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.

I once debated with a friend, we were young and still in college, she believed people were either good or bad. I believed good people could be driven to do bad things, like a parent defending their child.

Well, this book. A mother’s fury. A mother’s revenge. How far would a mother go?

The murder of a black man by 4 teens in Boston during the 1974 desegregation of the public schools. The city is already brewing with an impending race war. Then Mary Pat’s daughter doesn’t come home. Mary Pat begins her own search for her upending the city and starting a war of her own.

I don't think this is necessarily the greatest book I've read this quarter, but my dedicated Lehane readers have already made this a high demand title.

This book has so many words and situations that are politically incorrect in so many ways, however with that said, Lehane truly captures the ethnicity, atmosphere, tension and culture of the early 1970s in Boston. Racial, desegregation and a mob that controls the town. But most importantly, a one woman vigilante on a crusade to make all the wrongs right and to make sure justice is served. A fantastic book!

Taking place in Boston, 1974, Mary Pat lives in the projects of Irish America Southie Boston. Her daughter goes missing the same night a young black man is found dead under suspicious circumstances. Mary Pat won’t give up until she finds her daughter and knows what happened.

I learned a lot about the busing in Boston and the reactions when it started. I can’t believe I didn’t know much about it. There was a lot of strong racism in the story that was hard to read, but it shows the extreme racial and political division that was going on at the time. It reminded me of Razorblade Tears, but we have a hard Southie woman who is the vigilante against her own community group. Awesome story that is hard to read at times, sad, and has some crazy exciting moments.

“He has no idea where it all comes from - the loyalty, the rage, the brotherhood and the suspicion, the benevolence and the hate. But he suspects it has something to do with the need for a life to have meaning.”

Small Mercies comes out 4/25.

Another great story from Dennis Lehane. There's no doubt about Lehane's street cred when in comes to Southie, and the emotion domes through in his look at this particular moment in time. It is both heart breaking and uplifting. As with other Lehane novels, it packs quite a punch.

Small Mercies is set in Boston in the summer of 1974, where an imminent school busing order has inflamed racial tensions. The situation will affect Mary Pat Fennessy and her daughter Jules, who is attending a South Boston high school: they live in "Southie," the traditionally Irish-American enclave. But initially, Mary Pat is only involved in preparing for the neighborhood participation in a big anti-busing rally.

That all changes when Jules goes out one night and does not come back home. That same evening a young Black man is struck and killed in a nearby subway station under mysterious circumstances. As Mary Pat desperately looks for her missing daughter, she (and the police) begins to see connections between the two events. The search eventually reveals ugly hidden truths about the true role of organized crime in Southie. At one point one of the police detectives involved in the investigation notes that Mary Pat may have lost her daughter as well as her son, and asks "What would she have to live for?"

That question casts a long shadow over the entire last part of the book. Mary Pat discovers exactly who is responsible for the loss of her daughter, and sets about making them all pay. Her actions are surprising and violent: she has nothing to lose and has no fear of burning every bridge in sight. It is a white-knuckle ride for both the characters and the reader.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance reader's copy.

This is a dark book about revenge and desperation. As always, Lehane's writing is vivid, dropping you right into the gritty streets of Southie, and compelling. He pulls a sort of bait-and-switch with the structure, starting as a missing girl narrative before switching gears about a third of the way in. The switch makes for a much more interesting story.

Lehane has written about class in America for a long time, race, too, from a slant. In this book, he attacks both head on, and sometimes the story -- bits of dialogue -- felt like Lehane arguing, maybe with himself and his own memories, coming back to shout, "AND ANOTHER THING ...." The plot's momentum never really wavers, though.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

5 stars. I have seen several adaptations of Dennis Lehane's books before, but this was my first time reading him. I don't read a lot of crime novels, but the setting and premise caught my attention - the summer of 1974, when Boston erupted in riots ahead of the desegregation of its school system and the busing that went along with it, and the disappearance of a white Irish 'Southie' girl on the same night as the mysterious death of a young black man in the "wrong" neighborhood. Mary Pat, the main character and mother of the missing girl, is engaging from the very beginning, as deeply flawed as she is. No one, most especially herself, is safe in her desire to find her daughter Jules, especially as it becomes more and more clear that her disappearance and the young man's death are connected to each other and to the local mafia boss. An extremely readable book, a real page-turner, very compelling and often heartbreaking, especially when Lehane explores what drives the hatred and bigotry of the different characters in the book. And sadly, the story has very real-time relevance, touching as it does the deaths of too many people of color when they show up in the "wrong" place at the "wrong" time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper for a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced reader’s copy.

This is brutal but excellent. Set at the onset of the race riots in Boston in the 70’s, it follows Mary Pat and her daughter Jules on the brink of desegregation at the end of a hot summer. Violence, racism, drugs - it’s all prevalent and at the forefront of this remarkable story from Lehane. He never disappoints, and his realism and accuracy of slang and dialect of the area is spot on - it wasn’t until after I finished reading that I realized how comfortable it was to read, having grown up in Massachusetts. Highly recommend.

Small Mercies takes you on a ride through the turbulent summer of '74 in Boston. The main character, Mary Pat Fennessy has lived all her life in the "Southie" projects struggling to get by. She's a single parent dealing with her own insecurities and old traditions that won't no one wants to let go of. The city is also facing change. The desegregating of the public school system has everyone on edge with demonstrations and protests. Tempers are hot while the stronghold of racism suffocates the city. When one night her daughter doesn't return home and a young Black man is found dead, the two events become a catalyst for an explosion of violence in the city that will take Mary Pat to the very edge.
Lehane's portrayal of Boston during the mid 70's is brutal, but I could not put it down. This book is gut wrenching with true depictions of crime, power and racism. My only disappointment was the ending. But the more I think about it, Lehane doesn't sugar coat the world all of these characters are living in. Life is oppressive and harsh for many people and not everyone makes it out in one piece. All in all, a good read. A word of caution, in addition to the violence there is lots of racial slur and offensive language.

Small Mercies
By Dennis Lehane
Pub Date April 25
Harper
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
*mystery * fiction
Based on the author’s own experiences growing up in South Boston Lehane gives us a gut punch that is both tender and brutal. This book will appeal to die hard crime readers. It’s one of his best!
4 stars

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

I have been a Lehane fan for years, meeting him at the Boston Book Festival over several years ago was a highlight! So when I saw a new book was coming out, I could not wait to read it. Small Mercies did not disappoint.

The standalone novel tells the story of Mary Pat Fennessey, a real toughie of a South Boston mother, who tries to figure out why her 17-year-old daughter has gone missing on the same summer 1974 night a young Black man is killed at a T station in Southie.

Lehane knows Southie well, and it shows in this novel, from the language to the setting. There’s Mary Pat, the Commonwealth and Old Colony projects, the bar/club only open to the locals, and, of course, the Irish mobster Marty Butler (who bears a strong resemblance to Whitey Bulger).

I recommend this to all of Lehane’s fans, and anyone who enjoys Boston fiction!

I love pretty much everything Dennis Lehane writes and it's been a while since I've read anything from him. This reminded me of his older stuff and I really enjoyed it. Definitely took some turns I wasn't expecting.

I have read a few of his books and they are all amazing. This one is no different ! I read this is one setting. I started at 9pm and before I knew it- it was almost 2am and I was on the last chapter ! Amazing ! Definitely one of my favorites of 2022!

Are you looking for the kind of book that you can’t wait for work to end, so you can come home and keep reading it? Then look no further. I love most of Dennis Lehane’s books, but I think he is at his best when he writes about Irish American life in Boston. If you’ve read some of his other books, then you probably know what I’m talking about. Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River will forever stay with me.
Small Mercies doesn’t disappoint. It deserves 4.5 stars in my book, but Netgalley doesn’t allow half stars for some odd reason.
I was fortunate to read Small Mercies as an ARC from Netgalley. As always with Lehane’s books, there is a cast of compelling characters. But the scene stealer time and again is Mary Pat Fennessy. Damn- she is one fierce mother. If you’ve ever asked yourself- what wouldn’t I do for my child? To protect my child? To find my child? To avenge my child? Then you can relate in some way to Mary Pat. I’m not saying she’s a “good mother”, but she is a compelling one for sure.
I hope someone makes a show out of this book. But please let it be a director with a clue- Mary Pat deserves someone outstanding to play her.

I have been waiting for Dennis Lehane to return to the world of Boston. I didn't HATE Live By Night but it just wasn't the same. Objectively this was maybe more of a 4 or 4.5, but I never wanted to put this down once I started. It was honestly uncomfortable to read at times because Lehane does not pull punches about the drugs, violence, and insidious racist thoughts that inhabit the minds of these characters. Would recommend especially for fans of Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro series/Mystic River

During the summer of 1974, the city of Boston erupted into protests over the government’s plan to desegregate the city’s public school system. It was a historic summer of record heat and boiling racial tensions that often exploded into violence. Against this backdrop, Dennis Lehane’s new novel Small Mercies delves into themes that are as relevant for today’s world as it was fifty years ago.

Mary Pat Fennessey, a scrappy native of Boston’s “Southie” housing projects, understands the meaning of loss. Before this summer’s protests began, she had already lost a husband to suicide and a son to drugs. Now, with protests and violence erupting everywhere, her youngest daughter Jules has not returned home from a night out with friends. On the same night, a young Black man is found dead under a subway platform near Mary Pat’s neighborhood. What was he doing in Southie, an Irish American enclave? Could his death have anything to do with Jules’ disappearance?

Mary Pat will stop at nothing to find her missing daughter. When the local Irish mob’s boss offers little help, she does the unthinkable by seeking help from the police. However, when the police prove unhelpful, Mary Pat takes things into her own hands in an epic shakedown of the community’s iron clad traditions and hierarchy. Southie will never be the same.

Small Mercies is an intense, gritty novel that does not shy away from exposing the ugliness behind the racism that rocked Boston in the Seventies. Using the graphic language and racial slurs of the time, Mr. Lehane masterfully exposes the roots of racism and prejudice that continue to fester in our nation to this day. Small Mercies, while raw in its content, offers yet one more example of the incredible writing skills so often found in Dennis Lehane’s work.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review an advance reader copy (ARC) of this outstanding novel. SMALL MERCIES is expected to publish on April 25, 2023 and I highly recommend reserving your copy today.

Lehane's latest novel springs from a childhood experience in Boston during the anti-busing riots of 1974. He turns that fear and emotion into one of the most powerful novels of the century.

With ninety days before black and white students will be bused to integrate Boston schools, Boston ignites into rallies and violence. The same night, Auggie Williamson, a young black man is killed in the subway, Mary Pat Fennessey's seventeen-year-old daughter, Julies, disappears. Although the Irish mobsters that control the projects try to forestall Mary Pat, nothing is going to stop the tough Southie broad from learning what happened to her daughter. She'll burn her way through the community to find answers.

Pair this rage-filled, thoughtful novel of racism, drugs and power with S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears.

This is a very timely and compelling book about the desegregation crisis in Boston. It had been tackled before by J. Anthony Lukas in COMMON GROUND. This was especially interesting because the author focused on one woman and how she, her family and neighbors , became victims of racial hatred. Mary Pat Fennessey and her daughter, Jules, exemplify the politics of racism and violence. Sadly, today (Election Day) we see the flaming of hatred and lies that have grown in the past.

Lebanese has humanized the people involved. On many levels, the relationship between poverty and racism is also clearly analyzed. This is an excellent novel of a most unexpected topic in historical fiction.

Thank you Netgalley for this very thought provoking ARC.