kids growing up in a blue collar neighborhood in Boston. One day, Dave is abducted and sexually abused for four days by unknown men. When he escapes, his life and the lives of his friends are forever changed.They grow up and fulfill what could be argued are sadly unavoidable twists of destiny: Sean becoming a State Trooper, Jimmy becoming a criminal, and Dave living a marginal blue collar life. They lose touch with each other beyond an occasional nod in a neighborhood bar, but their lives come into collision again when Jimmy's oldest daughter is found brutally killed the night before she planned to elope with her boyfriend. Sean is assigned to the case and Jimmy makes it clear that Sean either finds the killer soon, or he will. Jimmy's wife is cousins with Dave's wife, and they begin to grow close again as Dave and Celeste help Jimmy and Annabeth work through their grief.The cruel twist of fate, however, is this question: on the night Jimmy's daughter is killed, Dave returns home covered in blood with no strong alibi for what happened. He admits to having seen Katie, Jimmy's daughter, minutes before she died, but claims not to know what became of her. Is Dave lying? Did he kill Katie?The story uncovers the deepest secrets of the human heart and studies what it is that makes a person do what they do. It asks the questions of whether or not fate can be challenged, and how, and if there's any way to avoid your own. It's a beautifully written novel and I highly recommend it.Dennis Lehane has a new book out now called Moonlight Mile. I picked it up at the grocery store and read the first couple of pages yesterday--I could tell right away that it's going to be just as fantastic. He's also the author of Shutter Island, and many others.