Cover Image: Small Mercies

Small Mercies

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Small Mercies is an intricate, complex, emotional crime novel that you would expect from Dennis Lehane. Given the harsh subject matter, it's hard to say I enjoyed reading it, but I definitely couldn't put it down.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Harper, for an ARC of this novel.

I’ve never read any of Dennis Lehane’s novels before, but I have enjoyed all the movies that were based on his books so I was excited for this story. This was a fantastic introduction to Lehane’s work. Mary Pat is the anti-hero that we can all root for. The real stand out of the novel was the setting.

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Set in the South Side of Boston in the early 1970's when school desegragation was about to begin, Dennis Lehan's most recent book tackles racism, poverty, divisions between the Catholics and the Protestants and family loyalty. This is a huge amount to pack into a book that is only 320 pages long, but Lehane is able to do a masterful job. With believable characters, and a mesmerizing plot this is one of the rare books that keeps the reader up all night to race towards the end. This is a book not to be missed.

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"She's happiest when she's opposed, most ecstatic when she's been wronged."

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

Wow. If this is indeed Dennis Lehane's final novel, like he's hinted at, this is a hell of a note to go out on. "Small Mercies" pulls no punches and doesn't let anyone off the hook — especially its protagonist. In fact, Mary Pat Fennessey might be Lehane's most unlikeable protagonist. She challenges her racist and hateful beliefs throughout this book, but this is no redemption story. The missing child she's searching for isn't perfect either, and it's a testament to Lehane's prose that we care so much about what happens.

Like a more economical "Mystic River" or "Gone, Baby, Gone" with more working-class prose about Boston neighborhoods than you can shake a stick at.

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This is a slow burn tragedy in my opinion. It is full of complex characters. It makes you feel as you are reading. It was set in the past but could very well be the present with the atmosphere and beliefs of the characters. Solid read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the DRC.

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An interesting read and definitely something different for Dennis Lehane, though not my favorite of his work.

This book is an interesting exploration for Lehane, who has moved a bit outside his typical wheelhouse within the crime fiction genre to tackle a more socio-political topic than usual. While I applaud the tough questions Lehane addressed here and the willingness to address the realities of the situation, I think I prefer his more standard breed of mystery.

This is probably just a preference issue, or perhaps the fact that I like Lehan: more typical subject matter so much that I don’t ever want him to part from it. But this is certain ly a well executed book (if a tough read at times), and it certainly speaks to how well Lehane understands Bosto.

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Get that Best Novel Edgar ready for Lehane. This is his best novel since Mystic River and is very much in the same vein. Set against the backdrop of court-ordered busing in the early 70s in Boston, this is a mystery involving what happened to a worried mother's missing daughter and whether or not this has something to do with the accidental death of a young black man at a subway station around the same time. Lehane spends a lot of time probing the racial divide in Boston and why the poor people of Southie, who have more in common with the poor blacks than not, have such an instilled hatred for African Americans and whether this cycle can ever be broken. Very moving and sad novel that will probably win Lehane some awards...

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SMALL MERCIES is another excellent Dennis Lehane historical piece, in line with other works by the author. For me, it veered too much to the literary, and in places it felt like the author was trying too hard. Still, readers who enjoyed similar books by the author (the easiest comparison is MYSTIC RIVER) will find much to enjoy here.

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“Hate takes years to build but hope can come sliding around the corner when you’re not even looking.” —Small Mercies

With his best and perhaps last novel, Dennis Lehane takes us to South Boston in Sept 1974. The summer has been a scorcher, and the schools have been ordered to desegregate, beginning with students being bused between the white school of South Boston and the predominantly black school of Roxbury. Tempers erupt, protests break out, and Southie residents plan not to comply with the order.

Mary Pat Fennessy is asked to join the Southie protest against the bussing and make placards. She reluctantly goes along because she’s a Southie through and through, from her pride that she’s never left South Boston to her hatred of anyone who isn’t a Southie, especially the blacks of Roxbury. But she has troubles of her own. Her frustrated 17-year-old daughter, Jules keeps asking, “But what’s it all about?” Mary Pat doesn’t know what she means and is afraid for her.

Mary Pat drinks Miller High Life, chain smokes, and knows how to fight physically but not how to deal with questions like that. She’s tough and can take on almost any man. At age 42 she works as a hospital aide at Meadowlane Manor run by the nuns and has picked up two shifts at the shoe warehouse so that the gas can be turned on again. She makes just enough to keep her and Jules clothed, fed, and in cigarettes and beer. After one husband died, one left her, and her only son overdosed on heroin after returning from Vietnam, Mary Pat has turned inward and angry. She holds it together for her daughter.

Until her daughter goes missing. At first she’s not worried, but her motherly instincts send her to Marty Butler who runs Southie. Everyone knows Butler is in the game of “protection.” Butler has cops on his payroll, and a judge and congressman in his pocket. Mary Pat has been taught not to involve the police. Marty promises to find Jules. But when Butler does nothing, Mary Pat beats up Jules' supposed boyfriend “Rum” for information, and Marty warns her to stop causing trouble. Her refrain remains, “I just want to find my daughter.” When Marty says Jules probably took off to Florida and hands Mary Pat a bag of money, she knows that her daughter is dead. Now she’s off the rails and will do anything to find out what happened to Jules including going against Marty Butler.

The same night Jules went missing, a young black man named Auggie dies on the Southie side of the subway tracks. A new voice arrives on the scene: Detective Bobby Coyne. He lives with five unmarried sisters and a brother who is a failed priest. He’s a decent cop and investigates the death of Auggie. When all evidence points to Jules being one of four people who were the last to see Auggie before he died, Mary Pat turns to him to find out what happened to Jules, even though the outcome could turn deadly for her.

Lehane gives an unflinching, realistic glimpse into a world that didn’t want to change even when it was detrimental not to change. He uses the language and epithets of the time, so Small Mercies is not an easy read. But to “clean up” the story would weaken what was historically accurate. Small Mercies shows how hate gets a toehold in a community—or, more importantly, how hate is manipulated for the gain of a few. He has a scene later in the book that brings this home, showing that the few who feed the hate and division don’t care about their own, never mind the “other.” It’s just a means to money and power. The sad part of this thriller is that so much depicted in the story has not changed, especially how the emotions of a group can be directed away from what is really happening to them. Lehane, however, leaves us with Bobby Coyne, a decent man who believes in hope and that things will change. This is Lehane at the top of his game.

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Lehane certainly knows how to evoke a mood and feel for a time, people's sentiments and a frightening era.
The book juxtaposes the desegregation of Boston schools against a mob murder that actually showed who is in charge of local matters. What remains with you page after page and for long after I finished the book is the brutality and disregard of humanity in order to achieve power and money as well as the deep hatred and severe racism that permeated this country.
The author is brilliant in capturing life. This is not a book for the lighthearted. A mother loses her child and does everything within her power to find out the truth and punish the perpetrators. It was a tough time and a tough read but well worth it.

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This story is fraught, tense and atmospheric. It's hard to read at points- Lehane captures the harshness of the language and attitudes of the Southie community in a way that feels bare and authentic. The story hits hard, and the punches keep on coming, making the story feel hopeless at times- and yet I kept reading. This is one that will leave readers thinking about it for a long time.

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Dennis Lehane has never disappointed me. While the subject matter of this one made for a tough and disturbing read, Lehane still write Boston, and Southie in particular, better than anyone. His characters, their dialogue, the settings, the details, all ring true immediately and set the reader down in a fully realized place and time. He portrays parenthood with all its attendant brutal effects, triumphs and heartaches, and finds devastating pathos in the tiniest moments. Lehane wrecks me.

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“Small Mercies,” by Dennis Lehane, Harper, 320 pages, April 25, 2023.

During a heatwave in the summer of 1974, a federal judge rules that Black children have been disadvantaged by Boston schools. He orders a system of busing students to desegregate schools. The children and parents have fewer than 90 days to prepare.

Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. She is a single mother; her first husband died and her second husband left. Her son died of an overdose after serving in Vietnam.

Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave. She is a aide in a nursing home. People are planning a rally against the busing order. The neighborhood is controlled by Marty Butler, head of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him.

One night Mary Pat’s daughter Jules, 17, goes out with friends, Ronald “Rum” Collins and Brenda Morello. She doesn’t come home. That same night, Augustus Williamson, 20, who is Black, is found dead, struck by a subway train. His mother, Dreamy, works with Mary Pat.

The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins a search. She finds out that Rum and Jules were with George Dunbar, the drug dealer who sold drugs to Mary Pat’s late son, Noel. Brian Shea, one of Butler’s men, offers to help look for Jules. But as Mary Pat continues her search, Butler and his men feel a threat to their business.

Detectives Vincent Pritchard and Michael Coyne go to Mary Pat’s apartment building and ask to speak to Jules. When they learn she hasn’t been home in two days, they tell Mary Pat that Williamson had a confrontation with a group of white teenagers before his death. Jules may have been one of them.

“Small Mercies” is an intense, gritty, violent novel about how far a mother will go to find her daughter. A warning, the language is harsh, foul and racist. The reveal of why it is titled “Small Mercies” comes near the end.

My favorite Dennis Lehane novel is “Mystic River,” which won numerous awards in 2001, but this is my second favorite. Both are outstanding and unforgettable.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

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Dennis Lehane has gone back to Boston during the turbulent summer of 1974, when busing is used to undo the segregated South Boston high School and Roxbury High. Mary Pat Fennesey does not have luck. Her first husband and the father of her two children, Noel and Jules, is killed. Her second husband, Ken Fen leaves her. Noel, back from Vietnam, overdoses courtesy of his best friend and dealer. Jules, her 17 year old daughter disappears one night and Mary Pat will do anything to find her, whether taking on the police or Marty Butler, the local crime boss. Mary Pat is driven and won't give up. At times with a bit of humor (only a bit), this brutal story unfolds.

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SMALL MERCIES is the first book I’ve read by Dennis Lehane, although I have enjoyed the movies made from his work. I’ve been eager to read his books but somehow never made the time for it. He is a gifted and talented writer; no question about it. As with his other work, this one takes place in Boston, filled with characters so richly described they jump off the page. This is Boston of 1974 and recent court ordered desegregation is tearing apart the working class Irish neighborhoods. That is the story at the front of this novel. At the heart, are the ways that poverty creates depredations that occur so routinely they are part of the fabric of the community. This tale almost feels like an old time Western to me; a mother, starts out wanting to be a force for good. When evil comes her way, she makes a decision to drive it out and nothing will stand in her way as she seeks vengeance. Figuring out the good guys from the bad in this story is not easy, no one escapes scrutiny or judgement. A powerful and memorable book; it is not to be missed. I received my copy from the publisher.

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Looking back at the politics and racial tensions at play in 1974 Boston when busing began to integrate schools is not a whole lot different from what goes on today in many areas of the U.S. This is a gritty novel of hatred and love, drugs, money, loyalty, family, and revenge. The characters were strong, not really likable, but each seemed to have a small goodness within that brought them to life. What a reminder of what happens when we refuse to listen and don’t try to understand each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC to read and review.

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Dennis Lehane writes like an angel. His prose, while not flashy, is still beautiful, even while he writes about racial hatred, drug addiction, beat downs and murders. Through his compelling way of creating character, he reaches in and gives your heart a squeeze, and I think he writes better than anyone about the highways of grief, loss and heartbreak. It’s one of those miracles of empathy that only the most powerful of writers possess.

While this story is a simple one, in one way, it’s also full of complicated layers and wrong turns. It’s very basically the story of a worried mother looking for her missing daughter. The mother, the tough as nails Mary Pat Fennessy, lives in South Boston in 1974, just as school busing is about to break the city into riots and protests. The kids from Southie will be bussed into the black area of Roxbury, and vice versa. Mary Pat’s 17 year old daughter, Jules, is scheduled to be on the first bus.

Mary Pat, separated from her husband, scrapes a living and exists in a grim public housing apartment, but as the book makes clear, this neighborhood is all she’s ever known. She says good bye to Jules as she heads off on a date with her boyfriend, a stoner named Rum, and wakes up the next morning to discover that Jules has not returned.

While at work, Mary Pat is distracted, but not yet full on worried. One of her co-workers, a black woman nicknamed Dreamy, hasn’t turned up, and late in the day Mary Pat realizes that the young black man who fell to his death in front of a subway train must be Dreamy’s son. She’s lost a son herself, and while she wasn’t close to the woman, feels her loss. But as one day of her daughter’s disappearance turns into two and then three, her worry increases and she’s on a mission to find out what happened.

Lehane writes brutally about the racism that permeated South Boston. The idea that a young black man was in a white Southie subway station is a microcosm of that racism, a death that does in fact turn out to be what we would today recognize as a hate crime. The hatreds and polarization Lehane writes about in 1974 Boston seem still very sadly familiar today.

As Mary Pat digs into her daughter’s disappearance, the story reveals the layers of the way the neighborhood is run by a mob and the man who runs the mob is untouchable. It has a real feel of Scorcese’s film The Departed (or maybe The Departed has the feel of a Dennis Lehane novel). But Mary Pat is an avenging, and fearless, death angel who has nothing to lose and fears no mob boss.

The violence that concludes this novel, as in any Lehane novel, is operatic. It suits the scope and scale of his storytelling which is both intimate and epic. The topic is epic; the intimate nature of one woman’s story of grief and loss and search for revenge or justice makes you connect with what’s happening. What could easily have been a polemic about racism and busing becomes instead a skillful dissection of both a certain place and a certain time, made unforgettable by Mary Pat and her relentless grief.

I can’t say this was a pleasant read, with its graphic depiction of drug abuse, racial hatred, grief and violence, but it was a read I could neither look away from or forget once I finished reading it. From a writer like Dennis Lehane, I expected nothing less.

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An astoundingly vivid portrait of the Irish American culture of south Boston in the 1970’s. I am from Boston and have read books about the busing controversy but nothing that gets inside the hearts and minds of those involved the way that Small Mercies does.
It is clear that this will be on of the year’s best books.

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Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies is not always an easy read and that’s what makes it so good.

The book is set in the “Southie” enclave of Boston in 1974. It’s the eve of forced bussing to desegregate Boston schools and everyone in the city is on edge including Mary Pat Fennessy. Mary Pat has spent her life in the housing projects of Southie. She loves her Irish American community and takes pride in how the people in the neighborhood look out for one another.

Just before the new school year is set to start, a young black man is killed in Southie. It’s the same night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter never returns home after going with some friends. Witnesses reported a group of white teens confronted the victim at the train station shortly before he was killed.

Mary Pat turns to the neighborhood crime boss & his crew to help find her daughter after the police offer little help. The crew runs everything in Southie & even though they’re criminal thugs, she knows the neighborhood can always count on them to help. After a few days, the crew tells Mary Pat her daughter simply ran off to Florida & to let it go. Mary Pat can’t let it go. What mother would? She’s determined to find the answers to her daughter’s disappearance no matter the cost.

Mary Pat begins to question everything she grew up believing about her close knit neighborhood & the men who run it. She also must face her own racism & the fact that she passed her prejudices along to her daughter.

Lehane does an exceptional job setting the scene & painting the Southie neighborhood and it’s characters. He perfectly captures the time period of a city that was ready explode like a power keg over desegregation.

Mary Pat isn’t a character who is easy to like. It would be simple to dismiss her as merely a product of her place & time. But somehow Lehane made me root for Mary Pat. It was compelling to see Mary Pat confront her own racism & long held beliefs. She eventually questioned everything she held dear about her neighborhood and community. I didn’t always like Mary Pat as a person, but she’s a character that will stick with me for a long time.

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After a run of hohum books, it was a thrill to be in the pages of a master. This lean and powerful crime novel set in Boston in 1974 uses the school busing protests and a murder mystery to create a superlative portrait of the insulated and hostile Irish American Southside community.

The disappearance of a white teenage girl and the apparently accidental death of a young black man would have just been statistics if Mary Pat Fennessey hadn't got involved. As Mary Pat investigates her daughter's disappearance and the police investigate Auggie Williamson’s death, the connection between them emerges and the Southie community starts to put the walls up. Mary Pat won’t accept the glib answers that the leaders of Southie offer her and as she bulldozes towards an answer, the involvement of the controlling crime family becomes more open.

The author uses the historical setting lightly as a backdrop for an authentic portrayal of a community being dragged into a political and social situation that goes against everything it believes in and holds dear. Up in arms about busing, the xenophobic and bigoted white working class Southies make their case on the streets with violence, abuse, and riots. In their own way, they have a point - why should it be their kids and schools that are compelled to change when the middle class can just opt out - while at the same time completely missing the bigger picture of the inequity of the Boston public education system for both poor whites and blacks.

I loved Mary Pat and her uncompromising quest to find her daughter and I loved the way the author wove it seamlessly into this enflamed historical setting. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Harper and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

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