Small Mercies

Small Mercies

Protests outside of South Boston High School, September
1974

Photographer Eugene Richards and writer Dennis Lehane are both native sons of the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston. While Lehane was 9 years old when the busing crisis (which constitutes the background subject of this detective novel) began in 1974, Richards was 30 and fully formed as a photographer. His photograph is perfect for the cover of Small Mercies in both form and content.