The Quality of Mercy

De: Barry Unsworth

Narrado por: David Rintoul

The Quality of Mercy opens in the spring of 1767, two years after the events of Barry Unsworth's Booker Prize-winning Sacred Hunger. It follows the fortunes of two central characters from that book: Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, the son of a Liverpool slave-ship owner who hanged himself. To avenge his father's death, Erasmus Kemp has had the rebellious sailors of his father's ship, including Sullivan, brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy.

But Sullivan has escaped and is making his way on foot to the north of England, stealing as he goes and sleeping where he can. His destination is Thorpe in the East Durham coalfields, where his dead shipmate, Billy Blair, lived. And he has pledged to tell the family how Billy met his end.

©2011 Barry Unsworth (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Excellent historical novel.

Superb narration, wonderfully created characters and inventively controlled plot.David Rintoul yet again proves how great a reader he truly is.

Another Great Unsworth Book

Although it is over 20 years ago that Barry Unsworth wrote Sacred Hunger this is the belated sequel to it. To get full pleasure from this book you really need to have read/listened to Sacred Hunger. However this book develops into a great story in its own right. New characters are introduced and new story lines are developed. The narration by David Rintoul is superb. The only slightly disappointing aspect is the rather abrupt ending. Perhaps Barry U is just setting us up for a third in the series ...!!!! I hope so.