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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
Dennis Lehane was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts on August 4, 1965. He graduated from Eckerd College and the graduate program in creative writing at Florida International University.
He has written several mystery novels including Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; and Shutter Island. A Drink Before the War won the 1995 Shamus Award for Best First Novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. Mystic River won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction, and France's Prix Mystère de la Critique. Three of his novels, Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone; and Shutter Island were made into feature films. He also wrote, produced, and directed the film, Neighborhoods.
His lbook, Moonlight Mile, concerns the mystery of finding a missing 16-year-old girl in Boston. Lehane's book, World Gone By, made several 2015 Bestseller lists including The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and USA Today.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set during the summer of 1974, this superior crime drama from bestseller Lehane (Since We Fell) explores deep-rooted racism in South Boston. While the community primes for a series of rallies organized by mob boss Marty Butler against school desegregation, 42-year-old single mother Mary Pat Fennessy is preoccupied with the disappearance of her rebellious, 17-year-old daughter, Jules. Though Jules's friends claim she started walking home around midnight, mistrust and animosity toward Jules's doltish boyfriend and a drug dealer Mary Pat holds responsible for her late son's overdose bring out a mother's frustration and rage. Her ensuing acts attract the interest of two detectives who are investigating the mysterious death of a Black man at a nearby subway station. The unwanted attention Mary Pat draws to the neighborhood threatens Butler's business dealings, making him and his close-knit crew keen to put an end to her search. That Mary Pat is good with a pistol and capable of beating up young guys may stretch credulity, especially as there's no mention of guns and fighting in her past, but the action builds to a gloriously tense and discomforting finale. Readers will be left feeling battered and scarred. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Apr.)
Kirkus Review
Racial tensions provide the powder keg for this explosive mystery. A master of literary crime fiction, Lehane revisits the Boston of almost a half-century ago, when, in 1974, court-ordered school busing incites protest throughout the White neighborhoods of a very segregated city. As a working-class White woman trying to keep one step ahead of the bill collector, Mary Pat Fennessy has a close but tense relationship with her teenage daughter, Jules, who seems to be keeping secrets from her mother. One night Jules doesn't come home, and Mary Pat is frantic. The next day at Meadow Lane Manor, the old folks' home where she works as an aide, she learns that the son of Dreamy Williamson, one of her few Black co-workers, died in a mysterious subway incident that night. Mary Pat doesn't know Dreamy well but likes her well enough. It seems that both of them have lost children now, but they respond differently, experience different levels of support from their communities, and come to learn that these seemingly separate losses--a death and a disappearance--have a connection that neither could have anticipated. The novel focuses on Mary Pat, illuminates her from within as a loving mother and basically a decent person who nonetheless shares the tribal prejudices of her Irish neighborhood toward people whom they feel are encroaching on their turf. It's a hot summer, tensions are escalating, and threats of violence are at fever pitch. As Mary Pat keeps trying to find out what happened to Jules and why--wherever the truth may lead her--she discovers how much she has to learn about her daughter, the neighborhood, and the crime outfit whose power and authority have long gone unchallenged. She risks everything to discover the truth. This taut, gripping mystery is also a novel of soul-searching, for the author and reader alike. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In the hot summer of 1974, anti-busing violence and racism erupt in Boston. The same night a young Black man named Auggie Williamson dies in the subway, Mary Pat Fennessey's 17-year-old daughter, Jules, disappears. When she can't get information from the young people with Jules that night, Mary Pat turns to the men who offer protection in the neighborhood, Marty Butler's Irish crew. Mary Pat already lost one child to drugs and the streets, and she is scared she might have lost another one. When she can't get answers as a grieving mother, all of her fear turns to learning the truth. Why was Jules near the subway where Auggie Williamson died? Where is her daughter? Homicide officer Bobby Coyne sees violence and death in Boston every day, and he's investigating the Williamson case. But he can only watch in awe as Mary Pat, a tough Southie broad who was born to fight, turns all of her maternal rage and street instincts into her own investigation. Mary Pat might well burn down the neighborhood to discover what happened to her daughter. VERDICT After almost six years since his last novel, Since We Fell, Lehane's (Mystic River; Shutter Island) latest is inspired by a childhood experience when his family was caught up in the violence of the anti-busing riots. Pair this powerful, unforgettable story with S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears, another remarkable novel about racism, violence, and parental vengeance.--Lesa Holstine
