I remember reading Dennis Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone last year, and being so captivated by it that I read most of its 512 pages in one night. It was enough for me to keep him in mind for someone that I should read again, and the opportunity came with his 2003 novel Shutter Island. Did it live up to my hopes and expectations? I'm two books in to Lehane's bibliography, and he's 2-0.

U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule arrive on the titular Shutter Island to investigate a mysterious disappearance at Ashecliffe Hospital, a mental institution for the criminally insane. A patient, Rachel Soldano, escaped from her high security room, and vanished without a trace. Daniels is convinced everyone, from hospital administrator Dr. Cawley to the orderlies and patients they interview, knows more than they're letting on. As Daniels gets to know his new partner Chuck and build a bond with him, he's plagued by debilitating migraines and memories of his late wife, Dolores, killed in a fire. Teddy tells Chuck that the man responsible for the fire is in Ashecliffe, but as Daniels uncovers the true nature of Ashecliffe Hospital, he finds that he is simply one of the many, many secrets of Shutter Island.

Everything I loved about Gone, Baby, Gone - realistic characters, natural sense, surprising and believable plot twists, and no happy endings - is a part of Shutter Island. It's not that I have anything against happy endings, but after making your characters run through the gauntlet, I'd expect them to show some signs and after-effects by the end of the novel. In Shutter Island, it's a bit more complicated than that, but Lehane doesn't simply wrap things up within a couple of pages. Needless to say, nothing is as it seems in Ashecliffe Hospital, but even as you're patting yourself on the back for guessing what's going on, there are even more secrets waiting for you.

The elements of Shutter Island aren't complicated: I'm sure mental institutions in the 1950s were creepy places all on their own right; throw in a lighthouse, an isolated island, cryptic codes and phrases, and you've got everything you need for a deep yarn. The setting of Shutter Island, where memories of concentration camps and Nazi human experimentation are still fresh, adds to the horror that traps and secludes everything and everyone  on Shutter Island. It's a natural fit, too. It's easy to mention Nazis in the hope of telling your readers "This Is Bad". Lehane makes it part of the story, and a vital part of Teddy Daniels.

One of the things I enjoyed best about Shutter Island was the natural camaraderie and rapport that develops between Daniels and Chuck Aule (say his name very fast, over and over). Both war veterans, both with blood on their hands and bad memories, their friendship forms so organically and congenially that you, just reading it, want to become their buddies, too. Thus, the eventual unraveling of everything on Shutter Island, and the role that Daniels and Chuck play, with traumatic histories and emotional baggage and a secret so horrible that it shattered one man's mind, drags you into one of the claustrophobic cells of Ashecliffe Hospital and leaves you there to die. 

Shutter Island had everything I hoped it would from my second Dennis Lehane novel. It is engrossing and twisted, heart-warming and chilling, intricate and accessible . It may not be the most original tale on the market, but Lehane spins such a fantastic story that it doesn't matter. It's so good that even as you turn the last page, stunned and crushed by what you've read, you can hear the waves breaking on the rocks, a siren's call for you to return to the desolate halls and cells of Ashecliffe Hospital on Shutter Island.

5.0/5.0: This, friends and readers, is a book and a half.