At a meeting with Socia, Kenzie loses control and kills him.

Roland gains the upper hand in the war, and Socia demands the pictures back, hoping to blackmail Roland and save himself. All these events are connected to the photographs, and as they pursue the evidence, Kenzie and Gennaro find themselves hunted by both sides.Įventually the detectives find the photos, and learn that Socia prostituted his young son with Angeline to Paulson years ago, ironically leading the boy to become a stone-cold killer. A street terrorism bill that would have curbed the violence is suspiciously stalled before coming to a vote. A gang war erupts between Socia and his son Roland, who has taken his own gang independent, culminating in the bloodiest night of gang violence in Boston history. Kenzie wrestles with problems of race, class, urban violence, corruption, abuse, and love.

The ensuing investigation takes the detectives from swanky Boston hotels to housing projects in the poorest ghettos of Dorchester. Angeline had only hidden one photo in the safe deposit box, and it is up to Kenzie and Gennaro to find the rest. The photo shows Socia with Paulson, who has stripped down to his socks and underwear. Kenzie escorts Angeline to the bank, where she gives him one photo before being gunned down by Curtis Moore, a street enforcer for notorious gangster and pimp Marion Socia. Tracking Angeline to her sister's house outside Boston, they learn she has hidden the documents in a safe deposit box in a bank back in the city. Plot summary īoston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro receive a job from three state politicians, Sterling Mulkern, Jim Vurnan and Brian Paulson, to recover documents from a former cleaning lady, Jenna Angeline. Kenzie struggles with memories of his own past while Gennaro deals with her abusive marriage. The trail leads them into the midst of a gang war and reveals an act of child abuse. Private Investigators Kenzie and Gennaro are tasked to retrieve missing documents by a trio of politicians. It is the first book in a series focusing on private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. A Drink Before the War is a crime novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published in 1994.

A drink before the war