Murder in Three Acts vs Prayers for rain: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Private investigators, Mystery, Fiction
Murder in Three Acts
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Sir Charles Cartwright should have known better than to allow thirteen guests to sit down for dinner. For at the end of the evening one of them is dead—choked by a cocktail that contained no trace of…
Prayers for rain
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The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston’s gritty blue-collar streets.Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to…
Side by side
The verdict
- Readers rate Prayers for rain highest: Prayers for rain 4.1 · Murder in Three Acts 3.8.
- Murder in Three Acts is the quickest read — about 4 hours vs 8 for Prayers for rain.
- Murder in Three Acts has the widest readership — 51967 ratings behind its score.
- Prayers for rain runs the darker storyline; Murder in Three Acts stays the lighter read.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| Murder in Three Acts | Prayers for rain | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.8 (51967) | 4.1 (24714) |
| Hardcover | — | 4.0 (1) |
| Google Books | — | 4.0 (2) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.5 (333) |
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Reception
| Murder in Three Acts | Prayers for rain | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 51967 | 24714 |
| Editions | 103 | 34 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 26655 | 7824 |
| Reading it now | 2102 | 1100 |
| Written reviews | 4317 | 1108 |
| Wikipedia attention | 1056 | 519 |
| Pages | 224 | 478 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Murder in Three Acts or Prayers for rain?
Prayers for rain has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Prayers for rain 4.1/5, Murder in Three Acts 3.8/5).
Which is shorter to read: Murder in Three Acts or Prayers for rain?
Murder in Three Acts is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Murder in Three Acts (224 pages, ≈ 4 h 09 m); Prayers for rain (478 pages, ≈ 8 h 51 m).
Which is harder to read: Murder in Three Acts or Prayers for rain?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Murder in Three Acts: Challenging; Prayers for rain: Moderate.