Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane has a stellar reputation for writing investigative crime novels that are chilling and unsettling. Small Mercies certainly lived up to that description. Set in Boston in the late summer of 1974 when court-ordered busing was about to commence, the novel recounts the response to that action by the racial parties of the city.  
 

The main character, Mary Pat Finnessey, a nurse and mother living in the projects finds herself drawn into the tensions of the time because her daughter Jules will be bussed to the black school. The subject of busing takes a backseat when Jule disappears one night after spending time with friends. It was the same night that Auggie Williamson was found dead on the railroad tracks and those friends were implicated in his death. Mary Pat is desperate to find her daughter whom she discovers was mixed up with one of the drug dealing kingpins of the area. 

She enlists the aid of Detective Bobby Coyne, who is sympathetic to her grief as he leads the investigation into the death/murder of Augie Williamson and the disappearance of Jules. But Mary Pat takes things into her own hands and confronts members of the drug ring. The novel is gripping as she puts her life in danger. The deeper the inquisition goes, the more the reader understands the power of the Boston mob, led by Marty Butler, who is feared and obeyed. 

Lehane exposes both sides of the racial coin through the collateral characters, especially Dreamy Williamson and her husband, parents of Auggie. The women with whom Mary Pat attends a protest march and her sister expose the white supremacist attitude of the Southie neighborhood. The tension builds when Mary Pat realizes that her life is void without Jules and is willing to go to any length to unravel all of the events.

This is not a book for the faint at heart. It is violent, profane, and disturbing to the point of how this nation reacts to those who do not look like another person. I was involved the mandated busing/integration of schools in Louisville, KY and this novel brought back those harrowing times. With all that said, it is truly a work of literary art. 

  

Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan

Evensong by O'Nan has gotten a lot of press and sounded like a good book for a Yinzer to read. But it was the fourth an a series and so I began at the beginning of the series. O'Nan is originally from Pittsburgh and his roots shine through this work at almost every turn from the references to the city, its restaurants, and arts and culture. 

The novel covers the week that the Maxwell family spends at Lake Chautauqua  and the surrounding area. It is a favorite summer destination for those from the Pittsburgh and where people have a summer home. The family consists of Emily, who owns their cottage and is recently widowed, her sister-in-law Arlene and Emily's children Meg and Ken, Ken's wife Lisa and their children Sam and Ella, and Meg's children Justin and Sarah. They are all gathering for one final vacation because Emily is selling the summer home. 

Because of O'Nan's incredible mastery of description and insight, the reader understands the personality of each of the characters. In reality, it is very much like a psychoanalytic experience. The interaction between the family members is suggestive of how many families would act and react during a week where they all lived under one roof in small quarters. O'Nan uses the weather, rainy and dreary, to force more dialogue and communication among them. The reader is privy to teenage angst, budding sexuality, sibling rivalry, and marital strife. 

At the heart of the novel is Emily's desire to have her children take items that are especially meaningful to them as remembrances of their many years of vacationing on the lake as well as of their late father. It is something that inevitably every family experiences and the manner in which they go about it will hit home with many. They try to relive past adventures, restaurants, and familiar activities. With his mastery of description, O'Nan allows the reader to be privy to all the thoughts and vulnerabilities of the Maxwell family. 

The book is one of the most skilled examples of character study that I have read. It is definitely a treasure, especially for those who do not mind a long and detailed tome. I really did not want the book to end, but I will meet up with the family in his later books.

 

The Christmas Pearl by Dorthea Benton Frank

It is customary for our book club to read a light Christmas themed book for our December meeting. It is usually one on which we can have a short discussion, have lunch, and then decide our books for the coming year. 

The Christmas Pearl, was a unique novel in that it required the suspension of all belief as the reader was transported into a fairy tale world that was a cross between Cinderella and Mary Poppins. Theodora is a nonagenarian matriarch of a seemingly dysfunctional family who have all come to Charleston, South Carolina to celebrate Christmas. As she bemuses the fact that Christmas doesn't seem like what it was in her younger days, she doesn't have the wherewithal to undertake all those tasks of decorating, shopping, cooking. She remembers her mother's housekeeper who seemed to pull it all together for the family. With that in Fairy Godmother fashion Pearl, who was the Gullah housekeeper,  appears at Theodora's house. Pearl has come back from the dead to make Christmas seem like the old days. She cooks, decorated the house with the ease of having a magic wand. 

As the family members arrive they add a bit of chaos to the scene, bickering, complaining, and just plain acting rude. The reader has a tough time liking any of them. But the scenes between Theodora and Pearl are the calming portions of the book as they settle in to having a bit of Christmas "cheer." The continual fracas and griping of the family sets Pearl to step in and try to save Merry Christmas. A spot of eggnog helps.

It was a quick read, not literary, but perfect for the reader who does not care about reality and and can appreciate the imaginary. 
 

Paper Girl by Beth Macy

 Paper Girl is a reflection on life in a small town and the current state of affairs of the United States by journalist and Congressional hopeful Beth Macy. She relates life growing up in a small town to poverty stricken parents, her father called the town drunk in Urbana, Ohio. She weaves this growing up into comments about the political divide that has darkened the history of the United States. 

In recounting her formative years she draws comparisons and contrasts to the works of JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy  and Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperfield. She has no issue in presenting herself as a liberally minded democrat as she revisits some of her hometown acquaintances and relative who do not share her views or ideals. She is thankful for being able to attend college because of Pell grants, that have been so diminished at the present. She relates this to a recent graduate of Urbana High School, Silas James, a trans, is trying to go to college, get his welding certificate and provide care for his siblings after their father's death. Silas is woven in this memoir and it creates a moving thread with how unforgiving the attitude of so many are in this day of nonacceptance.  

She advocates kindness, forgiveness, and grace as she witnesses the results of the 2024 election. As a journalist she is a truth teller who is an acute observer and listener. As such she regrets that true journalism is floundering today with so few getting information from factual sources and relying on social media for their information.

 The book was a real eye-opener into the life of rural poverty and a meaningful read. I marked many statements as I was reading. Beth Macy spoke on 8 December 2025 for the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series. She was impassioned and hopeful that our citizenry will find their way in the near future. She has announced her candidacy for Representative for the 6th District of Virginia. May she win!

Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures

My copy of Paper Girl  signed

 

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

 There are not too many books that we have read about society following World War I.The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club gives an interesting perspective into that time with its focus on women in a small seashore town in England. Poppy Wirrall is the owner of a motorcycle courier service who is staying at the Palm Court Hotel and accidentally meets Constance who is also at the hotel aiding Mrs. Fog who is recovering from influenza. Constance rescues Poppy from a serious faux pas (wearing trousers) and the two become friends, 

The novel introduces the reader to a plethora of characters, many of whom are members of the motorcyle club and also to the families of Poppy and her mother, the venerable Mrs. Wirrall. Poppy's brother, Harris, has returned home from the war in which he lost a leg. Constance grew up a farmer's daughter, but she is educated and would love to move on from being an elderly woman's companion. As such she has followed the social norms and acts with propriety and good taste. Poppy, on the other hand, is free wheeling and throughout the course of the novel tries to bring Constance out of her set ways. 

There are so many themes that permeate the book - racism, the thwarted role of women, disrespect for the disabled, and growth after grief. Mrs. Fog rekindles a romance with a man of mixed race and is virtually ostracized from her family by her daughter, Lady Mercer who has married a baron. Klaus, a waiter at the hotel is a naturalized citizen, but fears for his life because he is originally from Germany. The women fight desperately to maintain their business or get a job, but are stymied by the fact that jobs need to go to men. Harris is denied employment opportunities because he is disabled and remarks that his brain and hand are in full working order, despite his one leg. Harris' friend Jock, struggles to overcome the loss of his family to the flu epidemic and relies on his friends. 

The novel was hard to get into and seemed slow in spots, but the insight into the mores of the times and watching Constance's growth were worth it and make it a rewarding read.  

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

After reading so many excellent reviews and with a bit of time for some free reading, and seeing a great price in the Kindle store, I picked this book up. It is an epistolary novel that reveals the life of the protagonist, septuagenarian Sybil Van Antwerp. She has spent her life writing letters to friends, family members, and even her favorite authors. She has also transitioned to email when it becomes necessary. 

Letter writing is almost a lost art, but Evans manages to capture the importance of it in The Correspondent. Through her letters, Van Antwerp manages to engage the reader in a life well-lived, but with regrets, sadness, guilt and surprise. Sybil lives outside of Annapolis next door to a very attentive neighbor, Theodore. She is going blind and is mostly accepting of that, but still wants to be in control of her life. There are hints to her past life, e.g the death of her son, Gilbert, her divorce from Daan, and her job as a lawyer. It is through correspondence with her children Fiona and Felix, best friend, Rosalie that over the course of the book those fragments become a vivid picture of her life. 

She is ousted from her garden club, maintains an email chain with a man who is a representative from a genetic testing company, harbors a teenager, the son of a colleague, who has been bullied, and tries to understand a strained relationship with her daughter. Interspersed with the actual posted and emailed correspondence are fragments of a letter that is labeled "unsent." This is the most revealing of the correspondence in that it is an admission of the regrets and actions of her life that have contributed the ongoing guilt she has felt. To the reader it was heart-wrenching.

The reader meets two men who vie for the attention of Sybil. It becomes apparent that both would like a long-term relationship with her, but she denies that prospect. The reader, on the sideline, routes for her to become involved with one of them to provide companionship and love. 

One of the most interesting aspect of the novels is the inclusion at the end of most chapters what books she and her friends are reading. It was an eclectic series of titles and worthy of exploring to read. The Correspondent was a gem of book and one that is a most pleasurable read. I am glad not to have missed it.
 

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

This book has gotten a lot of very good reviews and I was pleased that Walter was one of the authors for the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series. So Far Gone's protagonist is Rhys Kinnick, a retired journalist, who takes to the woods and leads a very reclusive life after a major familial blowup in 2016 between him and his son-in-law. His life changed immensely when his grandchildren, Leah (13) and Asher (9) appear on the porch of his cabin in 2024. 

Rhys' daughter, Bethany, has seemingly abandoned her children and taken off. Even her husband, Shane, appears not to know where she has gone and Bethany was somewhat at odds with him because of his embracing the beliefs and practices of a right wing, religious extremist group, the Army of the Lord, a wing of the Church of the Blessed Fire. Shane had advocated moving the family to the compound known as The Rampart and had even tried to betroth Leah to the pastor's son who was nineteen. 

The children bring Rhys up-to-date with all that happened to the family in the eight years of his self-imposed exile, including the death of his ex-wife, Celia Asher was a good chess player and that evening Rhys got into his beat-up car and took him to his chess tournament in Spokane. However, they find out that the tournament is not that evening and when arriving at the abbey where the tournament was supposed to take place the children are kidnapped by Brother Dean Burris, one of the Army of the Lord members. He also breaks Rhys' jaw in the process. 

Through flashbacks and action in the present, the novel then focuses on the recovery of the children. It brings into view and motion a number of people from Rhys' past, including an old flame, Lucy Park, his retired police officer, Chuck Littlefield, and Brian and Joanie a Native American couple with whom Rhys reconciles as he asks for help in navigating some of the Native American lands around the area in an effort to find Bethany from a clue that Leah had given them. 

As the novel begins to come to a resolution, the reader is hit in the face with a WHAM bit of action. The characters are well developed in a style that is a bit unique with chapter titles What Happened to....? Rhys earns the readers' sympathy as he tries to reconnect with a world that seems to have left him behind, but Walter also adds a bit of wit and levity to the story. The themes of Christian Nationalism, the sorry state of journalism created by today's reliance on social media for news, and the abandonment of environmental protection initiatives resonate through the novel. Perhaps, Rhys foreshadows the novel in his preface in quoting Thoreau, "Not till we are lost… ‘till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.”
 

The Frozen River byAriel Lawhon

Based on an actual event, The Frozen River, takes place in Hallowell, Maine, a small village on the Kennebec River in the winter of 1789. The body of Josh Burgess is pulled from the nearly frozen river and Martha Ballard, the town's midwife, is called to exam it and give a cause of death. She notices that there are ligature marks around his neck, leading her to believe that he was hanged. However, no rope was found near or on the body. For a small town, Hallowell had it fair share of scandals and villainous men who thought they could have their way with any woman they desired. Burgess was named by the parson's wife, Rebecca Foster,  as one of two men who raped her. The other, a judge on the local court council was Joseph North. She is pregnant as a result of that rape. 

Martha's findings were disputed by Dr. Page, a new physician from Harvard, whose opinion carried more weight than hers and the judge one of the rapists dismisses the charge of murder. Martha is a strong woman and she will not be quieted. Her position as midwife for the town's women is being usurped by Page, who is stealing her patients and who has delivered a number of still births because of his practice of treating the women with laudanum.

As the novel unfolds, an trial at a higher court ensues with the same result in the failure to convict North of rape and holds Rebecca for the crime of fortification. The number of characters who come in and out of the book were confusing at time, especially since Martha and Ephraim had so many children who also had many suitors. Lawhorn weaves the story convincingly as she leaves breadcrumbs for the reader to discover exactly what has happened. At times the reader may feel that s/he is reading a chapter out of Call the Midwife, or a mystery. 

There are two themes that came across so strongly - the power of a woman and a devoted love between husband and wife.  Martha is a force to be reckoned with. She knows right from wrong and isn't afraid to fight for the right. Through flashbacks to the beginnings of her marriage to Ephraim, she is seen as a woman who learns to read and write and to become a gifted and caring midwife. She is an advocate for justice and for her family as their involvement in the crime emerges. She fights for women who have been taken advantage of and who in the Puritanical culture face shame. 

Through the flashbacks and the relationship of Martha and Ephraim, it is hard to think of another couple in literature who are so devoted to each other. Their love is evidenced in the way they care for each other, challenging the other to be their best. Ephraim expresses extreme disappointment in a decision that Martha makes about providing medication, and it causes her to be remorseful. 
 

The Frozen River is a multilayered novel that will provide readers a wonderful way to spend some hours.  

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

I have followed Marie Benedict since her first novel. She is a native Yinzer and often speaks at events here in the 'burgh. In February she spoke about her latest book, The Queens of Crime. It was a fascinating lecture about how she became interested in the real life disappearance of an English nurse, May Daniels. With maps, photographs, and newspaper clippings, she detailed how she became invested in using the real life mystery as the basis of her fictional one. 

Set in 1931, the novel features the 5 Queens of Mystery writers from the Golden Age: Dorothy and Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. They are a part of a London group known as the Detection Club, made up mostly of men. They feel that they are just as able to write and solve mysteries as their male counterparts and so embark on solving a real life one. The actual disappearance and investigation was actually reported by Sayers and her journalist husband. Nurse May Daniels and her friend Cecelia traveled to Bourgoune, France. They traveled by ferry from Brighton England, intending to take advantage of French shops and food. However, Daniels mysteriously disappears, after seemingly having an upset stomach, and being approached by an unknown man while sitting on a park bench. She does not return with her friend. Her body is found months later in a pool of blood.

The five queens of crime travel to France to retrace her journey and interview those who might have come into contact with Daniels. The police seem reluctant to pursue the case that they believe is one of a drug addict. In their investigation the women began to piece together another woman's disappearance that is connected with London men, the Williams father and son, and a theatre producer, Alfred Chapman. When they establish an hypothesis as to what actually happened, they concoct a plan to entrap the murderer. 

With a cavalcade of characters, the mystery unfolds to its conclusion, complete with red herrings. I had to keep myself from finding newspaper articles about the real mystery so that I didn't spoil the end of this tome.  This was a delightful read that combined mystery and historical fiction. The personalities of the mystery writers shines through as they each have a different tack to solve the case. I have not read any of Marsh, Allingham, or Sayers' works previously, but the novel has given me a new set of detectives to read. 
 

The Women by Kristin Hannah

It was surprising to me that I was able to get both a hardbound and Kindle copy of The Women so easily. They hype around this book for months was so omnipresent that it seemed unlikely that a copy would be available to read. Among my friends, who have read the novel, there were very diverse reactions. Some loved it and others couldn't finish it. I am probably right in the middle of those reactions. 

The main character, Frances Gracie McGrath, aka Frankie, decides to enlist in the armed forces as a nurse to join her brother, Fin, who was a graduate of the Naval Academy and was sent to Viet Nam. She lived with her parents on Coronado Island, CA where they enjoyed a very comfortable, if not lavish, lifestyle. Her father, a staunch male chauvinist, was quite supportive of his son's service. However, with the mantra, "Women can be heroes, too" stuck in her mind, he vehemently opposed his daughter going off to war. The depiction of what the nurses and all the men serving in-country was heart-wrenching, considering what the reaction back in the States was during their service and upon their home-coming. Frankie is thought of as an excellent nurse who becomes a major part of the surgical teams. The trauma that rockets, napalm, and close calls gives the reader pause as to what conditions were like in the jungle. 

As a major component of the novel, Frankie's romantic life is a roller coaster for sure. She has very strong feelings for Jaimie Callahan, a surgeon, who is severely wounded in an enemy attack. Then she falls head over heels in love with Rye Walsh, a friend of her brother's who was also serving. When Jamie and Rye are reported KIA, she is heartbroken and devastated. She is becomes engaged to Dr. Henry Avevedo, a psychiatrist who is working to help those Vets with PTSD, The relationships are filled with pain, trauma, and betrayal. 

When Frankie returns after her two years of active duty, she must deal with the realization that her service was not respected by those who spat at her in the airport or her parents who firmly believed that she should not have enlisted. Her life spirals into one of PTSD, addiction, and depression. The reader shoulders most of that tragedy with her as Hannah describes it in detail. 

Throughout the novel, there is one constant and that is the strong bond between two other nurses, Barbara and Ethel, who are there for Frankie in every crisis. This friendship was so deep and really the theme that impressed this reader the most. Women friends are the most faithful, dependable, devoted. They picked her up, tried  to give advice, but were nonjudgmental. They were in stark contrast to her parents who were so about show and acceptance with their country club friends.

With all the depicted horrors of war and personal crises, The Women really is not what one would call an enjoyable read, but it was enlightening, as far as the "behind the scenes" in Viet Nam. I empathized with Frankie in her PTSD, but not so much in her romantic choices. In some ways, there was the feeling that Hannah was checking off all the boxes to see how many crises a woman could endure. Unfortunately, Frankie McGrath, suffered them all.