I’m usually not one to pick up straight literary fiction or drama. Aside from Richard Russo (Empire Falls, which is one of my favorite books) or Wally Lamb (I Know This Much is True is another favorite), I tend to drift towards the crime, thriller, horror, sci-fi, or fantasy sections of the bookstore or the library. That being said, Wiley Cash, a writer of literary thrillers in the vein of Cormac McCarthy and Flanney O’Connor, is a new addition to my list of authors that I’ll check out when a new book of theirs shows up.
This Dark Road to Mercy is Cash’s sophomore effort, and you can tell he’s improved since his debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home. Like his first effort, Cash’s book is split between multiple first-person perspectives, which is an interesting way of telling a story, but is in danger of bogging down when the reader has to readjust to different world-views every few chapters. That was the main qualm that I had with A Land More Kind Than Home – the story become difficult to follow with three main protagonists with different motivations and worldviews to adjust to.
This Dark Road to Mercy does a much better job with this. The protagonists in question here are Easter Quillby, a young girl with a little sister, Ruby, to care for, Brady Weller, their legal guardian in foster care, and Robert Pruitt, a former baseball player with a score to settle with Easter’s father, Wade. Their father shows up to see them and eventually removes them from their foster home, taking them in a cross-country journey with Pruitt in hot pursuit of the stolen money Wade carries with him.
Cash’s second book is a good read for anyone interested in the works of authors such as Cormac McCarthy or Flannery O’Connor.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Eclectic Post-Dispatch 