Small Mercies

By Dennis Lehane

Book Overview

Instant New York Times Bestseller

"Small Mercies is thought provoking, engaging, enraging, and can't-put-it-down entertainment." -- Stephen King

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River--an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston's history.

In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of "Southie," the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.

One night Mary Pat's teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn't come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances.

The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched--asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don't take kindly to any threat to their business.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city's desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062129481
• ISBN13: 9780062129482
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Lehane’s best, imho.

Growing up just outside of Boston in a suburb during the busing era of White/Black schoolchildren of the 70’s, this book really hit home. How generational cruelty, prejudice w/ all the kids in a poor White neighborhood whose parents were no better off, uneducated, than the poorest Black neighborhood. The kids of both sides caught in the middle, pawns, victims of generational prejudice & cruelty. The story itself was riveting & Boston knew all the true stories of the Irish mafia, Whitey Bulger & co. who ruled the streets, businesses of South Boston, Dorchester. Often more cruel than the Italian Cosa Nostra. A well written novel, I believe this was Lehane’s best. I couldn’t put the book down without finishing it in its entirety. Well done, Mr. Lehane. This is a Boston historical novel.

Buy this book, now.

A strong willed Irish woman/parent amidst the mid 1970's public school integration in South Boston. History, humor and grief take the reader through a fascinating journey that leads to the significance of the book's title.