Literary career Lehane's first novel,
A Drink Before the War (1994), which introduced the recurring characters Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, won the 1995
Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel. The fourth novel in the series,
Gone, Baby, Gone, was adapted into a
film of the same title in 2007; it was directed by
Ben Affleck and starred
Casey Affleck and
Michelle Monaghan as Kenzie and Gennaro. Commenting on the movie after a sneak peek, Lehane said: "I saw the movie and it's terrific, I wasn't gonna say anything if I didn't like it but it's really terrific." Reportedly, Lehane "has never wanted to write the screenplays for the films [based on his own books], because he says he has 'no desire to operate on my own child.'" and its Midwest premiere in the fall of 2007 with Steep Theatre Company in
Chicago.
Coronado is based on his acclaimed short story "Until Gwen", which was originally published in
The Atlantic Monthly and was selected for both
The Best American Short Stories and
The Best Mystery Short Stories of 2005. as "a five- or six-year project." the novel opens in 1918 and encompasses the 1919
Boston Police Strike and its aftermath. According to Lehane, "The strike changed everything. It had a big effect on the unionization movement, and
Prohibition came on the heels of that, then
Calvin Coolidge promising to break the unions. That's all linked to what's going on now.". Lehane called the novel his "great white whale" and said that when he finally finished it, he would "either write a sequel—or take a break from the cops and return to Patrick and Angie." On October 22, 2007, Paramount Pictures announced that it had optioned
Shutter Island with
Martin Scorsese attached as director. The
Laeta Kalogridis-scripted adaptation has
Leonardo DiCaprio playing U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, "who is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island."
Mark Ruffalo plays U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule. Production started in March 2008;
Shutter Island was released on February 19, 2010. In 2010 Lehane published
Moonlight Mile, his sixth book in the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series, and his first of that genre in 11 years. He published
World Gone By in March 2015. Lehane was appointed to the board of trustees of the
Boston Public Library by Mayor
Thomas Menino in December 2011. Lehane's
Small Mercies received praise from
Richard Russo, who said: "Think of all your favorite hard-boiled authors (Hammett? Chandler? Ross Macdonald? Robert Parker?) and their tough guy heroes (Spade? Marlowe? Lew Archer? Spenser?). Not one of them could take Lehane's Mary Pat in a fair fight, and they wouldn't last a day in his Southie."
Teaching career Since becoming a literary success, Lehane has taught at several colleges. He taught fiction writing and serves as a member of the board of directors for the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program at
Pine Manor College in
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He has also taught advanced fiction writing at
Harvard University. In May 2005, Lehane was presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from
Eckerd College and was appointed to Eckerd's board of trustees later that year. As of June 2006, he was living temporarily in
St. Petersburg, Florida, and teaching as writer-in-residence at Eckerd (usually during the spring semester), where he also co-directs the Writers in Paradise conference each January.
Film career Lehane wrote and directed an independent film called
Neighborhoods in the mid-1990s. Later described as similar to
Good Will Hunting, it was set in Boston's working class areas like
Southie and Dorchester. Its production ended in 1996, more than a year before the better-known
Good Will Hunting. Lehane joined the writing staff of the
HBO drama series
The Wire for the third season in 2004. Lehane wrote the teleplay for the episode "
Dead Soldiers" from a story by series creator and executive producer
David Simon. Lehane made a cameo appearance in the third-season episode, "
Middle Ground," as Sullivan, an officer in charge of special equipment. Lehane wrote his first film screenplay,
The Drop, as an adaptation of his short story "Animal Rescue". The film stars
Tom Hardy,
Noomi Rapace, and
James Gandolfini (in his final film performance). Released September 12, 2014, the movie received positive reviews, particularly for its "smartly written script." In 2013 Lehane was contracted to write a screenplay,
Silk Road, about the
online black market. That same year he was attached to adapt the script for the remake of the critically acclaimed French film
A Prophet, a prison drama. ==Works==