A Tangled Mercy

A Novel

By: Joy Jordan-Lake

Narrated by: JD Jackson, Angela Dawe

Told in alternating tales at once haunting and redemptive, A Tangled Mercy is a quintessentially American epic rooted in heartbreaking true events examining the harrowing depths of human brutality and betrayal, and our enduring hope for freedom and forgiveness.

After the sudden death of her troubled mother, struggling Harvard grad student Kate Drayton walks out on her lecture - and her entire New England life. Haunted by unanswered questions and her own uncertain future, she flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academics. Kate is determined to unearth groundbreaking information on a failed 1822 slave revolt - the subject of her mother's own research.

Nearly two centuries earlier, Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the noose and protect the woman he loves.

Kate's attempts to discover what drove her mother's dangerous obsession with Charleston's tumultuous history are derailed by a horrific massacre in the very same landmark church. In the unimaginable aftermath, Kate discovers a family she never knew existed as the city unites with a powerful message of hope and forgiveness for the world.

©2017 Joy Jordan-Lake (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Charleston Blessed

A Tangled Mercy reminded me how Blessed I am to have lived in Charleston for several years. It is a beautiful city with a unique culture and history. Although I didn't experience the prejudice identified in the book, I did experience the unique way in which the people of the city regardless of race and religion embraced one another. Unlike New England, they also welcomed people from the outside to enjoy what the city has to offer. A Tangled Mercy somehow brought the “special” of Charleston out and made me feel like I was there again walking along with Kate as she solved the mystery of history.

Good book, flawed by complexity

This mystery story of modern Charleston is interwoven with a historical, fictionalized account of a 1822 slave revolt in the city. Both narratives are absorbing, but it is nearly impossible to track all the characters and events. Simplification of stories, players and details would help this book read better, especially as an audible book.

The performance was quite well done. Charleston accents were reasonably good, with one annoying exception: pronunciations.

Beaufort, in South Carolina, is BYOO-fert, not BOW-fert, the North Carolina pronunciation. We pronounce the name Manigault, MAN-uh-go. And we certainly don’t say BAL-yew-strade, but rather BAL-uh-strade. There are several other distracting errors of this kind.

Such an obvious mistake is puzzling. Paying an English major to investigate and note pronunciations of regional and local terms would have precluded it.

Superb

First audio book where I was able to keep track of the characters, storyline, and overall just become.so deeply engrossed. I literally groaned out loud as chapters would end and at times had to brush tears from my cheeks.

A Splendid Tale

One of the best compilations of history, romance, and pride, that will leave you breathless and shaken. It's been a while since I was so affected by a book, that I shed tears, and this one accomplashed just that.

A little slow but worth the read

Kate Drayton is reeling from the sudden death of her mother. There are so many things she doesn't understand about her and why she left Charleston never to return. On an impulse and driven by grief Kate abandons her classes at Harvard and runs off to Charleston to find out what she can about her mother's past. Unfortunately no one, not the cute kid Gabe, the powerful matriarch Rose, or the obnoxious lawyer Putt, will help her find any clues to her mother's past even though clearly some of them know something.
I really enjoyed this book. With a two caviots....First, It was slow going in the beginning and Second the big reveal at the end honestly could have been revealed the first day Kate was in Charleston. It felt like that piece of the story was dragged on needlessly just to time the incident at the Church at the end of the novel.
However there was so much that was done right. The characters were interesting and well developed. I loved Kate and how she was trying to deal with her mother's death. She was spunky and yet reserved. It was an interesting combination. I also thought some of the things she did were over the top and a bit crazy but they were also funny. The storyline was interesting and engaging. Honestly my favorite parts of the story was all the history that I got to learn. Unfortunately the historical characters didn't seem to pop off the pages as much as Kate, Gabe, and Rose. However I got to learn about a slave revolt in Charleston, gulla, and southern abolitionists. These were all things I had never learned of before.

PG - 13 hangings, baby birth, implied rape,

outstanding story, and superb writing, narration

I'm not a big novel person. I thought this was one of the better novels I've read.

Better at the end

The protagonist comes across as whiny at first and too little details are left out to truly engage the reader until they reach the midpoint of the book. If I was one to abandon books I would have this one, but in the end it was worth the initial bore.

gripping story lines

history and present day woven into a strong fabric...believable, intriguing, thought provoking, entertainment oh indeed.

Slow imaginative read.

The plot summary caught my interest. The revealation of Sara Grace and Tom Russell's connection kept me intrigued. I enjoyed the past and present perspectives along with historical events.

Haunting

A well told story of history and present day struggles and the lingering effects of racial inequality.