Small Mercies
ABOUT
THE BOOK
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t 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 untouched – asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A novel set in the summer of 1974 in a heatwave of Boston (not a timeframe you see a lot of). It’s both gritty and extremely powerful. The blurred lines between good and bad guys and those that are both made it all the more memorable.