Someone once said that love is what makes the world go ’round…that may be true, but love can lead to all kinds of havoc that may disrupt your entire life, as is so artfully told by author Jodi Picoult in her book, Mercy.
In the hills of Picoult’s Massachusetts there is a small town by the name of Wheelock, a town consisting of a clan transplanted from the Scottish highlands where every other person is named McDonald and the man who would have been clan chief in Scotland is the chief of police over the small town. That man is the tall, well-built and red-haired Cameron McDonald, a man totally devoted to his job and whose wife, Allie, is totally devoted to him and to running her flower shop. Picture perfect. That is, until one day when Cam’s cousin from a nearby town pulls his pickup up in front of the police station tells the Chief that his wife, who appears to be sleeping next to him, is dead…and that he killed her. On the same day an unconventional wanderer, Mia, turns up out of nowhere and makes herself at home in Allie’s shop and swiftly proves that her artful eye entitles her to a job as Allie’s assistant. These two newcomers prove just enough to turn the lives of the town’s central couple upside-down.
Throughout a murder trial, a wandering eye, and ponderings over how much someone must love a person to do anything at all for them – including kill them if they request it – show all the sides of love…most of them not very attractive. The plot revolves around Allie, Cam, Mia, and Cam’s cousin Jamie as they all endure life’s hardships and face their own discontent and might-have-beens.
I truly didn’t know what to expect from this book, I’ve read The Pact and thoroughly enjoyed it after much deliberation because, by appearance, that one was a romance which is not a genre I’m interested in, but Granny had sent it so I eventually had to read it, only to find something completely different than I expected. So here comes another book from Granny…Mercy looked every bit the romance that The Pact had but since my previous dealings with this author proved different I dove in…and was somewhat disappointed, though not entirely.
The first thing I will say is that Mercy had a lot more elements of a romance than the aforementioned story, both the positive and negative sides of a romance, but there was still a fairly good back story and some courtroom drama mixed in so I stayed fairly interested.
The thing that brought this book down, in my estimation, was not the elements of romance (the middle part of the book could stand alone as a Harlequin with only a few passages about the pending murder trial taken out) so much as the multiple elements of the story that really started to bog things down unnecessarily. There is a bit at the beginning involving Cam’s high school sweetheart coming to town to do a speech about her new book, she is mentioned for a couple of pages and then drops out, having absolutely no bearing on the rest of the story whatsoever…so why waste the time? That is but one example of numerous disjointed elements that don’t quite seem to fit into the story, almost like Picoult started with something much longer and forgot to pare all the extras off when different parts of the story line were edited out.
Next…I generally enjoy courtroom dramas, I’ve read several John Grishams and the legal drama in The Pact was to my liking as well, but in this book it just didn’t feel quite right…it was too dragged out, the prosecuting attorney was way too wooden, shallow, and just didn’t have the character development I would have liked to see. In the courtroom itself we get to hear numerous times about the expressions on each juror’s face and extended testimonies from a couple of witnesses for the defense, but very little for the prosecutor and despite the formidable reputation she was supposed to have she came across as somewhat incompetent, so while the characters were all on the edge of their seats about the outcome of the trial I definitely was not.
One thing that seems to be a trend in Picoult’s writings is that her stories are somewhat depressing, this one is no different…it is rather depressing, a little graphic in some parts (though not much), and likes to make the reader just a little bit ashamed for being a member of the human race.
Overall if you like Picoult’s writing you will probably find enough reason to read this book, I think the idea behind the story was a good one and there is a lot to think about but it feels almost like it was put together in a rush and didn’t quite come through with the kind of snap that one would expect. If you enjoy dramas and/or romances and have a bit of extra time this summer with nothing better to do you might try this book, just don’t expect it to be quite as good as some of Picoult’s other works.
