If Dennis Lehane would have ripped off Charles Dickens and started this novel with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." it would have been fitting. 
 It's been eleven years since Lehane seemingly left his detective series starring Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro behind to do stand-alone novels and work on HBO's The Wire. The last decade has been both good and bad to the couple. The economic collapse has hit them hard, and Patrick has been forced to do free-lance work for a large investigation firm that has him doing the bidding of various rich asshats. But if their professional lives aren't great, at least things are going well on the domestic front except for worrying about how they'll pay the bills. 
 In the midst of their economic crisis, an old case comes back to haunt them. In Gone Baby Gone, Patrick and Angie went looking for missing four year old Amanda, and by the end of it, they faced some of the toughest decisions of their lives. Now they're going to have to deal with the consequences of those choices. 
 (That's all the summary I'm going to give, and I'd caution anyone interested in this book to not read any kind of plot synopsis of this unless you've read Gone Baby Gone or seen the movie. Even the book flap for Moonlight Mile gives away a big piece of that ending. You have been warned.) 
 It felt incredibly good to be reading a new Patrick and Angie story, and Lehane used some of the work he's done since to build a richer and deeper story for the pair. The influence of his time on The Wire shows in that one of the biggest villains in this book is a depressed economy. Lehane makes some poignant points about financial desperation and how it impacts everyone in a variety of ways. 
 This backdrop also fits an aging and moodier Patrick. Twenty years as a detective have taken their toll, and he's increasingly disgusted with all the large and small ways that people can screw each other over. 
 This reads as a swan song for Patrick and Angie, and it's pretty damn good. Not perfect. I'd have liked more Angie in the story, but there are reasons she doesn't get more of the action this time. If this is the final book, then Lehane wrote a tender and touching farewell to Patrick and Angie that gives a satisfying ending to their series. 
 Oh, and just in case you're worried that it's all social commentary and brooding about regrets, Bubba is still around. And he still gets all the best lines like, "I'll shoot you just for being short."