Small Mercies

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.