Mercy needs to stand up for herself. She also needs a miracle.Eleven-year-old Mercy lives with her eccentric foster aunts - two elderly sisters so poor they can afford only one lightbulb. A nasty housing developer is eyeing their house, which suddenly starts falling apart - just as Aunt Flora does, too. She's forgetting words, names and even how to behave in public. Mercy tries to keep her head down at school but when a classmate frames her for stealing the school's raffle money, Mercy's teachers decide to take a closer look at her home life. With the help of a neighbour, Mr Singh, who teaches Mercy about Gandhi and his principles of passive resistance, Mercy finds a tool that can help solve her problems. But first, like Gandhi, she needs to stand up for herself. She also needs a miracle. And to summon it she has to find her voice and tell the truth - and that truth is neither pure nor simple. A book that already feels like a classic, Small Mercies holds a strong message for children today. Full of heart, it will shine among the best children's literature for years to come.

"Ten years after the loss of Bobby--the Amendola family's youngest son--everyone is still struggling to recover from the firefighter's unexpected death. Bobby's mother Gail; his widow Tina; his older brothers Peter, the corporate lawyer, and Franky, the misfit; and his father Michael have all dealt with their grief in different ways. But as the family gathers together for Bobby Jr.'s birthday party, they must each find a way to accept a new man in Tina's life while reconciling their feelings for their lost loved one"--

"Small Mercies is thought provoking, engaging, enraging, and can't-put-it-down entertainment." -- Stephen King The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River--an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston's history. In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of "Southie," the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. 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. Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city's desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.

Veteran social worker Ellen Moore is a fiercely dedicated children's advocate and a devoted mother and wife. But one blistering summer day, a simple moment of distraction will have repercussions that Ellen could never have imagined, threatening to shatter everything she holds dear, and trapping her between the gears of the system she works for. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Jenny Briard suddenly finds herself on her own, forced to survive with nothing but a few dollars and her street smarts. The last thing she wants is a social worker, but when Ellen's and Jenny's lives collide, little do they know just how much they can help one another.

A killer is sending a message. But who is it for? DI Annie Delamere and her colleague DS Zoe Everett are off duty and enjoying a walk on the Peak District’s vast moorlands when they stumble across a mutilated corpse. The victim is unclothed and his tattoos indicate an affinity with the occult. While Annie is put in charge of the case her long-term partner, MP Sheena Pearson, is confronted by a group of far right extremists. Rather than back down Sheena chooses to stand her ground – and almost pays for it with her life. As more bodies are found, Annie is under pressure to prove her worth. But with one eye on her personal affairs can she catch a murderer and still keep her loved ones safe? And are the killings the work of a deranged mind – or a cover for something even more chilling? Don’t miss this first novel in a compelling new detective series that fans of Stephen Booth and Ann Cleeves will love. Praise for Small Mercies ‘Accomplished storytelling and perfectly meshed plot strands combine in this intriguing new series from Alex Walters’ Margaret Kirk, author of Shadow Man ‘Small Mercies gets Alex Walters’ new series off to a cracking start with a blend of police procedural and conspiracy thriller set in the atmospheric landscape of Derbyshire.’ Martin Edwards, CWA Diamond Dagger winner 2020 'Evocative, well plotted, with interesting characters and three concurrent mysteries. A definite 5 star read.’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The storyline weaves all the seemingly unrelated threads together into a nail biting finale. I held my breath more than once, and couldn’t put the book down in case something terrible happened!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Three plots swirl around each other, intersect and dance away again until the very end of this thriller where everything moves quickly to a totally unanticipated, breath-taking conclusion. I’m looking forward to the next in the series!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

People who are only nominally spiritual have relatively little trouble sensing some sort of Divine presence when looking up at a beautiful snow-capped mountain or looking around in a grand cathedral. But even deeply spiritual individuals would likely admit that finding God in the places and faces that define daily life can be a bit more challenging. In Small Mercies, fifty-something Nancy Jo Sullivan reflects on her life to this point—which includes the death of one of her daughters and a painful divorce—and discovers with great joy that God has been, and continues to be, everywhere. From her grandmother’s not-so-tasty date cookies to a dog that seems bent on attacking her to a conversation with her daughter about the function of muscles, Sullivan gives readers—especially second-half-of-life women—every reason to expect God to show up in the most unexpected ways. Ultimately, Small Mercies encourages us to stop "limiting" God to those rare moments where all seems sublime and perfect, and instead to seek out God's mercies in the ordinary, often imperfect moments that shape our everyday lives.

In this stunning debut, David Rowell depicts disparate lives united in the extraordinary days that followed an American tragedy. On June 8, 1968, as the train carrying Robert F. Kennedy’s body travels from New York City to Washington D.C., the nation mourns the loss of a dream. As citizens congregate along the tracks to pay their respects, Michael Colvert, a New Jersey sixth grader, sets out to see his first dead body. Delores King creates a tangle of lies to sneak away from her controlling husband. Just arrived in the nation’s capitol to interview for a nanny position with the Kennedy family, Maeve McDerdon must reconcile herself to an unknown future. Edwin Rupp’s inaugural pool party takes a backseat to the somber proceedings. Jamie West, a Vietnam vet barely out of high school, awaits a newspaper interview meant to restore his damaged self-esteem. And Lionel Chase arrives at Penn Station for his first day of work—a staggering assignment as a porter aboard RFK’s funeral train.