This Dark Road to Mercy

A Novel

By: Wiley Cash

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Erik Bergmann, Scott Sowers

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.

©2014 Wiley Cash (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers

Critic reviews

"Jenna Lamia's remarkable performance makes her the star of this ensemble audiobook. Her impeccable North Carolina accent and pitch-perfect expression enliven Easter's mixed emotions.... Erik Bergman's slow, gentle voice is a match for Brady's kindness, while Scott Sowers makes listeners shiver with his rendering of Pruitt, a sociopathic hit man." ( AudioFile)

Loved this book!

This was a really great story and the narration was wonderful. I couldn’t stop listening and love the ending. I read that others weren’t pleased with the way it ended but I thought it was great. Whoever did the narration for Easter was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend this book and I

Worth 2 credits

I really enjoyed this book. Being in Charlotte made listening even better as I recognized some of the place.

A very fine book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes: Gripping story, with complex, imperfect characters.

What other book might you compare This Dark Road to Mercy to and why?

A land more kind than home, Mr. Cash's first book: A book about failed fatherhood told from multiple first person narrators.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The female reader for the female protagonist lends nice tone and subtlety.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Nope.

Any additional comments?

Nice work again from Mr. Cash. A very fine book.

great book. great author. great performances.

its just great. i am going to listen to all of wiley cash's books after having heard this one. fantastic.

Great listening

Intriguing and loved the voices! The writer really did agreat job in making you fall for a character!

Baseball meets Suspense

I really enjoyed this book. I followed the baseball story interweaved in this book and made a great addition. Great story line. Worth a quick read.

Well told but lacks punch

Wiley Cash set the bar very high with his debut “A Land More Kind than Home”, and as often happens, the highly anticipated follow-up fell just a little short.

Once again Cash uses the 3-voice format, and two of the three work. Easter Quillby sets the tone and tells the largest portion of the story, effectively communicating the very complex emotions that accompany abandonment and the need to grow up way too early. Brady – the court appointed guardian to Easter and her sister, is well written and believable but is essentially utilitarian to the arc of the story. But Pruett, the bad guy pursuing the girls and their father, is a cardboard villain with no more depth or motivation than The Terminator. Because the characters in each storyline don’t actually cross paths with each other in the chase, there is no exploration of their relationships beyond the one dimensional POV of each narrator. I think that was the reason this story lacked the punch in the gut delivered by “A Land More Kind”. That said, I do like the very end of the story – two small surprises that suggest how the story will move forward.

Which takes me to the narration. Again, 2 out of 3 narrators do their job well. Jenna Lamia shows why she is the go-to voice for young southern girls. Eric Bergmann lends Brady the seriousness of a man trying to do right to make up for a past mistake. But Scott Sowers takes an already stereotyped bad guy and caricatures him into a hillbilly Snidely Whiplash. I actually stopped listening to his chapters and ordered the Kindle version to get past his awful narration. (This makes the second time I have abandoned an Audible of his narration in favor of the print version). For overall narration, I can only give 3 stars because of Sowers.

Well done

Would you listen to This Dark Road to Mercy again? Why?

I don't listen to anything twice, because too many excellent books are out there!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Easter seems very real, true to life and believable.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Multiple narrators contributed to this book. The voice of Easter was exceptional.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

The story was so enjoyable that I purchased another book by this author.

A masterpiece!

Hands down the best book I have listened to since I became an Audible member. Everything about this story is perfect. I was a bit upset at the end but then I realized no matter what happened I did not want this book to end and that was what the problem was. Do you yourself a big favor and spend a credit on this wonderful piece of writing. It deserves every award and then some.

A Safe Choice

This was a pleasant story, well told by a cast that presented the various characters nicely. It's not life-changing or even terribly memorable, but it kept me listening. This is an example of a book that is better on audio, and where having multiple readers was an excellent choice.

Two young girls who have been kicked around terribly by life, are faced with a choice: escape with the father they barely know, or face an uncertain future with grandparents they've never met? Unsurprisingly, they take off with Dad, and encounter unexpected adventure.

I could have done with more danger, and some actual resolution at the end. The characters are well developed (and this is emphasized by using multiple readers), the situation wonderfully conceived, but the plot is weak. It's as if Cash got too attached to the girls and didn't want to get them into too much trouble.