Dennis Lehane is a master at creating the most fucked up environments for his characters. In Mystic River, it's a white trash community where crime is just an every day occurance. 
 Obviously, what follows is a cast of equally fucked up characters. Lehane does not settle for portraying a characters mental state, he goes as far as providing a backstory for each and every one of them to justify why they are this way. Mystic River is real. It's gritty, unpleasant at times and a perfect picture of flawed real people. 
 The plot is tight and detailed, the story, heartbreaking as it is, is believable and makes you hate people. Because people suck. But, life goes on. This is what I took away from this book. Life is never fair, we do unjust things all the time, and we will beat ourselves up over it, but, we're people, we are all mentally unstable on some level, and life will still go on. 
 I give this 5 stars, but I'm not including it in my Favorite shelf, because Lehane set up a high standard with Shutter Island, and this book did not amaze me as much as that one did. However, I'm giving it 5 stars for its thoroughness and depth.