The Merciful by Jon Sealy

The Merciful by Jon Sealy

Published by Haywire Books ISBN 9781950182077

Trade paperback, $17.95, 294 pages

One of the TV series my husband and I have been watching is Showtime's Your Honor, about a judge who tries to hide the fact that his teenage son accidentally killed a vicious mob boss's son in a hit and run accident. It's a gripping story, with one bad decision leading to the next.

Jon Sealy's new novel, The Merciful, mines some of the same territory. A young woman named Sam is killed riding her bike home from work late at night on a lonely road in a South Carolina tourist town. Daniel Hayward, the man who hit her, leaves the scene. He drives home to his wife, Francine, his college sweetheart, telling her (and himself) that he hit a deer. 

Word gets out about the accident after Sam's boyfriend goes looking for her and finds the body. People in the town are horrified that someone would leave after hitting Sam. They want her killer caught and punished.

The story shifts between the various people involved. Daniel's father contacts Henry, a big-time Charleston defense attorney whose client base is shrinking. Claire is the young state's attorney who is prosecuting Daniel. Years ago Henry berated Claire after she made a mistake, and she is determined to prove to him that she is a good lawyer.

Henry prepares Daniel for the upcoming trial, which consumes the town. In her last trial, Claire's affair with a police officer led to her losing the case. She knows that she must do everything she can to win this case, get justice for Sam, and repair her reputation. 

Daniel can't believe what has happened to him. He loses his job, Francine leaves him, he is shunned by everyone. His life was going well, how did one night change everything? 

Sam's boyfriend asks the same thing. He wanted to pick Sam up in his car that night, why did she not let him? And what happened between the time she left work and was hit? There is an hour of time missing, and that is tormenting him. Henry and Claire want to know the answer to that as well.

The Merciful is an intense novel that puts the reader in the shoes of several characters. We get the backstory to many characters- Daniel, Sam's boyfriend, Sam's sister, Henry, Claire, even the judge on the case- that lead up to the conclusion of trial, and the answer to the big question- "Why do people behave as they do?"

I was provided a review copy in enchange for an honest review.

Friday 5ive- Happy New Year

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. I think we are all happy to say goodbye to 2020 and look forward to a better year in 2021. 

1) While picking up a few stocking stuffers in my neighborhood Anthropologie store, I found this cute display of spatulas dipped in "frosting" and sprinkles hanging over a holiday display table. They always have such creative displays.

2)  I saw Alan Alda on Good Morning America talking about a new podcast on Audible called Soldiers of Science. It describes how some of the best doctors ended up at the National Institutes of Health. During the Vietnam War, graduates of medical school did not enter the draft lottery, but were automatically drafted. The only option to avoid that was to apply to a program at the NIH. The result was that the NIH got some of the best and brightest doctors to work in research, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. It's four-part series and it's fascinating. I listened to it in two sittings. You can get more information here.

3)  We did two more virtual wine tastings, one with Clos du Val winery in Napa with friends, and a large Zoom one with my husband's family with wines from Del Dotto Winery in Napa. They both were so interesting, we learned about the various regions and how having vineyards a few miles apart can make a difference in the taste of the wines. For the family one we each did a charcuterie board to go with the wines. It's a great way to reconnect with family. 

4)  I finally watched season four of The Crown. It was excellent, and I particularly enjoyed Olivia Coleman (Queen Elizabeth) and Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher) in their scenes together. 

I'm still on my quest to watch as many holiday specials/movies as I can, and this week it was The Happiest Season on Hulu. Kristen Stewart (Abby) and Mackenzie Davis (Harper) are a happy couple until Harper brings Abby home to meet her family at Christmas, and she hasn't told her family that she and Abby are more than friends. Harper's father (Victor Garber) is running for mayor of their town, and all three of his daughters (and wife played by Mary Steenburgen) are very high strung, with some hiding secrets from their parents. I enjoyed Daniel Levy as Abby's friend and Aubrey Plaza as a former high school girlfriend of Harper's. It was not exactly a happy-all-the-time-movie, but it does have a satisfying ending.

5)  I was busy with the holiday, so I only read three books over the last two weeks. I read my Book Of The Month November selection, Lori Nelson Spielman's The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany, about two cousins who accompany their elderly great-aunt back to Tuscany to reunite her with her long-lost love and break a family curse that says that the second daughters in each family are doomed to remain unmarried. It was nice to visit Tuscany in a book since we couldn't do it in person.

We've been watching the Showtime limited series Your Honor, and Jon Sealy's new novel The Merciful treads similiar territory. A young woman is killed in a hit-and-run while riding her bike at night in her small town in South Carolina, and the man who killed her claims he thought he hit a deer. We get the stories of the prosecutor, defense attorney, the man who killed her and his wife, the dead woman's boyfriend and more, and how one bad decision can change the trajectory of your entire life. My full review publishes next week. 

Ed Tarkington's novel, The Fortunate Ones, is also set in the South, Nashville this time. Charlie Boykin, born to a single teenage mom who lives in the working class part of town in Nashville, gets the chance to attend an elite private school where he becomes friends with golden boy Arch Creigh, and twins Jamie and Vanessa. As Charlie gets pulled into their rarefied circle, he finds that things are different than they appear. It's a terrific story, and Ed Tarkington is well on his way to becoming a great addition to the Southern canon of writers. It's been billed as "the Southern Great Gatsby" and that is an apt comparison. My full review publishes next week.

I hope you all have a safe, happy, healthy New Year. Continue to remain socially distant, wash your hands, wear a mask, and get the vaccine when and if it's appropriate for you.