A review by mitchellhb
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

3.0

Very close to four stars. There's definitely nothing wrong with Lehane as a prose writer: he creates a very strong, eerie atmosphere and some solid characters worth following through the book. The setting of the novel, in a mental hospital on an island off the coast of Massachusetts, is incredibly suspenseful, and the story is fun, nerve-wracking, and even poignant at times. The problem is that the ending, while it is logically convincing and has some emotional power, is also kind of mundane and trite. Lehane is going for a mind-blowing twist, and he almost pulls it off, but it seems just a little cliched after all the build-up. Still a worthwhile read.