Patrick Kenzie & Angela Gennaro are tough private investigators who know the blue-collar neighbourhoods & ghettos of Boston's Dorchester section as only natives can Working out of an old church belfry Kenzie & Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician to uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential Statehouse documents But finding Jenna proves easy compared to staying alive The investigation escalates uncovering a web of corruption extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of state government With slick hip dialogue & a lyrical narrative pocked by explosions of violence A Drink Before the War confronts a city in which institutionalized bigotry & corruption are often the norm & the true nature of 'racial incidents' is rarely clear Dennis Lehane's remarkable debut is at once a pulsating crime thriller & a mirror of our world one in which the worst human horrors are found closest to home & the most vicious obscenities are committed in the name of love