I found this book quite hard to get into. It's about the Boston/Irish families in the Southside area. They are rough, and racist and run by local gangsters. Mary Pat's daughter disappears and when she tries to trace her, it leads to the uncovering of local secrets and breaking with her community. It's a sad story but with some lovely characters and Mary Pat is incredible in her anger and despair.

A tough, harrowing, mesmerising and hard hitting book from Dennis Lehane that immerses the reader in the ugly dark heart of 1970s America, focusing on a segregated Boston society with its implacable and deeply embedded racism. In the impoverished white Irish American enclave of Southie, opposition to busing and mixing black and white students is total as protests are organised, the boiling tensions threatening to spill over into a race war. It is a complex close knit community where people stuggle to survive, where sin, drugs, camaraderie, joy, crime, love, loss, grief, co-exist with the rage, despair and all consuming hate, run by the Irish mob, the powerful and ruthless Marty Butler and his crew, that no-one dares to question.

Mary Pat Fennessey has lived in the housing projects of Southie all her life, she is now alone and a single mother, having lost a son, Noel, to drugs, all she has left is her 17 year old daugher, Jules, her heart. When Jules fails to return after a night out, Mary Pat is determined to leave no stone unturned in her efforts to find her. On the same night, a young black man, Augustus Williamson, is found dead at Columbia Station in unexplained circumstances, he is the son of Dreamy, a woman Mary Pat works with, could there be any connection? Based on eye witness reports, DS Michael 'Bobby' Coyne believes there might well be. Refusing to heed warnings from Butler to leave well alone, driven by out of control primal needs, a grieving Mary Pat, goes where no-one else would dare, waging a vicious violent war against anyone who might know what happened to Jules, a journey that forces her to confront the uncomfortable lies that form Southie's hateful rock hard culture of racism.

The highlight of this truly gripping storytelling from Lehane is the creation and development of the larger than life character of Mary Pat, who in so many ways is unlikeable, but human beings are rarely all bad or all good, and despite everything, he makes us care about her as a mother experiencing soul destroying heartbreak. She has relished violence since she was a child, and here she uses it, no holds barred, to get to the truth and some form of justice for Jules against all the odds. She cannot be moved from her chosen path, as Coyne observes, she has a look in her eyes that explicitly spells out how unreachable she is, she simply does not care if she dies in her quest. The rich and powerful are unaffected by the desegregation of the public schools that the poor send their children to, their world of whiteness remaining untouched.

This is not a book you will forget in a hurry, the stellar writing makes the characters and the historical period come alive, it feels so real that it is just begging to be turned into a movie. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Oh my. Small Mercies was so good I was tempted to throw my entire reading schedule out the window and read Lehane for the rest of my days. (I've been saving Shutter Island for a rainy day since loving the film years ago.)

Previously I'd read and loved Mystic River (also a great film, particularly if you like Dempsey), so I knew what I was in for with a 70s Boston story amidst a race war.
Lehane writes with no frills, a ton of characters and a cultural setting so accurate it transports the reader to a place they've never been in a time they maybe hadn't even lived- atleast in my case.

Yes there is racism, it is the mainstay of the plot. The kind where the main characters know they are wrong but only internally question their behaviour. It isn't conducive in the story, the racial slurs are rife so some may wish to swerve Small Mercies.

What I enjoy most is the raw emotion Lehane draws from his characters. The Irish culture that has them throwing mouldy potatoes at the police and then cleaning up the streets after. A pride in whatever poverty stricken rundown block they live on and a fierce protection over neighbours they may not even particularly like.

Mary Pat is one such woman, there is no end to the violence she will impart on anyone necessary to find out what happened to her daughter.

Told in third from the perspectives of Mary Pat and homicide detective Bobby, Small Mercies is a fast paced, brutal, emotional ride through mobsters, racists and cruel housewives in the blazing summer heat of a concrete jungle. An entirely plausible story where no-one is worth rooting for and yet somehow, you still do.

It's wonderful to see Dennis Lehane is still putting out some of his career-best work. As usual, his new novel is powerful, tense, thought-provoking and moving with unforgettable characters. I won't be surprised if this one, like many of his best novels, make it to the small screen soon

Sensational. First and foremost a gripping page-turner set following a mother desperate to find out what happened to her missing in teenage daughter. It is also an eye opening insight into the Boston Irish community of 1974 - viciously resistant to imminent, enforced racial integration in their schools. Protagonist Mary Pat is tough - brutal, even - relentless, I afraid of challenging the local mob, and racist. She is also our protagonist and our hero. It makes for an eye opening read

Wow. What a book. Powerful, unsettling, gritty, stunning storytelling, Dennis Lehane is a master.

This tale, set in a deeply racist Boston of 1974 is a story of fractured families, love and loss and a mother at breaking point. In search of her missing child. This book hits hard, and it’s really not a nice read, but it’s absolutely fantastic.

Mary Pat is an extremely well crafted creature. Whilst she is very hard to like, you can only back her and Will her on in this darkly atmospheric thriller that draws you In and envelopes you.

It will sit with you and weigh on your mind, it’s absolutely outstanding. It’s the finest book I’ve read this year so far and up there with anything I’ve read in my lifetime. It’s that good.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Small Mercies is Dennis Lehane’s return to Southie and is a brutal, grim novel about one woman’s hate filled search for her missing daughter.
A stunning return to Boston

My first read by Dennis Lehane and it was a thought provoking and slightly depressing read.

Set in 1970s Boston, it deals with racism(the upfront racist views of the characters are quite shocking), poverty, local gangsters, love and learned habits.

It’s a harrowing read with lots of racist language, it’s fair share of violence with a dabble of self reflection.

A very well told story with warts and all characters, despite its depressing tone I really enjoyed the tale. A snapshot into 70s America that felt more like the early 60s with its attitude(probably showing my naivety here with American history) it doesn’t pull any punches from the first page to last.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

I thought this was horrible, but excellent. Gritty, nuanced and extremely powerful.

What Lehane has done here is pull an old story, a common mystery/thriller trope, one so overdone precisely because it is guaranteed to wage war with our emotions-- that of a mother searching for her missing child --and placed it in the middle of a setting I've never seen it in before.

A missing child is truly a wound that never heals-- worse than an outright loss, it is being in limbo and never having closure, the last threads of hope keeping you from grieving and moving on. When Mary Pat's teenage daughter doesn't come home, she will stop at nothing to find out what happened to her. And woe betide anyone who might have hurt her baby.

Mary Pat is vicious and a very complex, often unlikable, character. Raised in the Southie projects, she's grown up fighting back against the world. She has an interesting journey in Small Mercies and is forced to reckon with some of her long-held beliefs, but this is not a redemption narrative. Her fury rages as she bulldozes through the world of this book and a lot of people get hurt by her, directly and indirectly.

Is she right? Is she good? The answer by most people's standards is "no", but it is also near impossible to look away from her pain and anger. I was certainly invested.

Lehane sets the tale of Mary Pat and her missing daughter against the Boston busing crisis-- when attempts to desegregate Boston public schools were met with racial tensions and riots. As Mary Pat digs around, it becomes clear that the story is bigger than one missing person, and is, in fact, about a huge web of race, poverty, drugs and exploitation, with her daughter Jules caught up in the centre of it.

I really liked it, though "liked" seems inappropriate. The fact that the good guys and the bad guys were sometimes the same people just made this an even more memorable and affecting read.

Easiest five stars this year and this is definitely the book to beat for me this year.

Lehane is one of my favourite authors and Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River amongst my favourite books. This novel is set in Boston in the 1970's against a backdrop of simmering racial tensions.

Mary Pat Fennessey has suffered much heartache in her life and even more so when her daughter Jules goes missing. Mary Pat's search takes her through the streets of 'Southie' and brings her up against people who would rather she stopped searching and would leave it all alone. However, those people have never met Mary Pat...

Mary Pat is genuinely one of the most unforgettable characters I have ever read, long will her story live on in my memory. Her heartbreak just jumps off the page and Lehane makes her pain, the readers pain.

And that ending?.......Well read this one and come back so we can discuss it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Abacus for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Small Mercies is Dennis Lehane at his scintillating best. It’s a masterpiece of prose, plotting, place and character.

1974, the year schools are desegregated in Boston. In the weeks leading up to white and black children being forcibly bused to schools in areas which are almost exclusively of the other race, the city is a powder keg of tension and protests.

Mary Pat lives in the Southie Projects, an area tightly controlled by the Butler crew but also one where old ladies don’t walk across the road without assistance from passing neighbours. A woman with strong Irish roots, a widow, left by her second husband and a son lost to drugs. Her world is turned upside down when her 17 year old daughter goes missing after a night out with friends, none of whom Mary Pat can trust or respect. Mary Pat is no shrinking violet. She will leave no stone unturned to find her daughter. However, she can’t help but suspect the death of a young black man the same night of her daughter’s disappearance must be connected.

Small Mercies is unflinching and pulls no punches. It’s gritty and often a hard read. Yet it’s impossible not to cheer on Mary Pat (even when she is a little Jackie Chan) and Bobby, the detective assigned to the case. Dennis Lehane uses every word with purpose and it is a really difficult book to put down. I’d be surprised if I read a better written book this year. This reminds me of reading Mystic River - probably my favourite crime book of all time.

Thanks to Little Brown and Netgalley. I was thrilled to receive an ARC and it went beyond my high expectations.

To me this author is magic, his books are gritty and real, his writing for tv always spot on. If I know he’s written it I will watch the show ( Blackbird being the latest) and I will read the book. This book is as good a rival as any to Mystic River and like nearly all of his books this one is set in Boston.
The year is 1974 and the powers that be have decided to try and integrate the schools by busing a group of black students to a whites only high school. This is causing riots and marches and the political unrest is rife.
Mary Pat Fennessy is from good Irish stock and lives in an Irish tenement building, like all the women there she is trying to keep one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary has a love hate relationship with her 17 year old daughter, Jules. Her son has served his country but lost the war on drugs having OD on his return from war. One night Jules doesn’t come home, Mary is worried especially as the next day at work, at the retirement village where she is employed, she discovers that one of her black workmates son has been killed, possibly by a train but probably murdered. As Mary continues to look for her daughter she discovers that Jules and her friends were the last ones to be seen with the dead boy. At every turn it seems Mary is being warned off but finds an ally of sorts with Detective Bobby Coyne.
The story is told almost wholly through Mary’s eyes, who is a loving mother and a good person but cannot hide her feelings for those encroaching on her turf. To find her daughter she is prepared to put herself in danger and risk everything to find the truth.
Highly recommend, this will be in my top reads of the year.

#SmallMercies #NetGalley

Set amidst the unease and violence of Boston’s desegregation crisis of 1974, we meet Mary Pat Fennessy. Mary Pat has lived her whole life in ’Southie’, an Irish American enclave. When Mary Pat’s daughter Jules goes missing, she starts asking questions, but that only brings her to the attention of the Irish mob, and in particular Marty Butler. The thing is, you don’t go stirring things up, bringing unwanted attention to Marty Butler’s many ‘businesses’, - that’s totally crossing the line.

However, that doesn’t stop Mary Pat, she’s already suffering intolerable grief and Marty Butler or not, she WILL discover what’s happened to her daughter.

You might not agree with Mary Pat and her methods, you may not like her, but you won’t question her motives nor her determination and bravery in the midst of great danger to herself.

Mary Pat is a deeply complex character, and it’s definitely a tough read, but I challenge you to put this book down - it’s a truly beautiful read - beautiful in its truth, but ugly and brutal at the same time, with drugs, violence, racism, and many other equally distressing subjects in the mix, ( how little has changed)! Lehane is a master of the true nature of the human mind and how it works, whether that be good or bad intentions. Definitely recommended.

This was my first Denis Lehane novel and it will not be my last. What a skillful writer he is creating complex and fascinating characters, laying down a storyline full of suspense and painting vivid pictures on each page. In Small Mercies, however, many of those pictures are stark and frightening, so be warned, this is not a book for the faint hearted! It portrays the grim but no doubt accurate world of 1970’s Boston life in the racially segregated Black and Irish sections of the city. The back story is the school system’s impending introduction of “busing”, where students are shipped outside their neighborhoods in an attempt at racial mixing. The Irish community are
vehemently opposed to this saying it will introduce crime into their community and risk their children’s lives in the black ghettos. The irony is that life as a “Southie” is every bit as perilous with the Irish community being ruled by organized crime strongly linked to the Police and the Politicians.
The main character is Mary Pat Fennessey, a Southie who has already lost a son to a drug overdose and whose 15 year old daughter has now gone missing. Mary is a true product of her community and is both frighteningly brutal and shockingly sensitive, a masterful creation by Lehane. Her dialogue is coarse and vulgar and she behaves like a rampaging bull in her quest to find out what happened to her daughter yet her thoughts and introspections reveal a softer and more sophisticated side.
Detective Bobby Coyne is the second main character. Like Mary Pat, his upbringing has left many scars and he has his demons but he is an honest cop who is not a racist and is trying to help Mary Pat find justice in this flawed community. However, their ideas of what justice means are not exactly aligned.
This is a book which both horrified and fascinated me and to be honest, I could not put it down. Having visited Boston and being of Irish decent, I felt at home in this quaint and historic city, I now realize there is a much grittier side of the city that I am sure the Tourist Board would rather subdue lest visitors fear an encounter with Mary Pat!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing access to this pre publication edition.

I haven’t read a Dennis Lehane novel for sometime so was really looking forward to reading his latest offering. I really enjoyed ‘Mystic River’ and of course well known for ‘Shutter Island’.

The novel is set in 1974 America, Boston and focuses on the deep American racism and crime. Mary Pat Fennessy is struggling to make ends meet and caring for her family. But her life is about to get even harder.

Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules doesn’t doesn’t come home on the same night that a young Black man is found dead, hit by a subway train under strange circumstances. The two event seem unrelated but the more Mary Pat searches for her daughter the more upsetting information she receives.

This is well written, with really strong characters. The more I read the more I was gripped and by towards the end of it I was unable to put it down.

brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Small Mercies is another great novel from Dennis Lehane and is up there with World Gone By and the other Coughlin novels. It's set in Boston in 1974 and revolves around Mary Pat Fennessey, a tough Irish American woman, whose teenage daughter goes out with her friends one evening and doesn't return. It involves the Irish mafia who are running the criminal life of the city and also the clumsy busing project that is intended to desegregate the schools in the area against the opposition of most parents.
Once I got into the book I found it 'unputdownable' and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I hope that his next novel isn't too far away.

There are so many well written thrillers out there and so many gifted writers that a discerning reader is totally spoilt for choice.

Every so often a master of their trade publishes a new work and the difference is tangible.

Dennis Lehman quite simply is a genius who has produced a multilayered thriller which brings Boston of the mid 70s to life. It is a city divided by racism and the legal threat of busing and Lehane has conjured up a complex murder investigation which ties all these threads together brilliantly.

The language is rich and lush, reminiscent of the great George Higgins, the characters well developed and credible.

The book washes over you and entices you in. It is gloriously entertaining and totally unputdownable.

Certainly the best book I’ve read so far this year.

In 1974 the US District Court ruled that the Boston School Committee had ‘systematically disadvantaged black school children’ in the public school system. The remedy chosen was to begin busing students between predominantly white and predominantly black neighbourhoods in order to desegregate the city’s public high schools. History tells us that this decision was not universally popular in those districts, feeding racist violence and fuelling existing class tensions. It’s against this background that Lehane structures his latest explosive tale.

Mary Pat Fennessey has always lived in the housing projects in the south of the city, an area with its own proud way of doing things. The people here are predominantly of Irish American descent, they are close knit and many rarely move outside the confines of their own small community. One night her daughter, Jules, fails to come home after a night out with friends. That in itself isn’t entirely unheard of but having already lost a son to a drug habit born of his service in Vietnam and fed by local pushers, Mary Pat desperately contacts anyone who might have seen her, but to no avail.

At this point we start to become acutely aware of the segregated life people in this part of the city actually live; white and black people really don’t mix and their reaction to one another’s appearance on their own turf exceeds antipathy. For Mary Pat, even in a work environment where civility is a necessity, friendship is considered unconscionable. So when the son of a black work colleague is killed in what might be an accident or, more likely, an act of malice, her reaction is one of sympathy though she can’t quite bring herself to write a reciprocal note along the lines of the one she received when her own son died.

The desperate search for her daughter eventually leads Mary Pat to the door of a pub owned and run by the local Irish mob, in an attempt to seek their assistance. We learn that this violent gang controls pretty much everything that goes on here, setting the rules and dealing out the punishments as they see fit. But though she is met with a somewhat sympathetic ear, she quickly realises that if Jules is to be found then she’s going to have to do the finding.

This story throws a light on the gritty, dark and often violent life that many in ‘the projects’ led at this time. In Mary Pat, the author has found the perfect vehicle to bring this all vividly to life. She’s both determined in defence of the community in which she lives but also increasingly questioning of the impact this has on everyday life and on the relationships this fosters and just as often prohibits. Lehane has produced two of my favourite novels in Shutter Island and Mystic River and I can now add this one to the list. Outstanding!

This is my first Dennis Lehane so many thanks to Netgalley for the copy.

Not an easy read by any means due to the issues tackled. It pulls your insides out at times.

Set in Boston during the first de-segregation attempt in South Boston. So you've started with a deeply controversial issue. We begin the story of Mary Pat Fennessy and her daughter, Jules, some days before the busing. Mary Pat has lost one child to drugs; one husband is dead and her second has left her. Jules is her whole heart now. So when her daughter doesn't return from a night out with her "useless" boyfriend Mary Pat is not going to take some pitiful excuses lying down.

She begins to make waves in the neighbourhood where Irish Catholic families run the show and God help you if you begin to make enough noise to bring the Police round. But Mary Pat does not care. She doesn't care who she accuses or upsets. She certainly doesn't care who gets hurt because she intends to find Jules and punish those who have lied to her.

This book is a visceral charge through a few days. The characters are stark in their reality. Everything is literally seen in black and white; us and them; with us or against us.

I was absolutely captivated by this book. I read it in a couple of sittings because I found it almost impossible to put down. There are very emotive issues discussed and I certainly wept for almost all the main characters at one point or another.

Absolutely brilliant. Highly recommended.

Boston in the 70's was not a good place to be, but if I had to be there, I'd want Mary Pat at my back.
What a character she is.
The sort that still waters run deep was made for.
The whole living situation in that part of Boston sounded tense, it just adds to everything that happens.
I barely put this book down.
It seems like a long time since we had new Lehane, but I think this was worth the wait.
Not for the faint hearted, but definitely for those looking for a cracking read.