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This Dark Road to Mercy: A Novel
This Dark Road to Mercy: A Novel
This Dark Road to Mercy: A Novel
Ebook370 pages5 hours

This Dark Road to Mercy: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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The critically acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller A Land More Kind Than Home—hailed as "a powerfully moving debut that reads as if Cormac McCarthy decided to rewrite Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird" (Richmond Times Dispatch)—returns with a resonant novel of love and atonement, blood and vengeance, set in western North Carolina, involving two young sisters, a wayward father, and an enemy determined to see him pay for his sins.

After their mother's unexpected death, twelve-year-old Easter and her six-year-old sister Ruby are adjusting to life in foster care when their errant father, Wade, suddenly appears. Since Wade signed away his legal rights, the only way he can get his daughters back is to steal them away in the night.

Brady Weller, the girls' court-appointed guardian, begins looking for Wade, and he quickly turns up unsettling information linking Wade to a recent armored car heist, one with a whopping $14.5 million missing. But Brady Weller isn't the only one hunting the desperate father. Robert Pruitt, a shady and mercurial man nursing a years-old vendetta, is also determined to find Wade and claim his due.

Narrated by a trio of alternating voices, This Dark Road to Mercy is a story about the indelible power of family and the primal desire to outrun a past that refuses to let go.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateJan 28, 2014
ISBN9780062088277
Author

Wiley Cash

Wiley Cash is the New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home, the acclaimed This Dark Road to Mercy, and most recently The Last Ballad. He is a three-time winner of the SIBA Southern Book Prize, won the Conroy Legacy Award, was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and has been nominated for many more. A native of North Carolina, he is the Alumni Author-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina Asheville. He lives in Wilmington, NC with his wife, photographer Mallory Cash, and their two daughters.

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Rating: 3.864679025229358 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well written, quick noir-ish thriller lite. Will make a good movie!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Twelve year old Easter and her little sister Ruby are set adrift one day, after their mother suddenly dies. They are sent to a foster home, until, Wade, their wayward father shows up. He had signed away his legal rights, years ago, so decides to take them anyway, stealing away in the wee hours.Brady Weller is an ex-cop and court-appointed guardian. He begins a painstaking search. Also on the family trail is a disfigured thug named Pruitt, who is after a duffel bag of stolen money, which Wade may have acquired. The hunt begins.The chase, through the Carolinas, Florida and then St. Louis, is set against the backdrop of the Sosa and McGuire home run race of 1998, so there is plenty of nifty baseball references, sprinkled along the way.The author does a good job, letting this story unfold. He has a good ear for dialogue, especially the southern tone and has done a fine job developing Easter and Brady. The weakness was in the thriller aspects of the story, which were contrived and far-fetched. It is still a good read and one I will recommend.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I received this as an Early Reviewers book - WOW - I loved the two girls in the story - and even the dad was hard not to like dispite his weaknesses. The baseball background added a lot to the storyline. Wiill pass it on to my book club for discussion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First, I'd like to thank the author and the publisher for allowing me to read the advance reader's copy of This Dark Road to Mercy. The book comes out it January 2014, & I highly recommend it. This is the story of two sisters, Easter and Ruby. After their mother dies of an overdose, they are placed in care of the state. Their father, who gave up parental rights to the girls several years prior, shows up and convinces the girls to leave with him, chased by a very bad man who is after their dad and the girls. This book is well-written and the characters so well developed that the reader is drawn into their story very early in the book. Very enjoyable!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book. Wiley Cash is definitely one of my fave authors now whose works I'll keep reading.

    What was special to me in this story was Easter Quillby's "voice." Many times books are compared ad nauseum to one writer or another, yet ultimately fail to deliver on that promise, or leave us wondering how the comparison came to be at all.

    Not so when a blurb compared Easter's voice to Ellen Foster in Kaye Gibbon's book by the same title. In his own unique way, Cash succeeded in giving us a comparable, yet unique voice of a twelve year old girl, much like Ellen's. I'll admit I looked forward to Easter's Chapters more than any of the other character's.

    I also give it five stars because I felt the ending was perfect, because at various times throughout the story, I couldn't figure how he'd write it. The last sentence? Brilliant.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wiley Cash has a strong voice. The writing is tight and Cash draws the reader in with the well-written characters. A few reviewers have compared Cash to other Southern writers, such as Harper Lee. I don't see the resemblance beyond the setting being in the South, and young female characters and their fathers; there, Cash just sorta leaves Lee in the dust of an old dirt road and I for one could not see her when I looked backed--for all the dust, ya know!There was also mention of Elmore Leonard and Cormac McCarthy. I would agree here, to a certain extent. But, the resemblance isn't because Cash sounds like an imitation of those writers, it's the rawness one senses behind the words, the darkness that is always there no matter how bright and hot the summer day is being described in the work. No, Cash has his own voice and it's strong and smooth like a shot of good Southern Whiskey: it hits you before you realize you've finished the drink. Yeah, that smooth. It's a voice telling powerful stories. I think I have found another author to add to my favorites, another author that makes me glad I'm a reader and jealous that I ain't that writer! This book was on my to-read-again list before I even finished the first read. I caught the Icantputitdownitis right away, and only stopped reading when my eyes were no longer able to remain open.One of the things that I enjoyed, apart from the voice, characters and diction, is the way the book is organized: e.g. chapters are told from different characters' POVs. There were no parts of this book that seemed out of place or unnecessary. It all fits.I can't wait to devour more of Wiley Cash's work and will keep my eyes out for any new work.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awesome read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a story about redemption, but also about compassion and the role it plays in earning redemption. Wade Chesterfield is a deadbeat dad turned up to right his wrongs after his daughters, Ruby and Easter, lose their mom. It is in his fumbling attempts to do what is right, even through the course of doing what is wrong, that helps his character round out over the course of the novel. The sweet, but tough disposition of older sibling Easter helps us to see Wade for who he really is and who Easter hopes he can be. I had a hard time putting the book down-- very well done.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wiley Cash earned rave reviews for his first novel,A Land More Kind Than Home, proving that he's a force to be reckoned with on the Southern fiction scene. His newest novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, reinforces his mastery of gothic undertones and characters on the edge. In his latest, a gritty road trip tale, he tackles themes of family, redemption, and second chances as his characters travel down their own dark roads to mercy. Easter Quillby, named for one of her mother's favorite things, lives in a children's home with her younger sister, Ruby. The girls have been in the home for a short while following their mother's drug overdose when their feckless, former baseball minor leaguer father reappears. Wade Chesterfield is an ex-con as well as a former pitcher and despite having renounced his parental rights to Easter and Ruby years ago, he wants a second chance with his daughters now. But Wade doesn't have the time to go through the proper channels to reclaim his daughters and Easter isn't sure she wants him to either. Even with her reservations, she and Ruby climb out the window of the children's home and into Wade's car, running just ahead of hired thug Bobby Pruitt. Pruitt is a cold, psychopathic character, another former baseball player and ex-con, disfigured and nursing an enormous grudge against Wade. Pruitt is more than willing to kill Wade and his girls over money missing from a small time, small town crime boss after an armored car robbery. Brady Weller, the girls' guardian ad litem and a former cop who is haunted by his own failures as a father is just as determined as Pruitt to find Wade but he only wants to bring the girls back safely. As Wade, Easter, and Ruby drive down the southeastern seaboard trying to stay one step ahead of Pruitt, they just as avidly follow along as Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa race to beat Roger Maris' single season homerun record. And just as no one could know which heavy hitter would come out on top, there is no foregone conclusion in the novel over whether the brutal Pruitt or the determined Brady will find Wade and the girls first. The novel is narrated in fairly equal parts by Easter, Brady, and Pruitt, offering different perspectives on the same set of circumstances. Each of the three has something in the past that has shaped them and continues to haunt them and drive them. The tension is palpable throughout the novel and increases at a measured pace as the ultimate, inevitable showdown comes ever closer. Cash has written a formidable, engrossing second novel rife with vengeance and suspense, baggage from the past and fresh starts, atonement and forgiveness, failure and a sort of redemption. I can't wait to see what he does next.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    After their mother’s death from drug overdose, twelve-year-old Easter Quillby and her younger sister are adjusting to life in foster care. Wade Chesterfield, their errant father, re-enters their lives unexpectedly – but Wade has previously signed away his legal right to the girls, so he can only get his daughters back by kidnapping them.Brady Weller, an ex-cop and the girls’ court-appointed guardian, is certain Chesterfield has stolen Easter and Ruby. But when he begins looking for Wade, he uncovers disturbing information linking him to an amoured car heist. And Weller isn’t the only one looking for Wade: Robert Pruitt, a shady character nursing a years-old grudge, is determined to find him and have his revenge.Set in North Carolina, This Dark Road to Mercy is narrated alternately by its three main characters: Easter Quillby, Brady Weller, Robert Pruitt. Resonating with themes of love and atonement, blood and vengeance, and written in Cash’s fine prose, the novel drew me in immediately and held tight through its conclusion. Highly recommended!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Overall an enjoyable well-written book, however it just ended quite abruptly.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this book. All of the characters were interesting and easy to identify with.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Two girls, Easter, age 12, and Ruby, age 6, witness the untimely death of their mother. Since their father had relinquished his parental rights, they are taken to a children's home.Later, their father comes to see them while they are playing. He wants to get back into their lives. He was a former minor league baseball player who left the family when things got too difficult.The setting is Gastonia, North Carolina. One night the father, Wade, sneaks into the home and tells the girls they have to come with him. They all run away and Easter notices that he has a good deal of money.Someone is looking for him, a man named Pruitt who wants to settle an old grudge, plus he's been hired to recover something Wade stole.Brady Weller is the court appointed child's advocate and the one person who seems to care what happens to the girls. He gets a lead on where Wade took them and follows them.Easter has been compared to Atticus Finch's daughter, Scout, in "To Kill a Mockingbird." Both are age 12. both from the south, both have a maturity when speaking to their fathers and both girls have a good view on life but are still vulnerable. The author of this book makes the reader pull for Easter and hope for her success.We are led to expect a misfortune awaiting the girls and hope Brady can reach them and save them.There are some good surprises and excellent character build up of Easter, Wade and Brady. The setting is well described as the characters move from one location to another, always one step away from doom.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wiley Cash's first novel A Land More Kind Than Home was a New York Times bestseller. It garnered rave reviews, and I remember putting it on my never ending must read list. Well, I never did get to it, but his second novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, has just released in trade format - and I jumped at the chance to review it.Twelve year old Easter and her six year old sister Ruby are now living in a foster home. Their mother has died and their father Wade signed away his parental rights years ago. But it is something in the way the man watching the ballgame Easter is playing that rings a bell.....it is Wade and he wants his girls to come with him. There's another man watching too - Wade has something that belongs to someone else. Pruitt will do whatever it takes to get that something back - and extract vengeance on Wade for an event from both their pasts. Easter, older and wiser beyond her years, makes a decision -and the three are on the run. There's a third man as well - Brady is the girls' court appointed guardian - and he too is on the trail of Wade and the girls.I loved Easter's voice from the first line...."Wade disappeared on us when I was nine years old and then he showed up out of nowhere the year I turned twelve." She presents a hard exterior to the world, shielding herself and her sister from further hurt. Small vulnerabilities - wondering if a boy likes her for example, were all the more poignant as she is feeling her way through life without a parent.Each of the characters in the book has a past - a past that influences the direction their present is taking. Wrongs that need righting, hopes, dreams, what could have been and what could be are entwined in the narratives of the three main characters. And somehow, to all three, this moment in represents redemption.From the author's notes "....As a six-year-old, you're called a liar when you tell a story that you know isn't true. But if you can keep telling stories and wait just a few more years, people will eventually call you a writer. Even when they know your stories aren't true." I think Cash is a great storyteller. This Dark Road to Mercy had mystery and suspense elements, but it was the characters themselves that captured me - especially Easter, with Wade a close second. The ending was absolutely perfect. (And I quiet enjoyed the baseball references.)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This Dark Road to Mercy is a family drama, with a side of gritty crime thriller.The story is about ex-ballplayer Wade's effort to start a new life with the daughters he'd previously abandoned. But he goes about it by kidnapping the girls. And he has some ill-gotten money to fund the new life, and a thug (with a taste for revenge) is coming after Wade and the money.Wade is the key part of the plot, but he is not the focus of the story-telling. The story is told from three different perspectives. Easter is the older daughter, who doesn't immediately warm up to the idea of her deadbeat dad coming back into her life. Brady is the appointed child advocate in charge of the girls' case. And Pruitt is the thug trying to catch up with Wade.I loved Easter's chapters. She is a savvy twelve year old girl who looks out for her little sister, Ruby. Brady's chapters served to move the story forward, though I thought the Brady character was a little dull. I did not like the Pruitt chapters at all in the beginning, but they really did add the suspense that makes this book more than a normal family drama.Disclosure: I received a pre-release copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a wonderful novel. I felt that the characters were very authentic, if somewhat flawed. The novel is suspenseful and adult but without a lot of focus on the bad stuff. The storyline alternates between three narrators. Twelve year old Easter, Brady Welles the court appointed guardian, and Pruitt. Each has a unique voice and their own issues. The other characters are primarily told through Easters eyes, including her sister Ruby and dad Wade. Lots of wonderful detail but enough suspense to keep you reading fast. Loved it! Reader received a complimentary copy through Good Reads First Reads.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash is very highly recommended.

    Wiley Cash's latest novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, is set in Gastonia, North Carolina where two sisters, twelve year old Easter and six year old Ruby Quillby, are placed in the foster care system after their mother dies. It's 1998 and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire and trying to break Roger Maris' home run record. Easter is following this competition along with her friend Marcus and the rest of the country when her father, Wade Chesterfield, shows up unexpectedly and kidnaps the girls. The problem is that Wade signed over any legal rights to the girls years before and they haven't seen him for at least three years. If that's not enough, there is a bigger problem. Wade has stolen a lot of money from a local thug who wants it back so he sets a bounty hunter on Wade's trail. But this bounty hunter, Robert Pruitt, relishes finding Wade for the money and for revenge: it's personal and he has a score to settle. The girls' court-appointed guardian, ex-police office Brady Weller, is also trying to find Wade and the girls.

    The story is told through three very different narrators: Easter, Pruitt, and Brady. Easter is a girl on the path to maturity who struggles to understand the world around her. She is trusting and doubting, cocky and insecure - just like any 12 year old - only she is under a tremendous amount of pressure and isn't sure she can truly trust her father. Pruitt is one scary mean, vindictive evil guy and the tension mounts as he looks for Wade. It looks like the girls will just be collateral damage if they get in his way as he seeks to eliminate Wade once and for all. Brady is a good guy beaten down by circumstances. He's trying to fine redemption after the terrible accident that had him leaving the police force. And the girls' father, Wade, is a washed-up minor league ball player whose attempt to do something right has been set on a crooked track right at the start.

    The characters are captured to perfection. Even with all their flaws and foibles, you will be hoping that mercy, forgiveness, and redemption will be found somewhere for all these characters (with the exception of Pruitt). All of these characters are flawed and hurting. Easter and Ruby are trying so hard to keep their family bond intact and stay together while they really don't know and have little control over what their future holds. Even while you want Wade to be that strong father he wants to be, you know, deep down inside, that he may not be strong enough to make that leap. Brady is wounded, trying to look out for the best interest of the girls and find them, but he is still struggling with his own issues.

    This Dark Road to Mercy is extremely well-written Southern fiction that captured my attention right from the start and held it to the end. I'm going to have to read Cash's debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, based on how much I enjoyed This Dark Road to Mercy.

    Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins for review purposes.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    No mother, a deadbeat dad, a foster home, and then a kidnapping.Easter and Ruby were placed in a foster home after their mother died since their father, Wade, had signed them away many years ago. But now he wanted them back. Wade was bad news all around.Easter followed all the rules and Ruby followed whatever Easter said. Both girls will steal your heart because of their innocence and sweet ways. Their father will make you worry. THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY is told in alternating voices with themes of a mystery to be solved, crimes that were committed, crimes that were being committed, and family dynamics. The book starts out with the main theme being the girls left in a foster home but it heats up when Wade's deeds surface.Mr. Cash has a smooth, absorbing, detailed style of writing that pulls you in. The suspense of the book begins when Wade decides to do something stupid...well many stupid things.All of the characters have a lot of charisma that make THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY a book you don't want to put down. It tells the tale of families, life in a small town, the town's problems, and its police force.I really enjoyed THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY which was filled with Southern-style emotion and suspense. Don't miss reading this book. 5/5This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this coming of age story. The story of the armor car heist was based on a true story and I had just read an article about it. I highly recommend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In 1998, baseball fans (and some of the rest of us) were caught up in a contest between Sammy Sosa and Mark McQwire to see who might break Roger Maris's home-run record. Against that background, Wiley Cash has set a suspenseful road-trip featuring 12-year-old Easter Quilby, her 7-year-old sister Ruby, and their ne'er-do-well father, Wade, a former baseball player himself. The girls haven't seen their father in several years, but suddenly he has re-appeared, determined to be a Dad, starting by kidnapping them from the foster home where they have been placed following their mother's death from a drug overdose. Easter is relatively fearless, old for her years, and protective of her little sister. Her memories of her father are colored by her mother's disdain for him since he's been gone, but she is still trying hard to form her own opinion---is he a loser, as she's come to think of him, or can he be trusted? Who is the guy that seems to be looking for Wade, and what is in that heavy black bag Wade is so attached to? The story evolves through multiple narrators---Easter, herself; the man Pruitt who is following them across the country with clearly evil intentions; and Brady Weller, a former cop who is now the girls' guardian ad litem and who has drawn some conclusions about just how much trouble Wade may have got himself into. There are dark moments, but Cash does not overdo the grim bits, and even when the devil takes a round, we are never led to fear he will win in the end. Reviewers have compared Easter to Scout Finch, and Cash to Cormac McCarthy. I think both associations are off base. I see way more of Addie Pray than of Scout in Easter--in fact there are a lot of similarities in the story lines of [This Dark Road] and [Paper Moon]. And Cash's outlook is never so bleak as McCarthy's. This is not quite a terrific as [A Land More Kind Than Home], but it's pretty fine.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book ended up being a pleasant surprise. Based on reviews and my understanding of what it was about I expected a very dark, heavy, slow book. It ended up being a rather quick read that was not necessarily light reading but was a good solid book with an easy to follow storyline. A great book for a lazy weekend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Many reviewers here have given story descriptions so I wIll refrain. What I liked about this story was the ability to identify with various characters, which Cash builds well. As our families expand with children and grandchildren we have more opportunity to experience dysfunction. Some of the characters here represent that, and we can see ourselves in them. Experience with absentee parents, abandoned, fostered or adopted children place our hearts in the story. The father here had good intentions but poorly implemented decisions. The older daughter, through life experience, is common-sensical beyond her years and her protection of her sister feels real and natural. Telling the story with three different voices worked for Cash and was not disjointed as some other books with this trick seem. Not sure I loved the conclusion but overall a great read. Recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Synopsis/blurb............

    The critically acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller A Land More Kind Than Home—hailed as "a powerfully moving debut that reads as if Cormac McCarthy decided to rewrite Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird" (Richmond Times Dispatch)—returns with a resonant novel of love and atonement, blood and vengeance, set in western North Carolina, involving two young sisters, a wayward father, and an enemy determined to see him pay for his sins.

    After their mother's unexpected death, twelve-year-old Easter and her six-year-old sister Ruby are adjusting to life in foster care when their errant father, Wade, suddenly appears. Since Wade signed away his legal rights, the only way he can get his daughters back is to steal them away in the night.

    Brady Weller, the girls' court-appointed guardian, begins looking for Wade, and he quickly turns up unsettling information linking Wade to a recent armoured car heist, one with a whopping $14.5 million missing. But Brady Weller isn't the only one hunting the desperate father. Robert Pruitt, a shady and mercurial man nursing a years-old vendetta, is also determined to find Wade and claim his due.

    Narrated by a trio of alternating voices, This Dark Road to Mercy is a story about the indelible power of family and the primal desire to outrun a past that refuses to let go.
    -------------------------
    My take.......
    The author’s debut novel – A Land Less Kind Than Home – is something I have had on my TBR pile for around a year or so. I was hoping to get to it sometime last year, but hey, I was going to read a lot of things, but never did. When Cash’s second novel popped up on Net Galley, I couldn’t resist. I will probably re-visit the author’s debut for my USA state reading challenge.

    Cash kept my attention throughout. Two sisters, in foster care, fearful of adoption by their maternal grandparents in Alaska, who they have never seen. Wary of their father, who years after apparently abandoning them, comes to recognise his parental duty. A father who may just have committed the most stupid act of his feckless life and may have compounded it by stealing away with his daughters.

    This was absolutely fantastic, trying to see Wade connect and form an emotional bond with his daughters, all the while pursued by the authorities and a ruthless bounty hunter, with his own personal score to settle.
    Played out against a back-drop of an exciting climax to the 1998 baseball season when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa went head to head chasing a years old home run record. (I understand next to nothing about the game and I was hooked by this tangent!)

    Loss, family, abandonment, foster care, adoption, Alaska, teenage love, baseball, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, bank robbery, beach, the sea, amusement pitches, secrets, pursuit, death, guardianship, responsibility, forgiveness, love.............all figure to a greater or lesser degree.

    A wonderful, satisfying, scary but rewarding read to almost finish a great year’s reading with.

    5 from 5

    Accessed via Net Galley, I believe this is published later this month.


  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Random Thoughts Fast paced, intriguing with plenty of action to keep you hooked in Real, fallible characters. These never feel like caricatures, they feel so very real Easter and Ruby are memorable little girls and you cheer for them - you even develop a connection to their deadbeat dad Kind of sexist to say, but have a feeling this will appeal more to male readers Child narrators can often be unreliable, but not so in this case. Gives the story some much needed heart Reads like a movie Will appeal to baseball fans Author does a fabulous job of setting mood Oops forgot that one of the characters is a caricature - the hit-man. Guy didn't feel like a person, more a machine and his background story is meh & doesn't make sense towards his hatred for the Dad Author has obvious talent. Kept me reading even though I ad issues with the story. Will definitely be picking up his debut story Hopeful ending - like me those! Fabulous coverFavorite Quotes/Passages"Now, you tell me a child who survives something like that isn't going to do something great with his life. Or mine. That little boy's now living with his adopted family over in Belmont, about ten miles from the place where he should've died. He'll start first grade this year. There's a little bit of happiness out there in this world, and sometimes these kids are lucky enough to find it.""Those girls were taken from Gastonia, sandy," I said. "And I know they ain't worth millions of dollars, but they're worth something. And they deserve to be found before anything bad happens to them."3.25/5 Dewey'sHarperCollins sent this to me as part of our Indigo Insiders program and I am in no way required to read or review. Had to read though as I must decide which title is my favorite between Cory and Shannon's Picks (Will take bribes kids)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set against the late summer run of Mark Magwire and Sammy Sosa’s race to home run history, the pace of the story kind of mimics those hot southern days. It begins and ends as Easter and Ruby’s story, sisters in foster care who are for all practical purposes, orphans. Their father, Wade, appears to be well aware of their presence in the foster care system and shows up one night to take them away. What Cash really excels at is his descriptions of both the time period and the South. Places come alive with Easter’s accounts, and even her limited knowledge of her daddy’s past help round out his character. However, alternating narrators are neccesary or we would lose our overview of Wade and Pruitt’s game of cat and mouse. Although it took me awhile to get into the story, it seemed to play out just as it should by the end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Two little girls lost their mother to cancer and were put into a foster home in North Carolina. They seem to be doing fine until their father comes back and kidnaps them in the middle of the night. The girls learn more about their dad, who they haven't seen since they were little, as the novel uncomfortably rolls along. This book is a bit dark - not a "beach" read by any means, but I love the way Wiley Cash tells this story. In the end, you feel that these girls are much smarter and much better off than many little girls with much more given to them. Pick this up for a great read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received this book as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.Cash's debut got a lot of attention, so when I spotted his second novel in the Early Reviewers program, I entered to win. Why not? I was pleased to receive a copy. I've been reading a lot more adult fiction so far this year than in the past few years. I felt like this had slightly more of a teen feel than some of my other recent reads. It's also significantly shorter than most of the books I've been reading. It moves pretty quickly, and I liked the multiple perspectives, though I wish Pruitt's had been developed a bit more - I feel like I never got the full story behind his vendetta against Wade and his story ends the most ambiguously I think. I think Cash did a great job creating interesting characters and a unique story. I enjoyed it while I read, but I'm not sure the story will stick with me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Few novels pull me in as fast as Wiley Cash's "This Dark Road to Mercy." Easter and Ruby are placed in foster care upon the drug overdose of their mother. Their father had terminated his parental rights years earlier and their maternal grandparents in Alaska are working toward bringing the girls to their home. Their father, Wade, reappears in their lives, and the story begins. Cash has created deep characters that do not take pages upon pages to engage with. Easter is definitely wise beyond her years. I received "This Dark Road to Mercy" as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. To call this a "page-turner" does not do justice to tight and colorful storytelling of Cash. Well done.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY By Wiley CashStoking a fire that was uniquely lit by such a great first novel A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME would be a daunting task for any new author. Wiley Cash has been struck by lightning again with his second southern gothic tale. THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY is almost close to perfection. Narrated in three voices, it is the story of the plight of 12 year old Easter and her younger sister Ruby orphaned after they find their mother dead of an overdose. Fleeting memories of their daddy Wade playing for a minor league baseball team is all they have to comfort themselves. Now residing at a pseudo orphanage they await possibly to be adopted by grandparents they have never met. One day out of nowhere Wade reappears and convinces them to disappear with him. Following them is a man of distinction with an agenda of his own. With a passion for vengeance completely deeply rooted in a past that both men share. When Easter is telling her story one cannot notice how truly perfect her verbiage is as a twelve year old girl. One honestly believes every line, every description, every experience is witnessed through the eyes of a twelve year old. Most authors have not been able to master that ability.Layered with the flavor of the deep south and dark and brooding as this thriller intensifies THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY by Wiley Cash is a great read and worthy of the ranks of a great southern novel. Jim Munchel
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Readable but kind of caught in-between a suspense novel and wanting to be slightly more literary. A good story with some interesting characters...just not the jaw-dropping lit that was Cash's previous book.

Book preview

This Dark Road to Mercy - Wiley Cash

Easter Quillby

CHAPTER 1

Wade disappeared on us when I was nine years old, and then he showed up out of nowhere the year I turned twelve. By then I’d spent nearly three years listening to Mom blame him for everything from the lights getting turned off to me and Ruby not having new shoes to wear to school, and by the time he came back I’d already decided that he was the loser she’d always said he was. But it turns out he was much more than that. He was also a thief, and if I’d known what kind of people were looking for him I never would’ve let him take me and my little sister out of Gastonia, North Carolina, in the first place.

My earliest memories of Wade are from my mom taking me to the baseball stadium at Sims Field back before she died. She’d point to the field and say, There’s your daddy right there. I wasn’t any older than three or four, but I can still remember staring out at the infield where all the men looked the exact same in their uniforms, wondering how I would ever spot my daddy at a baseball game if he looked just like everybody else.

It’s funny to think about that now, because on the day he decided to come back for us I knew Wade as soon as I saw him sitting up in the bleachers down the first-base line. I’d always called him Wade because it never felt right to think of him as Dad or Daddy or anything else kids are supposed to call their parents. Parents who got called things like that did stuff for their kids that I couldn’t ever imagine Wade doing for us. All he’d ever done for me was give me a baby sister named Ruby and enough stories for my mom to spend the rest of her life telling, but she ended up dying just before I turned twelve, which was the only reason Wade came looking for me and Ruby in the first place.

I’d just made it to third base, and I had no problem acting like I didn’t see him sitting up there. My eyes raised themselves just enough to spy Ruby sitting on the bench, waiting on her turn to kick. She had her back to the bleachers and hadn’t seen him yet; she might not even have recognized him if she did.

To look at Ruby and Wade you wouldn’t even know they were related, but you could’ve said the same thing about me and her. Ruby looked just like Mom. She had long dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin even in the wintertime. I was just the opposite. My hair was strawberry blond and straight as a board, and my skin was more likely to burn and freckle than tan. Ruby was beautiful—she always had been. I looked just like Wade.

The bleachers were empty except for him, and I looked around the field and saw that none of the other kids had noticed him yet. Up the hill on my right, Mrs. Hannah and Mrs. Davis stood talking out on the school playground. Neither of them had seen him yet. But I didn’t have to wait long for somebody to spot him.

Look at that man up there, Selena said. She was playing third base and stood bent over with her hands on her knees. She was black just like most of the kids we stayed with after school and just about all the kids we lived with at the home. Her hair was fixed in thick braids with bands that had marbles on them; they clinked together when she moved her head. I’d wanted to ask her to fix my hair just like hers, but my hair was too thin to stay in braids, which was fine with me because Selena was taller than me and seemed a lot older than me too, and I was always too nervous to talk to her. Why’s he just sitting there watching us? she asked.

I didn’t know if she was talking to me or if she was just talking to herself out loud. I don’t know, I finally said. She looked over at me like she’d forgotten I was standing on base beside her. I said a little prayer that she wouldn’t mention nothing about me and Wade looking alike, and I found myself wishing again that I looked more like Mom, like Ruby.

A third grader named Greg stepped up to the plate, and even though something told me I shouldn’t do it, I ran toward home as soon as he kicked it. The ball didn’t do nothing but roll right back to the pitcher, and I got thrown out at the plate. I headed for the bench, but I kept my head down and didn’t look up at the bleachers. My face felt hot and I knew it had gone red, and I made myself believe I was embarrassed only because I’d been thrown out at home, not because it had all happened in front of Wade.

Ruby sat by herself on the end of the bench, swinging her feet back and forth. When I got closer, she moved that dark hair behind her ears and stuck out her hand and waited for me.

High five, she said. I sat down beside her without saying anything, and then I bent over and dusted off my shoes. Ruby left her hand hanging just above my knees. High five, she said again.

It’s only a high five when it’s up high.

All right, she said. Low five, then.

I gave her palm a little slap, and I looked up and saw Marcus watching me from the infield at second. He was wearing a white Cubs jersey with Sammy Sosa’s number and name on the back. The school year had just started and it was only the third Friday in August, but Mark McGwire already had fifty-one home runs to Sosa’s forty-eight. Me and Marcus were both rooting for Sosa to get to sixty-two and break Roger Maris’s record first. He smiled at me, but I looked away like I hadn’t seen him. It made me nervous, and I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and let it drop to my shoulders. When I looked up at Marcus again he was still smiling. I couldn’t help but smile a little bit too, but then I heard a voice whisper my name. Hey! it said. Easter!

It was Wade. He was leaning against the outside of the fence about halfway down to first base. Ruby looked up at him, stared for a second, and then looked at me. Wade smiled and waved us over. Is that—? she started to ask, but I stopped her before she could finish.

Wait here, I said, standing up from the bench.

Easter, Ruby said. She jumped down like she was fixing to follow me.

Wait here, I said again. She just stood there looking at me, and then she looked down the fence at Wade. I pointed to the bench and watched her climb back onto it. She crossed her arms like I’d scolded her. I’ll be right back, I said. I looked up the hill at Mrs. Hannah and Mrs. Davis. They still hadn’t seen him. I kept close to the fence and made my way down the baseline.

Wade had on an old blue Braves cap, and his hair, the same strawberry blond as mine, stuck out around his ears. Whiskers covered his face and ran down his neck, and drops of white paint were all over his green T-shirt and blue jeans. He lifted his hand where it sat on top of the fence and gave me a little wave. Hey, he said, smiling. White paint was all over his hands too.

Before I got to him, I stopped and crossed my arms and leaned my shoulder against the fence. Wade didn’t need to think I was happy to see him all of a sudden—that he could just show up after school one day and everything would be okay. To tell the truth, I didn’t even want to look at him.

Y’all trying to integrate the Negro League? he asked. He laughed like his joke should’ve made me laugh too, but it didn’t. He took his hands off the top of the fence and put them in his pockets.

I looked out at the field where the inning was just getting over. Marcus walked from the infield toward the bench on the other side of home plate, watching me the whole way. His face looked worried, and I wanted to smile and let him know that it was okay, that I knew the man talking to me, that I knew what I was doing, but I didn’t want him thinking I was giving him some kind of sign to come over and check on me. I didn’t want him meeting Wade. I turned back to Wade, my arms still crossed. Why are you here?

He sighed and raised his eyes and looked toward the outfield, and then he looked down at me. I heard about what happened to y’all’s mother, he said.

"You heard today?"

No, not today, he said. A while ago.

‘A while ago’ meaning you should’ve come to her funeral, what little bit of one she had? ‘A while ago’ meaning you should’ve come and checked on us before now, before they put us in a home?

No, he said. "Not that long ago."

Just long enough to do nothing.

Nothing until now.

Until now? Just saying that made me laugh. I unfolded my arms and turned to walk back to the bench where Ruby was waiting on me.

Hold on, Easter, he said. Talk to me for one minute—just one minute. He’d taken his hands out of his pockets and grabbed hold of the chain links in the fence.

I got to take the field, I said, and even as I said it I thought it sounded like something somebody might say in a movie right before something good or something bad happened to let you know whether the ending was going to be a happy one or not.

I just want to spend some time with you and your sister, he said.

You can’t, I said. It’s too late.

I know it seems too late, but y’all are all I’ve got.

Y’all are all I’ve got: I’d heard Mom say that about a million times, but she’d said it when she tucked us in at night or when she walked us to the bus stop in the morning. Sometimes she’d said it when I found her crying in our old house late at night. She’d pull me to her and hold me like she was trying to make me feel better even though she was the one crying, and she’d rock back and forth and tell me it was going to be okay. When she’d turn me loose, I’d leave her room and get back in bed, where I’d touch my nightgown and feel where it was wet with her tears. I’d look over at Ruby where she slept, and I’d hear Mom’s voice say it again: Y’all are all I’ve got. I hated to see Mom cry, but I always knew she meant what she said. I didn’t know what Wade meant when he said it; I didn’t think he knew what he meant either.

"You don’t got us anymore, I said. You gave us up. I’ve seen the paper you signed that says it; that’s why we’re at a home, Wade."

He looked away from me when I called him by his name. Then he blinked his eyes real slow. I know, he said, and I’m sorry. But that don’t mean we can’t spend time together.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that the inning had already started and Jasmine had taken my place at shortstop. Great, I said. I lost my spot. I turned back to Wade. What do you think we’re supposed to spend time doing?

Well, he said, I don’t know. Your baserunning could use a little work. He stepped away from the fence and rubbed a hand down each arm, and then he touched both his ears and then the tip of his nose. I was over here trying to help you, but I guess you didn’t see me. He started rubbing his hands down his arms again.

What are you doing?

I’m giving you a sign, he said. I’m telling you to stay on base, to stay right where you are. Wasn’t no way that scrawny kid was kicking it out of the infield. I still know the game, Easter. I could come check y’all out one day and we could spend a little time out here on the field, tossing a baseball around, fielding grounders. He smiled when he said it like he thought it was the best idea anybody’d ever had.

‘Check us out’? I said. Like a library book?

No, not like a library book. I just mean I’d come and pick you up—spend the day with you and Ruby.

You can’t do that, I said.

Why not?

Because it ain’t in the rules. You can’t just come and get us.

What kind of place are y’all in? he asked.

A home for at-risk youth, Ruby’s voice said. I looked to my right and saw her standing beside me, so close that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t felt her body up against mine. She stared up at Wade like she was afraid of him, like he might be able to climb right through the fence and pull her back through the chain links to the other side.

I told you to stay over there, I said. My hip nudged her back toward the bench, but she didn’t move, and she didn’t take her eyes off Wade.

At-risk youth? Wade said. What are y’all at risk of? Is this the kind of place where kids freak out and hurt each other?

That ain’t what it’s called, I said. That’s something she’s heard kids at school say. It’s just a foster home.

Great, he said. He pushed away from the fence and put his hands on his hips. I hope you know y’all ain’t going to be in there long. Somebody’s going to come and get you—probably adopt both of you together because you’re sisters. You’ll probably be the next ones to go.

How do you know? I asked.

Because, he said, his voice sounding like I should already know the answer. He looked up at the rest of the kids on the field, and then he looked back down at me. Y’all are white.

I heard somebody calling my name, and I turned and looked up the hill, where Mrs. Davis was coming down toward us, moving faster than she would’ve been walking if everything was normal. When she saw me looking at her she waved her arms above her head and hollered my name again. Mrs. Hannah had stayed up on the playground, but she was closer to the school than she’d been before, and I could tell she was watching us and waiting to see what would happen once Mrs. Davis made it down to the field. They’re probably going to call the police, I said.

Yeah? Wade said, smiling. For talking to your own daddy?

They don’t know who you are, I said. Then I looked down at Ruby. We don’t either. I took her hand and walked back to the bench. I didn’t look back, but I could tell by the way she was walking that Ruby’s head was turned so she could stare at Wade. Come on, I said, giving her hand a good yank so she’d walk faster.

Mrs. Davis had made it to the bottom of the hill by the time we got back to the bench and sat down. She walked inside the fence and squatted down in front of me and Ruby. She had light brown skin and short curly hair and wore thick glasses. Who was that man y’all were talking to? she asked.

I looked down to where Wade had been standing at the fence, but he was gone. I don’t know him, I said. I put my hand on Ruby’s knee. Neither one of us do.

CHAPTER 2

Are you sure it was him?" Ruby asked.

Of course I’m sure, I said. That was about the tenth time she’d asked me that same question since we’d seen Wade that afternoon. It was time for bed, but the lights were still on in our room. Out in the hallway, a couple of kids walked by on their way to the bathroom.

Ruby lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She’d put her hands behind her head, and I could see that she’d crossed her ankles under her comforter. I don’t know, she said. That’s just not how I remember him looking.

That’s because you were four years old the last time you saw him, I said. And we never had any pictures of him laying around to remind you of what he looked like.

She rolled over to her side and propped her head on her left hand, and she looked across the bedroom to where I was sitting on top of my bed and leaning against the wall, waiting to hear him tap on the window beside me, even though I knew he wouldn’t be out there for another couple hours. We don’t have any pictures of Mom either, she said.

I know, I said, but I’m going to get us some soon.

From where? she asked.

From her mom and dad, I said. I’m going to write them in Alaska once me and you get our own place. And I’m going to ask them to send us all Mom’s old clothes and toys and all the pictures they’ve got of her—all the stuff she left up there.

Maybe we should just go live with them, she said. Maybe we’d like it.

No, Ruby, we wouldn’t.

How do you know? she asked.

Because, I said, we don’t know them, and they don’t know us. Why would they want two girls they’ve never met to come and live with them? Who’d want that?

I don’t know, she said. But maybe they have a room that’s got all her old stuff in it, and maybe we’d love them once we met them; maybe they’d love us too. Maybe we’d want to stay. I didn’t say anything. We’d had this talk before, and I hoped she was finished asking those kinds of questions, at least for tonight.

She lay back down on her bed. She was quiet but her eyes were still open, and I could tell she was thinking about something. I hope you can get some pictures of Mom soon, she said. I can’t even remember her.

Bull-honky you can’t, I said. It’s only been three months.

But I just can’t picture her, she said. I swear. I thought about that for a second, and then I thought about how Ruby was only six years old and how three months must seem like a pretty good bit of life to her.

It’s okay, I said. It’s been a while. But she’ll come back to you.

I hope, Ruby said.

She will, I said. Go to sleep. I reached out and clicked off the lamp that sat on the little table between our beds, and then I rested my back against the wall. I looked through the dark room toward Ruby’s bed.

You waiting on him? she asked.

Yes, I said.

Do you think he’ll come tonight?

I do, I said. Go to sleep.

I hated it when Ruby talked about not being able to remember Mom, but sometimes I hated that I could remember her so good. Whenever I thought about the day I found her, it seemed like I was another person, like another person with a life other than mine had told me about it. But the telling seemed so real that it was hard to pretend that I’d just heard about it from somebody else. I’ll never be able to forget that it was me who found her, even though I’ve spent plenty of time wishing it hadn’t been.

Mom always said that she’d named us what she’d named us because those were her favorite things: Easter was her favorite holiday and rubies were her favorite jewels. Me and Ruby used to ask Mom all the time what her other favorite things were, and we’d pretend those things were our names instead. She’d told us one time that her favorite kind of dog was a Boston terrier and that her favorite color was purple. And when it came to music, she didn’t hardly listen to nothing but Journey, so I figured that had to be her favorite band. So that’s what me and Ruby started calling ourselves; I was Boston Terrier, and she was Purple Journey. Boston Terrier: I’ll admit it sounds silly when you first hear it, but if you split it up into a first name and a last name I think it sounds kind of pretty—fancy and a little bit dangerous, like the name of a woman in an action movie the hero can’t quite trust but falls in love with anyway. It seems crazy to say we played make-believe like that now, but we used those names so much they almost became real, and sometimes I wanted to call Ruby Purple even when we weren’t playing. We’d already promised each other that if we ended up having to run away from the home to keep from being split up then that’s who we’d become. We’d be Boston Terrier and Purple Journey for the rest of our lives. No one would ever know we’d been somebody else back in Gastonia.

It’s easier for me to imagine Boston Terrier and Purple Journey getting off that school bus and walking past Lineberger Park on their way home to a too-quiet house. It’s easier for me to picture a girl with a pretty name like that finding Mom and him lying across the bed in her room, both of them passed out. I don’t know what his real name was, but he called himself Calico. When I found them he was down near the foot of the bed with his feet hanging off on to the floor; he had on a black T-shirt and camouflage shorts. Mom had her head resting on a pillow and looked like she just hadn’t woke up yet; she wasn’t wearing nothing but a pair of blue underwear and a big white T-shirt that had a picture of Tweety Bird on it.

I’d gone into Mom’s room by myself, but I heard Ruby in the kitchen, opening and closing the refrigerator and looking through the cabinets for something to eat. I closed Mom’s door and locked it behind me, and then I walked over to the bed and stared at her chest, hoping and praying to see it move up and down with her breathing. But I wasn’t sure if I could see anything or not. Calico was breathing like he was asleep, and I reached out and touched his leg with my shoe.

Calico, I whispered. He didn’t move, and I touched his leg again. Calico, I said just a little bit louder.

His eyelids fluttered. I reached out and poked his knee with my finger. When his eyes finally opened he just laid there staring up at the ceiling. I watched him for a second, and then I whispered his name again.

His head popped up, and he looked down the bed at me. His hair was long and wild and stood up everywhere. He blinked his eyes real slow like he couldn’t quite see me, and then he sat up on his elbows and looked around. When he looked over at Mom he just stared at her like he couldn’t quite remember who she was or how she’d come to be lying there beside him. He looked at me again, and I reckon he finally realized who Mom was and that I was her daughter.

Hey, he said, jumping up from the bed as fast as he could. We didn’t hear y’all come in. He tried to smile at me, and then he looked back at Mom where she was still lying with her eyes closed.

Calico squeezed past me and walked up alongside the bed and bent down and looked at Mom up close. Corinne, he whispered. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. Corinne, he said again. Wake up, girl. He looked up at me and gave me a half smile. She’s okay, he said. She’s just sleeping.

There were all kinds of different pills on Mom’s bedside table, and Calico moved them around with his finger like he was looking for one in particular. Then he gathered them all up and dropped them into a little white medicine bottle and screwed the lid on. There were a couple of cans of beer on the table too. The first one he picked up must’ve been empty because he set it back down. But he picked up the other one and finished it in one long drink.

The bed squeaked when he leaned his knees against it and bent over Mom again and put his fingers on her neck. He closed his eyes like he was concentrating, and then he stood up straight and walked toward the foot of the bed and squeezed by me again before unlocking the bedroom door. His hand stayed on the knob like he didn’t want to let it go.

Listen, Calico said. I’m going to go see about getting somebody to check on your mom. Y’all just wait here, and I’ll be right back. Okay? Y’all just wait here. He opened the door, and I watched him walk into the hall. He opened the front door and closed it behind him, and I heard his shoes going down the steps. For some reason, and I can’t tell you why, I imagined him running once he got to the bottom of those steps, and I knew he wasn’t running for help.

I sat down beside Mom on the edge of the mattress. My fingers touched her throat where Calico had touched her, and I closed my eyes just like he did. After a few seconds I could just barely feel her pulse, and I knew it meant she was still alive and that she’d be okay and it didn’t matter whether Calico kept his word or not. The floorboards squeaked, and I looked up and saw Ruby in the doorway. She’d already kicked off her shoes in the living room and was standing there in her socks. A little smear of peanut butter was on her cheek. What’s wrong with Mom? she asked.

She’s sick, I said, pulling the covers up around her so Ruby couldn’t get a good look at her. "But

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