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ClareR (5674 KP) rated Small Mercies in Books

May 22, 2023

Small Mercies

Dennis Lehane | 2023 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I’ve never read Dennis Lehane before - and what a place to start! This novel is phenomenal, and I ended it thoroughly heartbroken.

1970s Boston, America, and the school districts want to merge the separate schools for black and white children. Except your average white Southie doesn’t want that to happen, and they’ll do anything to ensure that.

There are violent demonstrations, tensions boil over, and amongst all this a young black man is murdered. At the same time, Mary Pat Fennessy’s daughter goes missing. At first, these two events seem unconnected, but as Mary Pat searches for her daughter it starts to look otherwise. And somehow, the Irish mob are involved.

Mary Pat is the ultimate tiger mother. Her daughter Jules, is her only surviving child, and she’ll stop at nothing to find her - dead or alive.

This is brutal, and proves that ultimately revenge profits no one. The heat simmered off the page, as did the threatened and real violence. The writing is gorgeous despite the violence, and is a masterclass in how a writer can make the most ugly things so astonishing.

I’m expecting to see a film adaptation of this at some point - it reads like a screenplay.

This may well be my first novel by Lehane, but I doubt very much that it will be my last. Thanks for introducing me to another new-to-me author, Pigeonhole!

Kudos

Hazel (1853 KP) rated The Switch in Books

Dec 14, 2018

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Crime writer Elmore Leonard wrote a lot of stories during his lifetime and this book The Switch, originally published in 1978, has recently been brought to cinema screens as Life of Crime starring Jennifer Aniston. Two ex-cons, Ordell and Louis, kidnap Mickey, the wife of a millionaire, in the belief that they will collect some easy ransom money. However their plan backfires when it is revealed that Frank does not care about his wife and planned to divorce her so he could live with his younger mistress, Melanie.

It is a fairly quick read as it is not a lengthy book but I did not care for the writing style. I have not read many American novels from the 1970s and perhaps this is a typical example of way things were written then, however it made it difficult to remain interested.

There is also not much of a chance to relate to any of the characters therefore it was impossible to become emotionally involved with the plot – for this reason we should be thankful that it was less than 200 pages long.

Although I have not seen the film I can imagine that it would be quite interesting as the actors and scriptwriters would be able to emphasize the suspense and add in comic aspects.

Overall Leonard is usually regarded as a legendary crime writer, however this book was not for me. Nonetheless, I am sure there would be other people who would love the book.