Small Mercies : 'Engaging, enraging, and can’t-put-it-down entertainment' Stephen King

From the author of Mystic River comes a powerful evocation of desperation and violence set amidst the Boston housing projects during the 1974 heatwave, as the death of a young Black man and the disappearance of an Irish-American girl ignite a tinderbox of a community.

Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger 2024

New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane 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.

'Mrs. Fennessy, please go home.'
'And do what?'
'Whatever you do when you're home.'
'And then what?'
'Get up the next day and do it again.'
She shakes her head. 'That's not living.'
'It is if you can find the small blessings.'
She smiles, but her eyes shine with agony. 'All my small blessings are gone.'

In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey 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.

MEDIA REVIEWS

At the heart of the book is a masterly psychological study of racism. Lehane (who was a writer on The Wire) provides top-notch dialogue, an absorbing mystery and an evocation of a historical moment foreshadowing America's 21st-century ethnic divide - Sunday Times, Thriller of the Month

Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River, uses Mary Pat's search for answers to illuminate wider issues of racial tension, drug use and sexual inequality that still plague America. His real accomplishment, though, is his portrait of a mother both "irretrievably broken and wholly unbreakable", one he draws without smoothing over Mary Pat's own flaws and blinkered attitudes. You'll be lucky if you read a more engaging novel this year - The Times, April 2023 Thriller of the Month

A brutal, thrilling and relentlessly clear-eyed portrait of a city riven by fear and hatred - Mail on Sunday

Lehane's latest is a multifaceted affair, delivering an unsentimental account of a city at war with itself and a nuanced investigation of racism, class and cultural identity. Fundamentally, however, it's a powerful story of a woman who has stripped of everything she holds dear and who, with nothing left to lose, has nothing left to fear...Mary Pat Fennessy might be Dennis Lehane's single greatest creation' - Irish Times

Aficionados argue about who currently inhabits the top tier of American crime fiction...two names jostle for pole position: Dennis Lehane and Don Winslow. Both writers provide a perfect balance of detailed characterisation and state-of-the-nation underpinnings in their work...Lehane has said that his work is always about hope, however dark the scenarios, and that quality shines throughout this ambitious and multi-layered novel - Financial Times