In "This Dark Road to Mercy" Wiley Cash spins a yarn that readers will not soon forget.

Young sisters Easter and Ruby Quilby have never met an adult they can trust. They've essentially raised themselves since their drug addicted mother offers no support, and their father, Wade, has long-since run out on the family. When their mother dies, the girls move into a foster home. Several months later, their Wade resurfaces, wanting to make a new life with the girls. When told that he had previously signed away his parental rights, Wade kidnaps the girls and sets off to start a new life.

The story is told from the point of view of three narrators: Easter (now one of my all-time favorite characters in literature), Brady Weller (the girls' court-appointed guardian, who has a story of his own), and Robert Pruitt (a former associate of Wade's, intent on exacting revenge).

Set against the backdrop of the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run rivalry in the summer of 1998, this beautifully written story will have the reader thinking about the murky areas between right and wrong and what actions can be justified.

4.5 stars. Thank you to my GR friend Angela M for suggesting this fantastic book and putting Wiley Cash on my radar screen! ( )

Serviceable but undercooked suspense/thriller about a Southern town, a bag full of money stolen from a crime boss, kidnapped sisters, a psychopathic killer hunting them and their father down, and a tragic ex-cop looking for redemption. It's set in the South and is by a Southern writer, but it didn't feel particularly Southern. It's a thriller, but it wasn't particularly thrilling. It could have definitely been noir, but shied away, as if its editor thought it would be a more lucrative idea to aim this at the Oprah crowd, so let's not make this too hard and violent, mkay?

I love the idea of the confrontation building to a climax at Busch Stadium in St. Louis as McGwire and Sosa battle for the home run record as the season winds down, but the execution was disappointing. The protagonists are hardly settled into their seats before they get shown on the jumbotron, and before you know it psychopathic killer has stupidly attacked his target in the men's room and been apprehended and all danger is over. Seriously, he hunts him halfway across the country only to attack him in a jam packed baseball stadium as soon as he sees him? No stalking? No chase? No suspense! That could have been such a better scene; instead it felt nearly wasted.

He wasn't ever going to recover any stolen hillbilly mafia money that way. It is suggested that psychopathic killer had personal reasons at play, stemming from a minor league beaning incident that may have ended his playing career, but that angle needed considerably more exploration than it received. ( )

I enjoyed this engaging semi-thriller. The author drew me into the story by introducing characters, throwing them into the action while making the reader gradually pick up each character’s full backstory and motivations through hints, interactions, and character reflection as events unfold. I was relieved to find it avoids the tiresome folksiness of many contemporary novels set in the American South. Although final events wrapped up a little too cleanly and with disappointing clarity of good guys vs. bad guys, it was still a fun ride.

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library. The multiple readers were all quite good, but Jenny Lamia is a standout as always. The sound editing is very poor for one of the male readers as we hear every breath and swallow in between sentences.
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3.5 satrs - Quick, easy and pleasant read. ( )

Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy is an intriguing and suspenseful novel about a desperate father who kidnaps his daughters and finds himself on the run when a person from his past seizes the opportunity to exact his revenge.

Set in 1998, readers are whisked back in time to Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire's heated battle to break Robert Maris's homerun record. As the drama between Sosa/McGuire plays out, ex-minor league ballplayer Wade Chesterfield kidnaps the daughters he abandoned years earlier. Twelve year old Easter and her sister Ruby are living in a foster home following the death of their mother and while at first, Easter wants nothing to do with her wayward father, she willingly leaves with him. Their guardian ad litem, Brady Weller, an ex-cop who can never atone for a tragic accident, and Robert Pruitt, a vengeful psychopath from Wade's ball playing days, are soon in pursuit of Wade and the missing girls.

This Dark Road to Mercy unfolds from three of the characters' perspectives. The most compelling and sympathetic voice is that of twelve year old Easter. Easter grew up way too fast and she is wise beyond her years. She is very protective of Ruby and with clear memories of Wade's neglect, she is suspicious of his reappearance in their lives. She struggles to maintain an emotional distance but she is still a little girl whose mixed feelings for her dad slowly evolve over the course of their travels.

Brady's point of view is just as riveting. His concern for the girls is genuine and when he realizes the kidnapping is not a high priority for the police, he begins his own investigation. He uncovers important evidence that links Wade to the missing money from the armored car robbery and the trail eventually leads to some very unsavory individuals.

Robert Pruitt is motivated by more than greed to find Wade. He has a score to settle and he is ruthless in his attempts to track him down. He is merciless and methodical in his quest for information and the suspense builds as he closes in on his quarry.

My feelings for Easter, Ruby, Brady and Pruitt stayed pretty much the same throughout the novel. But Wade? I went back and forth between feeling sorry for him and wanting to shake some sense into him. He truly loves his daughters and he really does want to be a father to them. But Wade is immature and selfish and his impetuous decisions demonstrate his lack of common sense. He has a good heart, but does that mean he is should regain custody of his daughters?

This Dark Road to Mercy is a dramatic and engrossing novel with a cast of characters that invoke a wide range of emotions. The setting is perfect for the story and Wiley Cash once again paints a vibrant and gritty portrait of life in the south. It is a wonderful story of redemption with an ending that is as surprising as it is satisfying. ( )