Otto Penzler on CORONADO

Otto Penzler, legendary proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop, praises Dennis Lehane's story collection in today's edition of The New York Sun:

I'd read all of the stories before, and saw the play performed, so I knew exactly what I was getting when I picked it up. Two of the stories ("Running Out of Dog" and "Until Gwen") were selected for "Best American Mysteries of the Year," the former, a masterpiece, also making it into "Best American Mystery Stories of the Century."

He particularly enjoyed "Running Out of Dog," calling it "a rarity in that it generally takes a novel-length work of prose fiction to embed itself into the brain. Years after I first read it, I can still quote lines from it."

Mr. Penzler concludes by eagerly anticipating Lehane ambitious new work, a historical novel set in Boston, saying that when it's published:

I will drop everything to read it. My hope, being eternally optimistic and happy, is that he doesn't doom all his characters. He makes the people in his books so vivid, so alive, that losing them is like losing someone who could be a close friend if you just had more time together.