In June 1974 a Federal judge ruled in Morgan v. Hennigan that the Boston Public School system had been segregating its public schools for years. The remedy was that starting in the fall of 1974 students from white neighborhoods would be bused to attend schools in black neighborhoods and vice versa.

The city of Boston upon hearing this blew up with rage, protests and rock throwing by white parents at buses driving black kids to school. At one point the National Guard was called in to restore order. The Boston busing crisis was front page news across America during the summer and fall of 1974. This is the setting for Dennis Lehane’s most recent novel: Small Mercies (2023).

But Small Mercies is also the story of Mary Pat Fennessey a working class woman living in an Irish American enclave of South Boston. Mary Pat is a “Southie”, born and raised. And she shares the tribalism and racism of many of her neighbors. And at the beginning of the book Mary Pat is getting ready to join her neighbors in an anti-busing protest that will be taking place at city hall. Her daughter Jules age 17 is going out for the evening with friends. And then the next day Jules doesn’t come home.

Meanwhile on the night Jules goes missing, Auggie Williams, a young black man, is killed by a subway train. And Mary Pat becomes a one-woman wrecking crew trying to find out what happened to her daughter and how Jules’ disappearance may be connected to Auggie’s murder. Mary Pat runs afoul of the local Irish mob that runs South Boston. She is asking too many questions and this neighborhood is one where people stick together and don’t cause trouble.

But Mary Pat does not care. She is a single mother struggling to support herself and her daughter. Mary Pat’s older son died a few years ago from a heroin overdose and so Jules is all she has left. Mary Pat tells the detective looking into her daughter’s disappearance that she will not back down and does not care if she gets killed or others get killed in the process:

“I told you, Detective Coyne, that you can’t take everything from someone. You have to leave them something. A crumb. A goldfish. Something to protect. Something to live for. Because if you don’t do that, what in God’s name do you have left to bargain with?”

This passage struck me, first because it conveys Dennis Lehane’s writing talent. But also the psychological depth to his writing. Lehane is not simply turning out gritty South Boston crime novels. He’s got something to say about how neighbors, friends and family have to be there for each other. Otherwise don’t be surprised later on when it all hits the fan.

I also think its not a coincidence that Dennis Lehane decided to write Small Mercies in 2023. America has become more divided, more tribal now than we ever were in the 1970’s. Sadly, Small Mercies is very much still relevant today. A solid four stars for me.