Book Review: This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash

This Dark Road to Mercy
Author: Wiley Cash
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Released: January 28th 2014
Review Source: William Morrow

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Hailed as "mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) and "as if Cormac McCarthy decided to rewrite Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird" (Richmond Times-Dispatch), A Land More Kind Than Home made Wiley Cash an instant literary sensation. His resonant new novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, is a tale of love and atonement, blood and vengeance, a story that involves two young sisters, a wayward father, and an enemy determined to see him pay for his sins.

When their mother dies unexpectedly, twelve-year-old Easter Quillby and her six-year-old sister, Ruby, are shuffled into the foster care system in Gastonia, North Carolina, a little town not far from the Appalachian Mountains. But just as they settle into their new life, their errant father, Wade, an ex–minor league baseball player whom they haven't seen in years, suddenly reappears and steals them away in the middle of the night.

Brady Weller, the girls' court-appointed guardian, begins looking for Wade, and quickly turns up unsettling information linking him to a multimillion-dollar robbery. But Brady isn't the only one hunting him. Also on the trail is Robert Pruitt, a mercurial man nursing a years-old vendetta, a man determined to find Wade and claim what he believes he is owed.

The combination of Cash's evocative and intimate Southern voice and those of the alternating narrators, Easter, Brady, and Pruitt, brings this soulful story vividly to life. At once captivating and heartbreaking, This Dark Road to Mercy is a testament to the unbreakable bonds of family and the primal desire to outrun a past that refuses to let go.

This Dark Road to Mercy  is one road worth taking. Not only is this dark, mysterious but it is a self-discovery novel. We learn from these characters that in life there is always second chances. A chance to change, a chance to seek redemption, a chance to seek mercy.

With three point of views, we follow the live of our fellow characters: Easter Quillby and her sister, Ruby, Wade (the girls father), Bobby Pruit and Brady Weller (appointed guardian). We learn more of Ruby and Wade from Easter’s point of view. Not long from their mother’s death, Easter and Ruby are kidnapped by their father. Wade is a former minor league baseball player that abandoned the girls, but now he wants be there for them. With a dark past, Wade has collected enemies, including Bobby. He wants nothing but revenge. He wants to harm Wade and his family - so Wade’s idea of being a good father will be challenging.

Though the story switched from one point to another,  one is able to follow each perspective with no problem. My favorite was Easter. I know writing a child’s going through struggles can be challenging but Cash wrote it with no sweat. Easter and her sister suffered so much… they will make you feel their pain - but so worth the read.

I enjoyed This Dark Road to Mercy and I hope you would give it a try!