Dennis Lehane

After drinking his weight in Crown Royal one night, he'd flipped his Dodge Viper coming back from Foxwoods with his girlfriend riding shotgun.  She'd only been his girlfriend two weeks, but it was unlikely she'd be anyone's girlfriend ever again.  Her name was Ashten Mayles and she'd been in a persistent vegetative state ever since the top of the car compacted against the top of her skull.  One of the last acts she'd attempted to perform while she'd still had use of her arms and legs was to try and take Brandon's keys from him in the casino parking lot.  According to witnesses, Brandon had rewarded her concern by flicking a lit cigarette at her.

(From his 2010 novel, Moonlight Mile, which is a sequel to his 1998 book, Gone Baby Gone -- if you haven't seen the movie, go rent it NOW.)