Back, Baby, Back

As much as I pumped Dennis Lehane earlier this year when he made a rare trip to the UK, he was loath to reveal any significant details concerning his next novel, which brings back Beantown private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro (last seen in Prayers for Rain, 1999). But this morning, Lehane spills a few beans in the pages of The Boston Herald:

Boston mystery man Dennis Lehane is going back to the future. His next book is a sequel to his [1998] best-seller “Gone, Baby, Gone,” and is set 11 years after detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro’s toughest case.

“I thought I would never write about them again,” Lehane told the Track. “Then all of a sudden I thought, what would it be like if a girl walked back into your life that was part of the most guilt-inducing decision you had ever made.”

“It’s 11 years later, and that same girl goes missing again. And now he’s gotta find her again,” he said. “Initially he doesn’t want to, but then he finds himself chasing this part of the past that almost destroyed him and every relationship he’s ever had. It’s something he never made peace with.”

The Herald adds: “The new novel, due next summer or early fall, will also answer the question of what became of some of Lehane’s most compelling supporting characters: kidnap victim Amanda McCready, who was 4 years old when she vanished in ‘Gone, Baby, Gone,’ and would be 15 in the new book, her screwed-up mother, and the police detective who tried to rescue Amanda from her sorry lot.”

You will find the full story here.