A Gritty, Compelling Read
Dennis Lehane's Small Mercies
I have to be in just the right frame of mind to pick up a crime novel or thriller. It’s definitely not my go to genre - I can be a bit of a scaredy cat and I will probably always gravitate to a happy ending. I can take reading about violence, but in small doses, and anything gratuitous is one of the quickest ways a book can earn a poor rating from me. But once in awhile, I’m up for it. And once in awhile, I find a book in this category that simply blows my mind. Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies is an exceptional crime/thriller read that I’ll recommend to anyone who will listen.
This book, like many (all?) of Lehane’s, takes place in Boston. South Boston in the early 1970s at the height of the race riots to be specific. In the summer. The heat and the pervasive tension of the time and the place are really like their own characters in this book- they can near oppressive, but add much to the reading experience. The story focuses on a middle aged Irish-American woman, Mary Pat, whose daughter goes missing one night- the same night as a young black man dies in suspicious circumstances in a nearby neighborhood. Mary Pat is tenacious and unrelenting in finding out what happened to her daughter- in spite of the warnings she receives from the local Irish mob to stop asking questions. Mary Pat won’t take no for an answer, and in doing so estranges herself from her community and her family. She is unflinching in her quest to find out what happened to her daughter, and she’s willing to burn everything to the ground to do so.
While the case of what happens to Mary Pat’s daughter and the young man murdered the same night she disappears is the through line of the story - and will leave you at the edge of your seat, Lehane’s raw and unrelenting depiction of this South Boston community and race relations in Boston are the real stars of the story. You can’t look away even though you may desperately want to at times.
Do give Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies and let me know what you think. What’s a crime read you’ve loved?