Shutter Island: A Novel

The basis for the blockbuster motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane is a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems. The New York Times calls Shutter Island, “Startlingly original.” The Washington Post raves, “Brilliantly conceived and executed.” A masterwork of suspense and surprise from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, Shutter Island carries the reader into a nightmare world of madness, mind control, and CIA Cold War paranoia and is unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

Summer, 1954.

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, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them.

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. . . .

Or is there another, more personal reason why he has come there?

As the investigation deepens, the questions only mount:

How has a barefoot woman escaped the island from a locked room?

Who is leaving clues in the form of cryptic codes?

Why is there no record of a patient committed there just one year before?

What really goes on in Ward C?

Why is an empty lighthouse surrounded by an electrified fence and armed guards?

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. . . .

“Shutter Island carries an ending so shocking yet so faithful to what has come before, that it will go down as one of the most aesthetically right resolutions ever written. . . . There are mysteries within mysteries in this novel, some as obvious as the numerical codes that the missing patient leaves behind… some as deep as the most profound fears of the human heart. There is no mystery, however, about how good this book is; like Mystic River, it’s a tour de force.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Lehane has crafted a thriller as exciting as an elaborate video game. . . . .If you like books that will make great movies, then this one is for you.” - People

“pure adrenaline rush...chilling…Shutter Island is all about pulling you in and not letting go until its shocking, wrenching conclusion. At that point, exhausted and thrilled, you want to start over…Lehane works claustrophobia so well you can practically feel the walls closing in, giving Shutter Island a dark, disturbing atmosphere of mortal danger and creeping paranoia…The ride this novel provides is as good as entertainment gets.” - Miami Herald

“The ride this novel provides is as good as entertainment gets.” - Miami Herald

“Fasten your seat belts for a bumpy, breakneck ride…utterly absorbing… is an express train with no local stops…engrossing.” - Boston Globe

“If we could bring back Edgar Allen Poe and equip him with today’s postmodern bag of tricks, he might give us a tale as unexpected and unsettling as Shutter Island. . . . The novel is brilliantly conceived and executed. . . . Its shocking outcome kept me awake, deep into the night as I began to grasp what the author had done to my innocent mind.” - Washington Post Book World

“A moody, atmospheric mystery that combines the claustrophobia of an Agatha Christie whodunit with the creepiness of a good Stephen King yarn. . . . Good luck putting this one down.” - San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Combines the claustrophobia of . . . Agatha Christie . . . with the creepiness of a good Stephen King yarn. . . . Good luck putting this one down. - San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Welcome to the Twilight Zone, circa 1954…Shutter Island is atmospheric and tension-fraught, and Lehane continues to write like a demon angel…With its nightmarish overtones, it’s not a book to start before bedtime. Even if you finish before dawn, Shutter Island will trouble your sleep.” - Orlando Sentinel

“Startlingly original . . . instantly cinematic. . . . This is a deft, suspenseful thriller that unfolds with increasing urgency until it delivers a visceral shock in its final moments. When it comes to keeping readers exactly where he wants them, Mr. Lehane offers a bravura demonstration of how it’s done.” - New York Times

“Startlingly original…instantly cinematic… unfolds with increasing urgency until it delivers a visceral shock in its final moments.” - New York Times

“There is no mystery…about how good this book is; like Mystic River, it’s a tour de force.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A lollapalooza of a corkscrew thriller…sure to be the most talked–about thriller of the year.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Nightmarish…it’s not a book to start before bedtime. Even if you finish before dawn, Shutter Island will trouble your sleep.” - Orlando Sentinel