320 pages | Hardcover |

The acclaimedNew York Timesbestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rivalMystic Riveran all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Bostons history.

Lehane is the master of complex human characters thrust into suspenseful, page-turning situations. Gillian Flynn

One of the great diabolical thriller kings.New York Times

Lehane has built a career as a philosopher of the human animal.Noah Hawley

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 Pats teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesnt 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 untouchedasking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who dont take kindly to anyoneman or womanwho threatens their business.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the citys desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence,Small Merciesis a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.