Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient.

But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems.And neither is Teddy Daniels.

Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe's radical approach to psychiatry? An approach that may include drug experimentation, hideous surgical trials, and lethal countermoves in the shadow war against Soviet brainwashing ...

The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island.

Because someone is trying to drive them insane ... [via GoodReads]

So, I made the error of reading this book late into the night and after reading most of it and wrapping it up around 2am, I found that I had no one to share the awesomeness that this book is at that time... which sucked majorly.

Shutter Island started a bit slow for me - I think most books start slow for me, I tend to drag around in those first introductory chapters, unless there is action, of course. But once Teddy and Chuck dock on Shutter Island and begin to learn of the missing patient I started getting into the story, I mean really into it. I had a hard time putting this book down after that. I was fascinated by the descriptions of mental healthcare in the 50's. The mystery of the missing patient, and the weird awkwardness of the doctors and orderlies had me on edge.

Now I know most of you have seen the previews for the movie and are thinking this is a horror/scary book. I did not find it to be scary as much as I found it to be creepy. The story had this dark feel to it - there is a hurricane and most of the story takes place under heavy rain and winds. Then the setting itself, the creepy hospital full of insane patients was no help either. Reading it makes you feel chaotic - it was very fitting.

As for the ending, woah, I did not see that one coming. When it was over, I literally had to sit there for a couple of minutes and just take it in, then rethink everything that happened... put all the pieces together... and then... wow, brilliant! There were so many twists and turns along the way that I just stumbled into that ending, blinded and pretty much blown away by it.

This is my first Lehane novel, and it will definitely not be my last.

If you are a fan of mystery/thrillers, I would recommend you get your hands on this book - it is nothing short of brilliant.