Small Mercies is a 2023 crime-mystery novel by American author Dennis Lehane. The novel takes place in Boston in the summer of 1974, and centers Irish Mob conflicts, a missing teenaged white girl, and a Black man's murder, in the days approaching the first day of school during the Boston busing crisis. Lehane has signaled that the novel "may be his last." The cover features a photograph taken by Eugene Richards during protests outside of South Boston High School in September 1974. Source: Wikipedia (en)