When I started reading Lehane’s Darkness, Take My Hand, I was suspicious of his using the Serial Killer plot so early in his Kenzie and Gennaro series. No worries on that account; Darkness turned out to be one of the best books I’d read in 2003. In Sacred, Lehane picks up another staple of the detective genre: the Missing Person/Religious Cult intersection. As before, I was dubious. Could he turn another tired trope into something stunningly fresh and exciting? Answer: yes. Sacred isn’t as profound and emotionally wrenching as Darkness, but it is fast-paced, tense, and rich with character. Top stuff.