Dennis Lehane is a renowned American author, best known for his crime fiction and mystery novels. He was born on August 4, 1965, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and was the youngest of five siblings. Lehane's parents had working-class jobs, with his father being a foreman for Sears & Roebuck and his mother an employee at a Boston Public School cafeteria. He graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Lehane is perhaps best known for his novels Mystic River and Shutter Island, both of which were adapted into successful motion pictures by Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese, respectively. His works have received critical acclaim, and he has won numerous awards, including the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction, and France's Prix Mystere de la Critique. In addition to his work as a novelist, Lehane has written episodes for popular television shows such as The Wire and Castle.
Lehane's literary career has been highly successful, and he has become a member of the Boston public library's board of trustees, an appointment made by the ex-Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, in December 2011. He was previously married to an advocate for the elderly for the city of Boston named Sheila Lawn and is now married to Dr. Angela Bernardo, with whom he shares a daughter. Lehane has a strong connection to his hometown of Boston, using it as inspiration for the majority of his books' backgrounds. He is also known for his love of his beagle, Tessa, who went missing in the fall of 2012, and he has not stopped searching for her ever since.