Will I love Small Mercies?

The event serving as launching point of this novel is the 1974 school segregation crisis that took place in Boston. Its plot features the death of a young Black man who is killed (either by a train or on the platform and then rolled onto the track), and a young White woman gone missing the same day. Are these two events related to each other? A detective is determined to solve at least one of the mysteries, and the girl’s relentless mother (who works with the mother of the deceased man) only cares about tracking down her daughter. Small Mercies… show more.

It was just so well written, with such great characters. I felt completely immersed in that world, and although I didn't like the world of the book, I very much enjoyed experiencing it.

A fascinating insight into the people and times of South Boston in the 1970s and all the racial and class issues that were affecting the lives relationships between the characters.

This book takes place in Boston during the broiling hot summer of ‘74. The protagonist of Lehane’s sublime novel is Mary Pat Fennessy, a hard-bitten mother from the Southie projects who took a look at this list of tough guys, chuckled, punched the #5 guy in the throat, and took over his spot.

Mary Pat’s teen daughter is missing, the Irish mob may know more about it than they’re letting on, and all the while, the desegregation of the public schools has turned the city into a violent racial hotbox. In Small Mercies, Mary Pat navigates searing issues of loyalty… show more.

When it comes to ass-kicking, take-no-prisoners, the female protagonist of this book is as fierce as they come. I loved having my heart broken by this book that was simultaneously an action-packed thriller and a thoughtful, unflinchingly honest work of historical fiction.

I grew up just outside of Boston, and it is so often that books or movies get Boston wrong, but not Dennis Lehane. Nailed it.

What stands out for me in Small Mercies is the intensity of Lehane’s writing.

Like his earlier masterpiece, Mystic River, it is a tragic story of working-class people in South Boston, propelled by the loss of a protagonist’s beloved daughter. The added twist in Small Mercies is that it ties into the real-life history of court-imposed school busing in Boston to desegregate Boston schools.

We see this happening through the eyes of Mary Pat Fennessy, a fierce busing opponent, while also sharing the experiences of Black participants in those events, and while Mary Pat also goes to war against South… show more.

I am a novelist and I try to avoid the mega-selling novelists, but there’s a reason why Dennis Lehane is a national treasure and why people line up awaiting his next work.

I grew up in Boston and quite simply, this book transported me to the unfortunate, ugly 1970s. Mary Pat Fennessy is a marvel and an avenger without CGI or a filter Lehane does that thing I wish I could do just once: He doesn’t lead the reader on the journey, he lets the reader follow his characters. And how does he keep talking about the summer and I… show more.

I’ve loved Lehane’s fiction ever since reading his Kenzie & Gennaro series, and Small Mercies is a small miracle.

It’s 1974, and the city of Boston is preparing to desegregate its public schools in the face of threats and violence. Mary Pat Fennessy, a tough Irish broad from Southie, is searching for her teenage daughter who failed to come home one night. Her questions irritate the local Irish mob. And when a young Black man is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the city is primed to explode.

As a Gen Xer, I found the 1970s setting on point and revelatory.… show more.