Small Mercies Summary, Characters and Themes

Small Mercies, written by acclaimed crime author Dennis Lehane, is a gripping and emotionally charged thriller set against the tense backdrop of 1974 South Boston. The novel interconnects the personal struggles of Mary Pat Fennessy, a tough single mother, with the city’s larger conflicts of racism and violence during the busing riots. 

As Mary Pat searches for her missing daughter, the story delves into themes of loss, vengeance, and systemic corruption, painting a harrowing picture of a woman pushed to the edge in a deeply divided and dangerous time in Boston’s history.

Summary

Set during one of the most turbulent periods in Boston’s history, Small Mercies follows Mary Pat Fennessy, a single mother living in South Boston in 1974. 

The city is in upheaval due to a recent court order mandating the desegregation of schools, enforced by busing Black students into predominantly white neighborhoods. Amid the searing summer heat, racial tensions rise as neighborhoods like Mary Pat’s rebel against the federal decision. 

Mary Pat herself has faced many personal tragedies: her first husband’s death in a likely mob killing, her second husband’s departure, and her son’s tragic overdose. With her remaining daughter, 17-year-old Julia, still at home, Mary Pat hopes to keep going, despite the overwhelming challenges surrounding them.

One night, Julia doesn’t return home after going out with friends, and the following morning, news reports that Augustus “Auggie” Williamson, a young Black man, was found dead in a nearby subway station. 

Mary Pat recognizes that Auggie was the son of one of her coworkers, but her focus remains on finding Julia. Her growing panic leads her to confront Julia’s boyfriend at a bar linked to the local crime boss, Marty Butler. Detective Bobby Coyne later visits her and informs her that Julia may have been involved in Auggie’s death.

As the truth starts to unravel, Mary Pat learns that Julia had been romantically involved with Frank Toomey, one of Marty Butler’s most feared hitmen. 

Armed with this knowledge, Mary Pat confronts one of Butler’s underlings, Brian Shea, demanding answers. Soon after, Butler himself offers her a large sum of money to leave Boston and drop the search, which leads Mary Pat to a heartbreaking realization: her daughter is likely dead.

Determined to avenge Julia, Mary Pat escalates her quest. She tortures Julia’s boyfriend, discovering that Julia was pregnant and had sought help from Frank. Auggie had tried to intervene in a kind gesture, but the group’s racist hatred led them to chase him. 

After a violent pursuit, they forced Julia to kill Auggie, who had already been injured, in a warped sense of mercy. Afterward, Frank saw her as weak and killed her in cold blood.

Mary Pat’s next target is George Dunbar, a drug dealer who once sold heroin to her late son. She tracks him down, forcing him to confess that Julia’s body is buried under the concrete floor of Butler’s home. 

To ensure the police discover the body, she burns Butler’s house to the ground. This leads to the revelation that Butler’s crime ring had been involved in selling weapons to Black activists, intending to provoke violence that would disrupt desegregation efforts.

In a final act of vengeance, Mary Pat hunts down Frank Toomey. She kidnaps him and takes him to Castle Island, where she executes him after a tense confrontation with Butler’s men. 

Though she manages to kill Frank and wound Brian Shea, Butler fatally shoots her. After her death, Detective Coyne realizes it will be nearly impossible to bring Butler to justice for Mary Pat’s or Julia’s murders, though Mary Pat’s determination ensures Julia is laid to rest in a mausoleum with fresh flowers.

Characters

Mary Pat Fennessy

Mary Pat Fennessy is the central figure of Small Mercies, embodying the theme of perseverance in the face of relentless adversity. A single mother living in a racially divided South Boston during a volatile period, her life is shaped by personal tragedies.

Her first husband’s gangland disappearance, her second husband’s abandonment, and the loss of her son to heroin addiction define the deep reservoirs of pain that underpin her every action. Her relationship with her daughter, Julia (Jules), is central to her life, and when Jules goes missing, Mary Pat’s determination to uncover the truth becomes the driving force of the narrative.

Mary Pat is a complex character—tough, gritty, and unrelenting in her pursuit of justice for her daughter, even if that justice requires crossing moral boundaries. The grief she harbors from the death of her son and the losses she has endured make her cynical and emotionally calloused, but also capable of profound loyalty and love.

Her character is also deeply influenced by the socio-political environment, particularly her mistrust of racial integration, which reflects the broader tensions of the time. As her search for answers becomes more violent and desperate, she moves from grief-stricken mother to avenger, culminating in her fatal confrontation with those responsible for her daughter’s death.

Julia “Jules” Fennessy

Julia, or Jules, is Mary Pat’s 17-year-old daughter and serves as a central figure in the story, even though she is absent for much of the novel. Jules represents innocence lost in a community riddled with crime, violence, and racial tension.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear that Jules had hidden aspects of her life from her mother, including her relationship with Frank Toomey, a violent criminal connected to South Boston’s underworld. Her tragic involvement in the murder of Auggie Williamson reveals the inner conflict Jules faced, as she participated in violence while trying to show a degree of mercy.

Her brief affair with Frank and the pregnancy she conceals reflect her vulnerability in a world dominated by dangerous men. Despite her attempt to be compassionate in Auggie’s murder, she ultimately becomes a victim of the very violence she sought to minimize.

Her death, at the hands of the same people who shaped her harsh environment, reveals the cyclical nature of violence and exploitation in the community.

Frank Toomey

Frank Toomey is a central antagonist in Small Mercies, a brutal hitman with a significant role in both the criminal underworld and the destruction of Mary Pat’s family. As one of Marty Butler’s top enforcers, Frank embodies cruelty and manipulation.

His relationship with Jules is manipulative and predatory, showcasing how he uses his power to control and exploit others, particularly young, vulnerable women like her. Frank’s involvement in the murder of Auggie Williamson, and ultimately Jules herself, is a pivotal moment in the story, as it reveals his sadistic nature.

His lack of remorse for his actions—especially toward Jules, whom he murders for showing mercy in Auggie’s death—demonstrates his twisted sense of morality. 

Frank’s downfall comes when Mary Pat exacts her vengeance, killing him in a final act of retribution, but not before he contributes to the novel’s broader commentary on the destructive nature of unchecked power and toxic masculinity within the criminal world of South Boston.

Marty Butler

Marty Butler is a crime boss who controls much of the illicit activity in South Boston, and his influence looms large over the novel. Butler’s power is built on manipulation, corruption, and a web of criminal enterprises that stretch across Boston’s racial and social divides.

His relationship with Mary Pat becomes significant when she confronts him about her daughter’s disappearance, revealing the extent of his control over both the criminal underworld and the neighborhood itself. Butler’s offer of hush money to Mary Pat to leave town and forget about Jules highlights his pragmatic ruthlessness.

His willingness to sacrifice anyone—whether it’s innocent bystanders like Auggie or someone from his own community like Jules—demonstrates the extent of his power and lack of moral compass. 

Ultimately, Marty Butler represents the systemic corruption that pervades the city, particularly during the time of racial unrest and crime, as his criminal activities intersect with social tensions to maintain his reign.

Augustus “Auggie” Williamson

Auggie Williamson, a young Black man from Dorchester, is an innocent victim caught in the racial and criminal strife of South Boston. His death in the Columbia subway station is a critical event in the story, sparking the broader investigation into both Jules’s disappearance and the racial tensions in the city.

Auggie’s character symbolizes the collateral damage of both racial hatred and criminality in Boston at the time. He becomes the target of white teenagers, including Jules, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

His role in the narrative serves to highlight the broader themes of racism and violence that suffuse the novel, as well as the tragedy of innocent lives lost in senseless acts of hatred.

Detective Michael “Bobby” Coyne

Detective Bobby Coyne plays the role of an ambiguous moral figure in Small Mercies. As a detective investigating both Auggie’s murder and Jules’s disappearance, Coyne embodies the compromised law enforcement officers caught between doing their job and dealing with the powerful criminal figures who control South Boston.

His interactions with Mary Pat suggest he is sympathetic to her plight, but at the same time, he is ultimately powerless to hold Marty Butler and his associates accountable. 

Coyne’s failure to bring Butler to justice after Mary Pat’s death underlines the novel’s message about the impotence of the legal system in the face of deeply entrenched corruption and violence.

His character is emblematic of the systemic failings of law enforcement during a period when crime bosses like Butler and Whitey Bulger thrived.

Brian Shea

Brian Shea, one of Marty Butler’s lieutenants, represents the loyalty and ruthlessness of those who serve under the powerful crime lord. Brian’s relationship with Mary Pat complicates his role in the narrative.

On one hand, he tries to help her uncover the truth about Jules’s disappearance, but on the other hand, he is still tied to Butler and the criminal world. 

His death in the final shootout demonstrates the inevitable fate of those caught up in South Boston’s violent world.

Brian’s character serves as a foil to Mary Pat’s relentless determination. He is a man who, despite his power within the crime organization, is ultimately beholden to a system of violence and corruption that he cannot escape.

George Dunbar

George Dunbar is a local drug dealer with ties to both the white and Black communities, selling drugs to Mary Pat’s son and guns to Black activists. 

George’s character bridges the racial and criminal divide in the novel, showcasing the interconnectedness of the various illegal activities in South Boston.

His confession about Jules’s body being buried under Butler’s house is a key moment in the story, as it provides Mary Pat with the information she needs to seek revenge. 

Like many characters in the novel, George is a victim of the violent and corrupt world he operates within, and his eventual overdose, forced by Mary Pat, marks the beginning of the end for Butler’s organization.

George’s character underscores the theme of complicity in a world where survival often means becoming part of the problem.

Themes

The Intersection of Personal Grief and Sociopolitical Upheaval in the Face of Systemic Injustice

At the core of Small Mercies is the intersection of personal suffering with larger forces of social and political turmoil. 

Mary Pat’s pursuit of her daughter amidst the violent backdrop of the 1974 Boston busing riots highlights how personal tragedies can become entangled in broader societal conflicts.

Lehane explores how systemic injustice amplifies personal suffering. Mary Pat’s search for her daughter is shaped by the city’s racial tensions, but also by the invisible power structures—crime lords like Marty Butler and corrupt law enforcement—that manipulate these divisions for their own gain.

The social upheaval surrounding busing becomes a manifestation of deeper, long-standing inequities in the city. Mary Pat’s relentless search for Jules symbolizes how systemic forces both fuel and exploit individual tragedies.

The Intersection of Gender, Class, and Agency in a Crime-Ridden Patriarchal Society

Small Mercies explores how gender and class intersect to constrict agency, particularly for women like Mary Pat. As a single mother in a working-class neighborhood, Mary Pat exists at the margins of a male-dominated society.

Her life has been shaped by the violence and control exerted by men—her first husband’s likely gang-related murder, the heroin that claimed her son’s life, and the crime syndicate that ultimately murders her daughter. Lehane portrays Mary Pat not merely as a victim of circumstances but as a woman navigating a deeply patriarchal world, where women are often deprived of agency and subjected to the whims of powerful men.

Despite her limited power, Mary Pat resists societal expectations by taking matters into her own hands. Her acts of vigilantism—her interrogation of Jules’s boyfriend, her pursuit of justice for Auggie Williamson, and her final execution of Frank Toomey—reclaim her agency in a world that has continually sought to strip it from her.

Her struggle is emblematic of the broader struggles of working-class women, for whom justice and autonomy are often elusive in a society defined by both patriarchy and economic marginalization.

Morality, Violence, and the Ambiguity of Justice in a Corrupt World

The novel engages deeply with questions about morality in a world where traditional forms of justice are either absent or perverted by corruption. Mary Pat’s quest to uncover the truth behind her daughter’s disappearance leads her down a path of escalating violence.

Her actions blur the line between justice and vengeance, mirroring the novel’s broader exploration of moral ambiguity. Lehane forces readers to confront the reality that sometimes, in a world where institutional justice is unattainable, individuals must take morality into their own hands, even if that means becoming complicit in the violence they seek to oppose.

This theme reaches its climax when Mary Pat kills Frank Toomey, a character who epitomizes violence as a means of asserting power. Her decision to kill him, though satisfying on a personal level, highlights the tragic futility of seeking justice through violence.

In a world governed by figures like Marty Butler, where the police are corrupt and the system is rigged, even Mary Pat’s act of revenge cannot dismantle the larger systemic injustice. Instead, it reflects the pervasive corruption and moral decay that has consumed South Boston.

The Legacy of Trauma and Loss in a Fractured Community

Trauma permeates Small Mercies, both on an individual and collective level. Lehane uses the setting of 1970s South Boston to reflect this fractured state.

The community’s resistance to desegregation mirrors the personal losses that have scarred individuals like Mary Pat, who has endured an unimaginable amount of pain. Her life is a litany of loss—the disappearance of one husband, the death of another, the overdose of her son, and the loss of her daughter.

Lehane explores how such traumas are passed down, affecting future generations. The novel suggests that this inherited trauma is inescapable, especially in insular communities like South Boston, where old grievances and prejudices persist.

Mary Pat’s final act of violence against Frank Toomey can be seen as a desperate attempt to break the cycle of trauma. Yet, as the novel’s conclusion reveals, this attempt is ultimately futile. Mary Pat’s death, like her daughter’s, is another tragic casualty in a community consumed by trauma.

The Role of Racism and Economic Exploitation as Tools of Power in Dividing Communities

The novel explores how racism and economic exploitation are used by those in power to manipulate and divide communities. The busing riots represent racial tensions in Boston, but Lehane shows that these tensions are exacerbated by figures like Marty Butler, who profit from exploiting these divisions.

The Butler organization’s sale of weapons to Black drug dealers to incite violence and sabotage the busing initiative highlights the theme of racism as a tool to maintain control. Lehane suggests the real battle is not between the white residents of South Boston and the Black residents of Dorchester, but between the working class and the corrupt power structures that seek to divide them.

Mary Pat, in her grief, initially views racial tensions as another personal burden. However, as the novel progresses, she begins to see how racial and economic divides have been orchestrated by people like Marty Butler for their own gain.

Small Mercies is not just a novel about a mother’s search for her daughter but also a broader exploration of how racism and economic inequality are used to sow division and maintain systems of power.