Dennis Lehane's Mystic River is a character study of three childhood friends who choose different paths in life and ultimately reap the consequences of these choices twenty-five years later. Jimmy Marcus, Dave Boyle, and Sean Devine are friends whose fathers work together at the Coleman Candy plant in East Buckingham, a fictional blue-collar section of Boston. The defining moment in all their lives takes place as they are fighting in the street one summer day when two strangers, claiming to be cops, break up the fight and order the boys to get into their car. Eleven-year-old Dave gets into the car while Sean and Jimmy do not. The "cops" are pedophiles who imprison Dave for four days. He is able to escape and return to his old life but as "damaged goods," according to Sean's father.

The psychological damage Dave endures, and the guilt that haunts...