Thank you to the author, publisher Abacus, and online book club The Pigeonhole for the chance to read this. This is an honest and voluntary review.  

 

On the eve of bussing in South Boston, the court ordered desegregation of high schools by bussing children from Black areas to attend schools in white areas and vice versa, the neighbourhoods of Southie are on a knife edge. When a young Black man is found dead on train lines, four young white people are implicated. One of whom, the daughter of fierce matriarch Mary Pat, hasn’t been seen since that night.

 

Powerful, brutally honest writing that delivers with heart-breaking precision. This is a masterclass in engaging writing.

 

Despite her rough personality and deeply held prejudices Mary Pat emerges as an anti-heroine of the best type. Even though I don’t agree with her views on most things, her commitment to finding out the truth about what happened to her daughter and her determination to see justice done had me cheering even her most brutal moments.

 

Detective Bobby Coyne’s gentler, yet pragmatic, approach to investigating what happened on the train tracks provides a nice counterbalance to Mary Pat’s take no prisoners approach. And all against a heartbreaking background of a community living in poverty and fear who are striking out in hate at what they see as a threat to what little they have.

 

Amazing book.