Dennis Lehane grew up in Boston. Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, he has published twelve more novels that have been translated into more than 30 languages and become international bestsellers: Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island; The Given Day; Moonlight Mile; Live by Night ; World Gone By; and Since We Fell. Set in the anti-busing violence and racism of southern Boston in 1974 his most recent novel is Small Mercies. A national bestseller, it was on Barack Obama’s 2023 Summer Reading List. Small Mercies will be developed into a drama series by Apple TV+.

Four of his novels – Live by Night, Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Gone, and Shutter Island – have been adapted into films. A fifth, The Drop, was adapted by Lehane himself into a film star­ring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and James Gandolfini in his final role.

Lehane was a staff writ­er on the acclaimed HBO series, The Wire, and also worked as a writer-producer on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Netflix’s Bloodline, DirecTV’s Mr. Mercedes, and HBO’s The Outsider. He also developed and executive produced Black Bird, a critically acclaimed, limited series on Apple TV+. His next project for Apple TV+ will be Firebug based on the true crime podcast of the same name.

Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He and his family live in California.

WHY THEY’RE JOINING US

Dennis Lehane’s bestselling novels have the page-turning pacing of a thriller and the pitch-perfect writing of an author who balances literary finesse with cinematic flare. Small Mercies, Lehane’s latest novel, sets a crime story against the backdrop of south Boston’s summer of 1974 when a heatwave blanketed the city and mandatory school busing caused riots. Named one of 2023’s best books by The New York Times, Small Mercies is a heartbreaking, yet unsentimental, novel that delves into family, revenge, and insidious power.

Photo credit – Gaby Gerster