Live by Night
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Contributors
Published
HarperAudio , 2012.
Status
Available from Libby/OverDrive

Available Platforms

Libby/OverDrive
Titles may be read via Libby/OverDrive. Libby/OverDrive is a free app that allows users to borrow and read digital media from their local library, including ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines. Users can access Libby/OverDrive through the Libby/OverDrive app or online. The app is available for Android and iOS devices.

Description

In 1926, during the Prohibition, Joe Coughlin defies his strict law-and-order upbringing by climbing a ladder of organized crime that takes him from Boston to Cuba where he encounters a dangerous cast of characters who are all fighting for their piece ofthe American dream. By 1926, Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston Police captain, defies his proper upbringing and his father's strict law-and-order orthodoxy. Graduating from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the riches, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw. But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns battle for control, no one can be trusted. For men like Joe one fate seems more likely than all others, an early death.

More Details

Format
eAudiobook
Edition
Unabridged
Street Date
10/02/2012
Language
English
ISBN
9780062204783

Discover More

Also in this Series

  • The given day: a novel (Coughlin novels Volume 1) Cover
  • Live by night (Coughlin novels Volume 2) Cover
  • World gone by (Coughlin novels Volume 3) Cover

Other Editions and Formats

Excerpt

Loading Excerpt...

Similar Series From Novelist

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for series you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These sweeping historical sagas, set during the interwar years in America (Coughlin novels) and Britain (Clifton Chronicles), feature powerful families whose stories of greed, love, and moral ambiguity mirror the fortunes of their nations. -- Melissa Gray
Beginning in 1941 Los Angeles (Second L. A. quartet) and 1920s Boston (Coughlin novels), these epic series follow crime families within a historical context. Though Quartet's "family" is the corrupt LAPD, these tales share violence, brutality, and gritty realism. -- Mike Nilsson
These gritty and violent historical crime trilogies star Irish American mobsters who want to go straight and live a life with their sons apart from violent criminal organizations trading drugs (City Trilogy) and bootleg alcohol (Coughlin Novels). -- Andrienne Cruz
Although the Coughlin novels are set in the interwar years and the Godfather series starts in the 1960s, both series are sweeping epics of family and organized crime, with all the attendant violence, drama, and moral ambiguity. -- Melissa Gray
These series have the appeal factors violent, gritty, and atmospheric, and they have the genres "historical thrillers" and "historical mysteries"; and characters that are "sympathetic characters."
These series have the genres "historical fiction" and "crime fiction."
These series have the appeal factors violent, gritty, and atmospheric, and they have the genres "crime fiction" and "noir fiction"; and the subjects "organized crime" and "crime bosses."
These series have the appeal factors violent, gritty, and atmospheric, and they have the genres "historical fiction" and "crime fiction"; and characters that are "complex characters."
These series have the appeal factors atmospheric, and they have the genres "historical fiction" and "historical thrillers"; the subjects "prohibition," "flappers," and "conspiracies"; and characters that are "sympathetic characters."

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the appeal factors violent, gritty, and bleak, and they have the genre "crime fiction"; the subjects "violence," "organized crime," and "police corruption"; and characters that are "sympathetic characters," "flawed characters," and "complex characters."
These books have the appeal factors violent, and they have the genre "crime fiction"; and the subjects "prohibition," "gangsters," and "bootleggers."
NoveList recommends "Second L. A. quartet" for fans of "Coughlin novels". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "City trilogy (Don Winslow)" for fans of "Coughlin novels". Check out the first book in the series.
These books have the appeal factors violent, atmospheric, and intricately plotted, and they have the genre "crime fiction"; the subjects "gangsters," "violence," and "organized crime"; and characters that are "flawed characters."
NoveList recommends "Clifton Chronicles" for fans of "Coughlin novels". Check out the first book in the series.
Beggar's feast - Boyagoda, Randy
Though their settings are radically different, these richly detailed historical novels center around compelling characters who remake themselves in the criminal underworld. Both family and revenge play important roles in these sweeping epics. -- Shauna Griffin
These books have the appeal factors violent and gritty, and they have the genre "crime fiction"; and the subjects "gangsters," "organized crime," and "crime bosses."
Though more nostalgic and reflective in tone than the gritty, compelling Live By Night, Billy Bathgate is another fast-paced, character-driven historical novel about organized crime. Set in America during Prohibition, both books focus on ambitious young men who become gangsters. -- NoveList Contributor
These books have the appeal factors atmospheric, and they have the genres "historical fiction" and "crime fiction"; and the subjects "gangsters," "organized crime," and "crime bosses."
Bloodline - Murphy, Warren
These books have the genre "crime fiction"; and the subjects "gangsters," "fathers and sons," and "organized crime."
These compelling crime novels, set against vivid historical backdrops, tell the stories of American gangsters who rose to prominence during Prohibition. Though organized crime plays a huge role, so too do family ties and loyalties. -- Shauna Griffin

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
James Lee Burke and Dennis Lehane both offer readers a similar bleak tone, character-centered stories featuring both private investigators and non-series characters, an urban setting, hard-edged moral stories, involved personal relationships, and cynical humor. -- Katherine Johnson
Readers who enjoy Dennis Lehane's world-weary humor should enjoy Bill James, a British crime writer who eschews simple solutions and tidy resolutions in his consistently captivating Mysteries. James's multi-dimensional characters spout inspired, dead-on, ironic dialogue, putting a droll spin on dark crimes. Neither cop nor robber is above reproach, partnered in an elaborately absurd waltz of iniquity. -- NoveList Contributor
Despite radically different locales (Roger Smith writes of post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa while Dennis Lehane's neighborhood is Boston), both authors skillfully portray the humanity of men and women trapped by poverty and prejudice. Both authors offer graphic violence and suspenseful, intricate plots in well-captured settings. -- Shauna Griffin
Nele Neuhaus and Dennis Lehane write fast-paced crime fiction that pulls no punches. Their work is gritty, direct, and sometimes shocking, revealing the ugliness that can hide inside even the most innocuous people. Lehane's tales have a stronger sense of place and are more character-driven but both writers are equally compelling. -- Mike Nilsson
These authors write intricately-plotted and gritty suspense and mystery. Along with complex characters and a strong sense of place, both employ some graphic violence, Dennis Lehane more than Mick Herron, and a fast pace. Readers will enjoy plot twists and red herrings and finally, a satisfactory conclusion. -- Melissa Gray
Dennis Lehane and Pete Dexter write frank, menacing stories featuring broken characters who struggle to survive, against vividly evoked, gritty settings that explore the roots of violence and its aftermath. With scathing irony and haunting brutality, the authors examine how society creates and acquiesces to the deeds of monsters. -- NoveList Contributor
Both Marcus Sakey and Dennis Lehane write fast-paced and compelling hardboiled fiction and suspense stories featuring powerful evocations of place (Chicago for Sakey, Boston for Lehane), full-bodied characters, and twisting plots. -- Shauna Griffin
Chris Grabenstein and Dennis Lehane write character-driven mysteries that star compelling, wisecracking detectives with big hearts. The charm of their mysteries hinges on their complex protagonists and strong sense of place; Grabenstein spotlights the New Jersey shore, while Lehane sets his work in South Boston. -- Mike Nilsson
Although Dennis Lehane's books are contemporary and often Bostonian while Max Allan Collins's speculate about real historical events, both write intricately plotted hard-boiled mysteries with powerful evocations of place and well-drawn characters. Their books are fast-paced, gritty, and don't shy from violence. Collins's books are steamy; Lehane's books are darker. -- Melissa Gray
Like Dennis Lehane, Archer Mayor's work evokes a distinct and interesting locale, delving beneath the surface to get at the desperation that drives people over the edge and into conflict with the Law. While Mayor's protagonists are compassionate, they aren't always able to unravel underlying mysteries of the human heart and mind. -- NoveList Contributor
With multi-faceted characters, a strong sense of place, a bleak tone, and fact-paced yet literate writing, fans of Dennis Lehane might want to try Edward Conlon -- both his fiction and his memoir of his time as an NYPD detective. -- Shauna Griffin
Natsuo Kirino and Dennis Lehane write bleak noir that's steeped in a strong sense of place; for Kirino it's Tokyo, for Lehane it's Boston. Their gritty narratives feature troubled protagonists, a fast pace, and a compelling style. -- Mike Nilsson

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Lehane's latest historical thriller, following The Given Day (2008), continues the author's propulsive narrative train ride across twentieth-century American history. This time the train stops during Prohibition, and the individual focus is on Joe Coughlin, a Boston cop's son by birth but a gangster by choice, rejecting his father's platitudes about crime not paying and choosing, instead, to live by night, in a world without nets none to catch you and none to envelop you. Joe begins in Boston, and after a stint in prison, it's off to Tampa, where he quickly becomes the crime boss of Ybor City, rum-running capital of Florida. Joe, like Vito Corleone, is a thoughtful gangster, a family man who would prefer to do business without violence but who draws violence to him like a magnet. Despite evoking comparisons both to The Godfather and to the TV series Boardwalk Empire, Lehane's novel carves its own unique place in the Prohibition landscape, partially because crime runs at a more languid if no less lethal pace in Ybor City than it does in the North. And, somehow, when the staccato rhythm of gunfire overwhelms the tranquil tempo of a slowly turning ceiling fan, the jolt to our system is stronger, as is the realization that Joe's worlds of night and day are held together by the thinnest of fibers. This is an utterly magnetic novel on every level, a reimagining of the great themes of popular fiction crime, family, passion, betrayal set against an exquisitely rendered historical backdrop. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Note to that big IT department in the sky: add bandwidth, launch satellites, do whatever you need to do to prepare for the digital promotion campaign that will accompany the launch of Dennis Lehane's new novel.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestseller Lehane (The Given Day) chronicles the Prohibition-era rise of Joe Coughlin, an Irish-American gangster, in this masterful crime epic. While most hard-working stiffs are earning their wages by day in 1926 Boston, 19-year-old Joe and his friends live by night, catering to the demand for prostitution, narcotics, and bootleg alcohol. When Joe falls for a competing mobster's gun moll, he sets in motion a chain of events that land him in prison, with the girl missing and presumed dead. In the joint, Joe meets aging Mafia don Thomaso "Maso" Pescatore, who becomes his mentor. On Joe's release, Maso sets Joe up in Tampa, Fla., as his point man. Years pass, and Joe creates a huge empire in the illegal rum trade. He marries Graciela Corrales, a fiery Cuban revolutionary, and eventually builds a life for himself in Batista's Cuba, soothing his conscience by doing good works with his dirty money. This idyllic existence can't last forever, though, especially in the night, with its shifting alliances and fated clashes. Lehane has created a mature, quintessentially American story that will appeal to readers of literary and crime fiction alike. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Powered by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Lehane (Mystic River; Shutter Island) is known for gritty, occasionally gruesome mystery novels, frequently set in the working-class Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, where he grew up. Like his The Given Day, this new book represents something of a departure for Lehane. Both are historical novels, following the history of the Coughlin family in Boston between the two world wars. While the first novel offered a complex narrative thread and examined the lives of multiple characters, Lehane focuses here on Joe Coughlin's rising career as a gangster and rum runner. Joe is the younger brother of Danny Coughlin, the protagonist of The Given Day, who appears only briefly here, and Joe's exploits effectively illustrate how Prohibition boosted the fortunes of gangsters like Danny. VERDICT Lehane continues to evoke beautifully the world of Boston in the 1920s. The narrative falters and loses focus somewhat in the novel's second half when the setting shifts to Florida and Cuba. The novel also suffers from its almost exclusive focus on a single character. While not on the level of its predecessor, it still provides sufficient action to entertain most fans of historical fiction and mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/12.]-Douglas Southard, Boston (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Powered by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

The acclaimed mystery writer again tries his hand at historical fiction, combining period detail from the Prohibition era with the depth of character and twists of plot that have won him such a devoted readership. Though this novel serves as a sequel to The Given Day (2008), it can be read independently of Lehane's previous historical novel and is closer in its page-turning narrative momentum to his more contemporary thrillers such as Mystic River (2001). Its protagonist is Joe Coughlin, the morally conflicted youngest son of a corrupt Boston police official (oldest brother Danny was protagonist of the previous novel and makes a cameo appearance here). One of the more compelling characters ever created by Lehane, Joe is a bright young man raised in an economically privileged Irish household who turned to crime as a teenager because "it was fun and he was good at it." He's the product of a loveless marriage, for whom "the hole at the center of his house had been a hole at the center of his parents and one day the hole had found the center of Joe." Among the ways he tries to fill that hole is through love and loyalty, both of which put him at odds with the prevailing ethos of the gang bosses among whom he finds himself caught in the crossfire. He ultimately builds a bootlegging empire in Tampa, backed by a vicious gang lord whose rival had tried to kill Joe, and he falls in love with a Cuban woman whose penchant for social justice receives a boost from his illegal profits. ("Good deeds, since the dawn of time, had often followed bad money," writes Lehane.) Neither as epic in scope nor as literarily ambitious as its predecessor, the novel builds to a powerful series of climaxes, following betrayal upon betrayal, which will satisfy Lehane's fans and deserves to extend his readership as well. Power, lust and moral ambiguity combine for an all-American explosion of fictional fireworks.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Lehane's latest historical thriller, following The Given Day (2008), continues the author's propulsive narrative train ride across twentieth-century American history. This time the train stops during Prohibition, and the individual focus is on Joe Coughlin, a Boston cop's son by birth but a gangster by choice, rejecting his father's platitudes about crime not paying and choosing, instead, to live by night, in a "world without nets—none to catch you and none to envelop you." Joe begins in Boston, and after a stint in prison, it's off to Tampa, where he quickly becomes the crime boss of Ybor City, rum-running capital of Florida. Joe, like Vito Corleone, is a thoughtful gangster, a family man who would prefer to do business without violence but who draws violence to him like a magnet. Despite evoking comparisons both to The Godfather and to the TV series Boardwalk Empire, Lehane's novel carves its own unique place in the Prohibition landscape, partially because crime runs at a more languid if no less lethal pace in Ybor City than it does in the North. And, somehow, when the staccato rhythm of gunfire overwhelms the tranquil tempo of a slowly turning ceiling fan, the jolt to our system is stronger, as is the realization that Joe's worlds of night and day are held together by the thinnest of fibers. This is an utterly magnetic novel on every level, a reimagining of the great themes of popular fiction—crime, family, passion, betrayal—set against an exquisitely rendered historical backdrop. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Note to that big IT department in the sky: add bandwidth, launch satellites, do whatever you need to do to prepare for the digital promotion campaign that will accompany the launch of Dennis Lehane's new novel. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.
Powered by Content Cafe

Library Journal Reviews

A New York Times best-selling author with multiple awards to his name, Lehane sets his latest in Roaring Twenties Boston, Florida, and Cuba; it's no surprise that the promotion brings up HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Youngest son of an upright Boston police sergeant, Joe Coughlin opts for the dark side, working his way to the top of organized crime but also setting himself up, inevitably, for betrayal and revenge. With a one-day laydown on October 2 and a 400,000-copy first printing.

[Page 56]. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Powered by Content Cafe

Library Journal Reviews

Lehane (Mystic River; Shutter Island) is known for gritty, occasionally gruesome mystery novels, frequently set in the working-class Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, where he grew up. Like his The Given Day, this new book represents something of a departure for Lehane. Both are historical novels, following the history of the Coughlin family in Boston between the two world wars. While the first novel offered a complex narrative thread and examined the lives of multiple characters, Lehane focuses here on Joe Coughlin's rising career as a gangster and rum runner. Joe is the younger brother of Danny Coughlin, the protagonist of The Given Day, who appears only briefly here, and Joe's exploits effectively illustrate how Prohibition boosted the fortunes of gangsters like Danny. VERDICT Lehane continues to evoke beautifully the world of Boston in the 1920s. The narrative falters and loses focus somewhat in the novel's second half when the setting shifts to Florida and Cuba. The novel also suffers from its almost exclusive focus on a single character. While not on the level of its predecessor, it still provides sufficient action to entertain most fans of historical fiction and mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/12.]—Douglas Southard, Boston (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Powered by Content Cafe

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Bestseller Lehane (The Given Day) chronicles the Prohibition-era rise of Joe Coughlin, an Irish-American gangster, in this masterful crime epic. While most hard-working stiffs are earning their wages by day in 1926 Boston, 19-year-old Joe and his friends live by night, catering to the demand for prostitution, narcotics, and bootleg alcohol. When Joe falls for a competing mobster's gun moll, he sets in motion a chain of events that land him in prison, with the girl missing and presumed dead. In the joint, Joe meets aging Mafia don Thomaso "Maso" Pescatore, who becomes his mentor. On Joe's release, Maso sets Joe up in Tampa, Fla., as his point man. Years pass, and Joe creates a huge empire in the illegal rum trade. He marries Graciela Corrales, a fiery Cuban revolutionary, and eventually builds a life for himself in Batista's Cuba, soothing his conscience by doing good works with his dirty money. This idyllic existence can't last forever, though, especially in the night, with its shifting alliances and fated clashes. Lehane has created a mature, quintessentially American story that will appeal to readers of literary and crime fiction alike. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Oct.)

[Page ]. Copyright 2012 PWxyz LLC

Copyright 2012 PWxyz LLC
Powered by Content Cafe

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Lehane, D., & Frangione, J. (2012). Live by Night (Unabridged). HarperAudio.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Lehane, Dennis and Jim Frangione. 2012. Live By Night. HarperAudio.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Lehane, Dennis and Jim Frangione. Live By Night HarperAudio, 2012.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Lehane, D. and Frangione, J. (2012). Live by night. Unabridged HarperAudio.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Lehane, Dennis, and Jim Frangione. Live By Night Unabridged, HarperAudio, 2012.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

Copy Details

CollectionOwnedAvailableNumber of Holds
Libby220

Staff View

Loading Staff View.