Live By Night - review - Dennis Lehane

Four years after his overstuffed 1919-set novel The Given Day, which featured Boston cop Danny Coughlin and a glut of big-name cameos, Lehane offers a sequel of sorts. This time the focus is on Danny’s little brother Joe, who defies his lawman dad and brother and goes to work for Italian mobsters — despite his Irish roots and occasional pricks of conscience (or at least aversion to senseless violence). Live by Night is a ripping, movie-ready yarn that jumps from a Boston prison to Tampa speakeasies to a Cuban tobacco farm. B+