Mary Pat is one tough broad, growing up in South Boston, she's a product of her Irish upbringing.

The historical hook for this book is the desegregation of the black and white schools in the mid seventies.

Lehane takes this stepping off point to tell a nightmare story of a mother losing her son, then her daughter goes missing, leading to a revenge story that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.

This is another of Lehane's gripping stories that is well worth your time.

Recommended.

This was such a brutal, intense and thought provoking read, that, definitely deals with some hard hitting issues.I enjoyed it

It is hard not to talk about this book without giving away things that need to take time to build. The story is all about people and perceptions. It is of a hive mentality and how hard it is to be 'alone' within it.
Mary Pat Fennessy is participating in the protest against the integration of their local schools. She has high hopes for her daughter, someone who might be made for better things than their locality. It is with pure frustration that she sets out to try and find out what happened to her daughter when she does not turn up after a night out. It is the same night that her colleague's son is found dead in their locality. The fact that he was black and found in a white neighbourhood with no witnesses as to his untimely demise is not surprising to most.
It is the conversation that happens around the event and the stereotyping that everyone does by reflex that is the focus of this book. The people on either side of the conversation are no better off than each other, but they hold onto their pride as if it is the sole thing they can afford to do.
Like an avenging angel, Mary Pat decides to tear through the fabric of her neighbourhood to finally know. The truths that come out both surprise her while not being entirely surprising.
It is not a happy book. It is also not a book that dwells on the unpleasant. The darker events are dealt with as facts, and the people affected by them are the focal point of the story. It is a sad tale without being depressing. There is fury in it, with more swearing than I am usually happy with, but it makes sense, given the context.
The politics that begin at the ground level make life hard for most people, and this story takes its time to build up the locality, the people and the dynamics. I enjoyed the writing style and felt highly invested in the outcome as I read it.
I would highly recommend this to fans of this genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I couldn't put this book down.

Set during a hot, tumultuous summer in 1974, in the wake of a desegregation order to integrate Boston's schools, Small Mercies is a gripping and unflinching look at America's race wars.

The story focuses primarily on working-class Boston Irish woman, Mary Pat Fennessy, a lifelong resident of one of Southie’s public housing projects. When Mary Pat's only daughter, Jules, fails to return home one night, she starts asking questions around the neighbourhood. And when Mary Pat learns that the night Jules disappeared, a young Black man was found dead at a subway station in South Boston, she wonders if the two events are connected.

Trying to connect the dots, Mary Pat is met with silence from the Southie community that usually count on each other. This leads her to question the motivations of chieftain of the local Irish mob, Marty Butler, and his crew, who claim to protect those in the neighbourhood who pledge loyalty to them. And Mary Pat won't stop until she tears the whole of Southie down.

This is a riveting, unrelenting book with a propulsive plot and a stand-out protagonist who feels entirely true to who she is. Mary Pat's racial sluts are difficult to take at times, but are essential to our understanding of how cycles of hatred and violence are passed on from one generation to the next, and how they are used to keep communities dependent on themselves and to keep outsiders out.

I can't recommend this book enough. I you enjoyed Lehane's novels Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, or the film The Town, this will be right up your street.

It’s the summer of 1974 and, as the desegregation of Boston’s public schools is about to take place, a young black man is murdered one night by a group of white kids. As police begin tracking down and interviewing the white kids, one of them - Jules Fennessy - remains missing. Jules’ ma, Mary Pat, begins her own search for her daughter and for the truth of what really happened that night.

Dennis Lehane is a fantastic writer who’s written some cracking novels (Shutter Island, Moonlight Mile, Since We Fell) but unfortunately his latest, Small Mercies, isn’t up there among them. It’s a very slow-moving narrative with sporadic bursts of excitement and revelations that are underwhelming and unremarkable.

The first half of the novel is a well-written but nonetheless dreary trudge through repetitive story details, dull historical table-setting and character introductions (most of whom aren’t that memorable). It doesn’t live up to the “thriller” label until Mary Pat realises what’s what and goes off on one. Like most female characters from Southie in a Lehane novel (quite a few of his books are set in this part of America), Mary Pat’s a tough broad and it’s entertaining to see her go to town on the scum that make up her corner of the world.

Those passages are short-lived though and then we’re back to the dry police procedural and waiting-around that make up most of the novel. Lehane’s explanation of Boston racism isn’t that profound or enlightening either (generational prejudice hammered in at a young age - duh).

I usually like Lehane’s novels so Small Mercies was a disappointingly boring read and I would warn any fans of the writer planning on checking this one out not to get your hopes up. If you’ve not read him before and would like to, I’d start with Shutter Island or Moonlight Mile instead of this much weaker, forgettable effort.

A mother, who struggles to make ends meet and grieves the loss of her only son, needs all her courage and resolve to find her missing daughter. Set in 1974 in Boston, USA, with a background of the infamous 'busing' (where white children were 'bused' schools that were predominantly filled by black children, and vice versa), poverty and racial tensions are rife. The night her daughter goes missing, a black man is killed on the railway. Coincidence?

This intense and moving story shows the levels of racism that occured, how people hold these deeply rooted beliefs and how they justify them. Every so often the book has to close so I can consider what has happened. Against this background is a distraught mother who will go to any lengths to find her daughter, even if it means facing the violent gangs and drug lords of her neighbourhood and sinking to the depths they sink to. If her children are gone as well as two husbands, what else is there for her but revenge.

Well written, clever, heartbreaking and thrilling, this is an absorbing read. Told mostly from the point of view of the mother with some intermittent observations by a police officer, this is a powerful and earthy story about survival, prejudice, acceptance, motherhood and small mercies. A courageous central character who faces adversity but still manages good humour. Recommended.

True to form page-turned from Lehane. Everything he does best: captivating characters, sharp observations, crackling dialogue, a bit of a mystery, a bit of a history lesson, and just a great yarn. It's brutal and confronting, but that's the point. Mary Pat is a character for the ages.

This is the first book I read by Dennis Lehane and it was a WOW moment as this novel is brilliant, heartwrenching and gripping.
It's a light read but it's a powerful one, a novel that reminded me of some of the best 70s novel and made travel back in time.
Drugs, racism, poverty, Vietnam war: there's a realistic description of an era and there's a twisty and solid plot that kept me turning pages.
The author is a master storyteller and this novel is strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Amids local tensions because of the school integration plans Mary Pats daughter Jules has gone missing. On the same night her black coworkers son is found dead on the raiway tracks at Columbia station. The local crime family say they'll help and she's to leave thing with them but Mary Pat knows something isn't right. Having already lost her son she's not prepared to wait and proceeds to stir up a lot of trouble in the search for her girl.
This is the first book by Dennis Lehane that I've read so now I realise that I've been really missing out. I thought the storytelling was brilliant, the characters fascinating and the Boston 1974 setting gripping. Probably the best book I've read this year.

Read this both on netgalley and Pigeonhole.
Captured the emotions of the characters amazingly.
5*****

Boston 1974. The city is blanketed by a heatwave and racial tensions.
In housing projects of ‘Southie’ Mary Pat Fennesey is trying to avoid dept collectors, whilst searching for her missing daughter.
Her daughter went missing on the same night as a black boy is found dead, struck by a train.
When Mary Pat goes looking for answers she soon discovers an unsettling link between both incidents.
Before she knows it she up against the police and the Irish mob, but she won’t back down, she’s even prepared to put her life on the line to get the answers she is looking for.
Dennis Lehane has written a lot of high quality books, but this is exceptional even by his standards.
It’s a violent and powerful story, that’s heart wrenching and incredibly dark.
It’s safe to say this book is the best I’ve read all year. A truly incredible novel.

Boston, 1974: the whole city is in uproar due to the imminent implementation of the municipal plan to desegregate Boston's public schools by busing the students between traditionally white and black neighborhoods, thus compelling the racially mixed population of minors to mingle within the school environment. This desegregation plan triggered a series of violent protests with the white Bostoners refusing to accept the government's decree, forcing them to send their children in areas where reverse racism was predominant at the time. Small Mercies is -chronologically- set during the first violent reactions against the program which continued to plague the city all the way until 1976. The demographic shifts pertaining to Boston's school population as well as a decline of public-school enrollment were the most critical and lasting effects of the so-called "Boston Desegregation Busing Crisis". Dennis Lehane uses a real historical event to structure upon a story that concerns a young woman living in the southern neighborhoods, "the Southie" as they call it, and resides in the Commonwealth Housing Projects, an underprivileged place that gave birth to strong and resolute individuals who had to fight for everything in the course of their lives.

Mary Pat is the protagonist, a tough-as-nails character who has a daughter, teenager Jules, and still grieves for the loss of her son, Noel, due to his terrible immersion in heroin use, a blight that cost the lives of many young people in Boston in the previous few decades. When Jules disappears after a night out with friends, Mary Pat faces her worst nightmare as it is doubtful if she is gonna hack the death of one more child. The case of Jules's sudden vanishing is more perplexed than a simple case of disappearance as at the night in question, another tragic event took place in the area where Mary Pat lives. A young black man, Auggie, is found dead in the metro tracks of a secluded station and the circumstances around his death remain largely uncharted. Some witnesses claimed that Auggie was running away from a group of four white kids, and one of them was Jules. The case falls on the shoulders of Bobby Coyne, a Boston detective who has fought in Vietnam and as the plot moves forward, we learn more regarding his traumatic war experiences as well as other significant moments of his past such as his heroin addiction.

The entire city is reigned by Marty, a local mob boss who is responsible for all the major dealings in his turf that includes both the white and the black districts. As the investigation in Auggie's death evolves, Jules's case is spurned, thus forcing Mary Pat to begin her own personal quest to learn about her daughter's whereabouts. Though Bobby and her never quite collaborate, they share a great deal of respect for one another and the two of them will inevitably have to confront Marty and his group of goons who are related to the story. Small Mercies begins as a police procedural with the added historical spin of the busing crisis but transforms into a relentless revenge story with Mary Pat leading the show and proving that, even though she is just a poor woman, her boldness and fighting spirit can overpower even some of the most vigorous criminals. It is not an easy-to-read novel as it contains some truly disturbing scenes of violence that, nonetheless, remain attached to the main storyline and make sense due to the superb characterization by Lehane who returns after six years of authorial inertia, his last novel was Since We Fell, published in 2017, to remind the global readership of his unique qualities as a crime writer.

Though the story and the plot are not comparable with the complexity and intricacy of Lehane's masterpiece Mystic River, a novel that was fortunate enough to be adapted into feature film by Clint Eastwood in 2003 with the cast featuring some Hollywood heavy-hitter actors such as Sean Penn, Tim Robins, and Kevin Bacon, Small Mercies packs a firm punch due to to the author's eye for detail that leaves no major aspect of the book unattended. Mary Pat is one of the most fascinating protagonist in this year's crime fiction publications and her persona is outlined with Lehane providing small doses of information and large parts of action where we are left in no doubt in respect to her essential traits. Mary Pat can be seen as an archetypal heroine who is prone to getting involved in brawls despite being usually outnumbered by many and whose love for her family is the cradle and cornerstone of the novel's plot. She is the paradigm of a solitary person who is ploughing through life based solely on her emotions and -primal- instincts. Her revenge scheme commences after the first half of the story, after a harrowing revelation that alters its calculus.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher (Little Brown Book Group Uk, Abacus) for providing a free ARC of this much-anticipated comeback of one of America's forefront crime writers of our era.

This was a really excellent read. Hard to put down and it evoked so many emotions when reading.

Set in Boston in 1974 in the sweltering dying summer heat. Court ordered "busing" the desegregation of the cities public schools is about to begin and violence and protests ravage the city. Mary Pat has lived her whole life in Southie, an Irish American part of Boston, where loyalty and tradition is paramount. Nobody in Southie is happy about changes to the school system and racism and anger is rife. Mary Pat is just about surviving, trying to pay her bills and getting through each day. Her first husband died and so did her son. Her second husband left her and now its just her and her 17 year daughter Jules. One evening a young Black man is found dead in a local subway station and Jules doesn't come home. At first there doesn't seem to be any connection between Jules and the dead man but as the days go on and Jules still hasn't come home, Mary Pat begins to ask questions. The local Irish mafia bosses, people Mary Pat has grown up with and known her life, are not happy with her questions but Mary Pat won't stop.

This book had everything. The vivid descriptions, the historical events, the heat, the claustrophobia of a tight knit neighbourhood, men with power, the visceral racism and the desperation of a mother who will do anything to find her daughter. Mary Pat is a great character, she doesn't have a lot of redeeming qualities , while the reader might not like her it is impossible not to want the best for her. While parts of this story will feel familiar, the mafia bosses running the area for example, Mary Pat is unlike any character I have read before. I was completely transported to Boston of the 70's when reading. I was uncomfortable and anxious and angry and it takes a lot for a book evoke these emotions. It was impossible to put this one down, brilliantly paced, tightly plotted and good old fashioned story telling. The best thriller/ crime novel I have read in a long time . A fantastic read.

4-4.5 star

Denis Lebanese gets right to the heart of any subject he tackles. Small Mercies is set in Boston, MA in 1974. It’s a baking hot summer and the authorities have decided that a good way to tackle racism and break down segregation is to bus black youngsters into white schools and white youngsters into black schools. This decision leads to violence and protests. That’s the backdrop to a story which actuall centres on a mother’s search for her teen daughter.

Mary Pat is a low income white mother whose daughter Jules has disappeared. She lives in a poor projects area which borders a similar poor black area. There are problems with drugs, gangs, racial tensions and a powerful vigilante group which controls the white area and resents police involvement. Every element for a powerful and fast paced thriller is there and I’ve raced through this in a few sittings. Lehane really brings the issues to life. The dialogue and characters are so well depicted, there’s a palpable sense of heat and tension and the story really tugs at a range of emotions. I think it’s the dialogue that really helps; it’s so real and it makes the people. It’s like being drawn in as an observer to their conversations and actions. It’s very well told and a great thriller.

This story is told during a tumultuous time in Boston, as the government has decided to de-segregated a predominantly black, and a white school high school, by busing them.
Small Mercies is incredibly thought provoking, quite an unforgettable and heartbreaking story.
The characters are well written, even though I didn't love them.
Trigger warnings: drug usage, violence

Dennis Lehane is back at his storytelling best. A tale of a mother out for vengeance and that of a cop trying to do his best, where both their lives become intertwined as the story unfolds. The author doesn't pull any punches in the dialogue and you get a real sense of being in the thick of it with the vivid, and often very graphic, descriptions,. One for your 'must read' shelf.

Small Mercies is a tough read. It's a book packed full of thought provoking themes, two engrossing mysteries and plenty of twists and turns that'll keep you glued until the final, stomach-churning conclusion.

Set deep in the heart of Boston's desegregation crisis in 1974, Small Mercies immediately feels like a hand grenade that's had its pin pulled, ready to explode at any moment. Well, that explosion comes in two fronts, and it unfortunately blows up in the face of our protagonist, Mary Pat Fennessy.

Mary Pat has lived all her life as a "Southie", a woman of Irish American descent. Eking out a living with her daughter Jules, Mary Pat struggles every day. Her gas has been turned off, she barely has enough money to make rent and her daughter is growing up fast.

When Jules suddenly goes missing one night, Mary Pat sets out on a mission to try and find her. Only, this seems to be linked to the death of a black man called Auggie Williamson, who has either been murdered or is part of an accidental death involving a train and numerous witnesses on the platform.

Mary Pat's mission sees her tumbling head-first into a much larger situation which involves members of the Irish Mob, fronted an "untouchable King" by the name of Marty Butler. Despite all of this, Mary Pat is determined to discover the truth, regardless of what it might cost.

To reveal much more would be a disservice to this story, which remains an absolutely enthralling read across all 320 or so pages. The dialogue is fast-moving, with a lovely stylistic prose that swings between sharp, quick-fire dialogue across an entire page at a time, and long bouts of exposition to explain more of the world we're thrown into.

The balance between the two states is really well developed, although one could argue the final third of this book does drag its heels a bit before delivering the explosive conclusion.

That's a minor gripe though in what's otherwise a very dark, disturbing and sobering book. Racism has been a hot topic in the entertainment space for a while now but Small Mercies is not a book that takes this subject lightly, instead using that as a tool and theme to tell a much bigger, character-driven story.

The characters themselves are well-defined, with a narrative that shifts back and forth between Mary Pat Fennessy and a detective by the name of Bobby. The latter isn't quite as well defined as Mary Pat, who's the real star of the show here, but the changed focus to a different point of view character does allow us to see the world from a slightly different viewpoint, which really benefits the narrative as a whole.

Ultimately, Small Mercies is a brilliant book. It's a sobering, eye-opening look at racism but it's also an utterly enthralling, must-read mystery too. There are numerous twists and turns along the way, and you'll find yourself desperate to find out what happens next. When it comes to discussions about the best books of 2023, Small Mercies must surely be in contention.

As a big fan of Dennis Lehane and his Kenzie and Gennaro books, I was delighted to be approved to read and review his new one.
On the mean streets of Boston, Mary Pat lives with her beloved and now only child, Jules, after her first husband died and her second one left her. After the death of her son, Jules is her life. But teenage girls are a law unto themselves and when Jules doesn’t come home one night, Mary Pat is determined to find her no matter what the cost.
One mother’s quest for the truth and justice, I devoured this book. Gritty and tough to read at times, Lehane knows how to tell a story and how to create an intriguing leading character.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review.

It's wonderful to get a new book from Dennis Lehane, and it lives up to the standard he sets. He stays in his hometown of Boston but moves back in time to the 1970s during the desegregation of schools. It's an explosive time with the Irish protesting the move, and amid this Mary Pat's teen daughter Jules goes missing on the same day a young black man is killed at the train station in the area. The story is engrossing and well-told and, like much of Lehane's work, easy to see as a movie or TV series. But be warned, it's at times an uncomfortable read filled with violence, casual racism and racist language. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a tough book to get into, but once you do, the pay off is certainly worth it. Recommended if you are in the mood for a gritty family drama.