This Dark Road to Mercy audiobook

There is a lot of used-to-be in Wiley Cash’s sophomore novel, This Dark Road to Mercy. Wade Chesterfield used to be a baseball player, used to be a husband and used to be a father. But he went oh-for three and now, as a guy who used to hang drywall and is on the run, he is mostly a crook. Bobby Pruitt had been a ballplayer too, but his damaged youth led him in a dark direction, and now he is an enforcer for a local thug. He would like to apply his professional skills to Wade, not only in service of his current employer, but as personal payback for something Wade had done to him on the ballfield. He presents a clear and present danger not only to Wade but to his family.Wiley Cash - image from Hoover LibraryBrady Weller used to be a police detective, but after he was involved in an event that left a boy dead, he became an installer of home security systems, working for his brother-in-law. There is more going on with Brady, though. He is also a court-appointed guardian to children in need of such protection in Gastonia, North Carolina. This includes two young girls.Easter Quillby hasn’t been around long enough yet to have much in her rear-view. But more than most pre-teens. Wade had surrendered custody of her and her little sister, Ruby, a few years back, and mom died recently of a drug overdose. Have a nice childhood. She and Ruby live in a state-run orphanage. Writing in the voice of a child has its risks and rewards. Children often lack the power of reflection that adults possess, so their narratives can charge forward without the breaks of reflection or evaluation. Adults are more cautious, especially about what they divulge. If a child is an unreliable narrator it’s probably because he or she doesn’t fully understand what he or she is talking about. If an adult is an unreliable narrator then it means that he or she is hiding something. But child narrators also offer a challenge in terms of their emotional make-up. Their reactions to tragedies great and small are often displayed in similar ways. A young child’s reaction to the death of a pet can be similar to the reaction to the death of a family member. With that in mind, you have to be very careful about how you portray a child’s emotional scale. You want the reader to be able to intuit its depth even if the child’s reaction doesn’t reflect it. - from the Crime Fiction Lovers interviewEaster, Brady, and Pruitt are the three alternating narrators through whose eyes we see the events in Cash’s tale. We see Wade mostly through Easter’s eyes. The action of the novel consists of Wade re-entering the girls’ lives after years of absence, snatching his daughters to join him as he flees dark elements in Gastonia, Pruitt pursuing Wade do him harm, and Brady trying to protect the girls. There are white-knuckle moments in this chase. One of the true strengths of Wiley Cash’s debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, was his portrayal of children. That gift is manifest in full power here. Easter certainly reminds one of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, and the usual Stephen King pre-ad heroes and heroines. And with a name like Easter you’ve gotta figure she is gonna be reborn someway, somehow. Name a girl Ruby and I expect most of us might think of slippers and “There’s no place like home.” That would make sense here, for a girl who is hoping to have a family again. But it is Easter who will hold your attention and your affection. When there is danger afoot you will really, really want for Easter to be ok. She is not only a tough and decent kid, she is a very well-drawn one, and the best thing about this bookThere are several threads (maybe red stitching?) running through The Dark Road…. Baseball figures large. Page 1 introduces Easter on a ballfield. Wade was a professional player, as was Pruitt. And when baseball is in play, one need not look too far to bring in the element of steroids. Wade and Pruitt have a history with them, and one of them still imbibes. And speaking of steroids, the time is 1998, and McGwire and Sosa are engaged in the most famous ‘roid-fueled home run derby of our age. The contest is large in the consciousness of these characters, and a subject of widespread daily conversation in the environments they inhabit. The heavy-hitters’ contest is even used in a very Hitchcockian way to provide a dramatic backdrop for the climax. The Race is OnAnother seam here is parenting. Wade is not a complete screw-up. He may not have made the best choices, and he may not be, exactly, the best person, but he does love his kids, and wants to be a father to them. But abandoning them for several years and snatching them on his way out of town was probably not what a good parent might do. Pruitt’s upbringing comes in for some inspection as well. And Brady copes with having a surly teenager he only gets to see some of the time. Finally, atonement comes in for a look. Wade may be a criminal, but he does want to make up for having left his children. He really wants to make a better life for them. Brady wants to atone for his part in the fatal accident, and does so by acting to protect vulnerable children. Pruitt is more interested in payback than atonement.Another item you might keep an eye out for is the notion of what’s in a name. 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…It seems crazy to say we played make-believe like that now, but we used those names so much they almost became real. Easter has to contend with a real-world decision concerning her name, and there is at least one adult in the story with a temporary alias, and another who has adopted a new name permanently. Finally, this is a road trip, (it is even in the title) and that usually means a journey of self-discovery. The girls’ fondness for the computer game Oregon Trail foreshadows their later journey with Wade. What will these characters discover, how will they change, grow or wilt on this trip? A Catcher in the Rye mention does let us know there is some of coming of age going on. The girls are looking for a family. Pruitt is looking for revenge and Brady is looking for redemption. Wade is looking for some sort of gateway to a Promised Land. ”Oklahoma, Texas? California?” His eyes got bigger as he listed the names. “We could keep going clear on to the Pacific Ocean if we wanted to.”“Then what?” I asked. “We can’t live in this car forever.”“I don’t know,” Wade said again. “I guess that’s why they call it an adventure.” This is an engaging and fast-paced story. A pretty fair read. I do have some gripes of course. While the attempt for a North by Northwest moment was ambitious, it was not fully realized. Of course by then you have already enjoyed 95 percent of the book so it is not a huge issue. I still read Stephen King and I usually do not much care for his endings either. I did feel that some decisions made by characters here were stage-managed a bit too much. Why such and like has to take place here and then might fit into the author’s desire for the most dramatic possible setting, but did not make all that much sense to me as something the characters would actually do. There are also some convenient events that are inserted into the story to prepare one for the finale. It seemed to me that these were artificial and a bit jarring. Fine, whatever. It’s still a pretty good read, and those elements might not make your Spidey senses tingle the way they did mine. This Dark Road to Mercy is indeed dark, but illuminated. There is plenty of road to contrast with a desire for home, and sufficient dollops of mercy to soothe sundry pains. This road is one worth taking.Review first posted - January 28, 2014Publication - January 14, 2014=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pagesInterview in Crime Fiction Lovers - this is the source of the writer’s comments on writing kids quoted in the review

Wiley Cash has shown once again that he is a writer I will continue to follow. I have to admit that I didn't feel the grip of the writing quite as much as I did with A Land More Kind Than Home; this one was a little less edgy . But I was so taken with one of the narrators, 12 year Easter. It's impressive how Cash gets inside the head of this young girl. I fell in love with the precocious Easter and her sweet younger sister Ruby. They've had sad little lives right from the beginning . It's heartbreaking when first introduced to them . Living with their drug addicted mother, abandoned by their father , Easter tells this is how they lived : "They'd see that we didn't have any furniture except for a plastic deck chair and two folding chairs that you might take to the beach. And they'd see that me and Ruby didn't have beds but just slept on mattresses on the floor that had mismatched sheets on them . They'd know that I'd called them from the corner store because we didn't have a phone and they'd see that even if we'd had food we didn't have no clean plates to eat from. I stood there looking all around that kitchens it ha knot in my throat and an empty stomach, and I swear I could hear flies buzzing in just about every windowpane in that house. I just wanted to leave it all behind ." (P25 kindle version) With that I had a knot in my throat as well for the rest of the book . All I wanted was the best for these children and I wasn't always sure what that would be. When their wayward father returns to get back his daughters , I felt a twinge of hope for them even though he has made poor choices , he seemed to love his daughters. The question is - is that enough? There are multiple narrators here as in his first novel . Besides Easter , there is Brady Weller , their court appointed legal guardian and Pruitt , the personification of evil as we would expect there to be in this type of novel . All of our narrators are in some way seeking and searching for something. Easter is seeking safety and a good life for her and her sister Ruby . Pruitt is seeking revenge against Wade , who injured him long years ago when they were minor league baseball players. Brady Weller is seeking redemption , a disgraced police detective, coming to terms with his past and his daughter . Easter is my favorite by far , but it is through all three of these narratives that we learn about not just their pasts , but Wade's. Wade , though not a narrator also seems to be seeking redemption for his past as a rotten dad and the mistakes he's made . He says he wants a normal life and we know that is what Easter hopes for too . But I kept questioning whether he could give them that .I felt separated from Easter and Ruby by the other narratives and I kept wanting it to go back to Easter's perspective. A child narrator may not always be a reliable one but I felt Easter had a better handle on what was happening around her than anyone else in the novel. But does a twelve year old truly know what is best for them ? Regarding the baseball throughout , I definitely enjoyed reading about the Sousa - McGuire rivalry, and I thought it connected Wade and the girls but I kept wondering what this meant in terms of the story as a whole . Who better to explain than Cash himself in an NPR interview.2/2/14 :"That's kind of an interesting juxtaposition. I think at first glance it would seem as if the story has nothing to do with baseball. But, you know, the home run race is something that came during a particularly cynical time in American political history.In 1998, we had a lot of scandal in D.C. But at night, we'd all turn on the television and we'd sit down as a family and we'd watch these two American heroes try to break this famous record, and it really brought us all together. But now we look back and we realize that that was fiction, that none of that was true.And so that's kind of what this novel is about: It's looking back at things that we once believed to be true — whether it's about our families or about ourselves or about our national obsessions — and asking ourselves, "Am I believing correctly? Am I seeing this with clear ?"It's a story of growing up much too quickly under difficult circumstances, a story of people seeking redemption, about making the right decisions even if they aren't the easiest. Cash's inspirations , he tells us in a note were from multiple sources but the one that touched me the most was the young girls that he knew as a young boy . Perhaps my expectations were too high after reading his first novel and maybe I would have given it 5 stars had I read this first . Definitely recommended!

4.5 stars! This was an addictive, quick and suspenseful read. I flew through this book! The storyline grabbed me immediately as I fell in love with the first narrator, 12-year-old Easter Quillby. She and her sister, 9-year-old Ruby Quillby, are living together in foster care after the death of their unstable mother. They have lived a rough and unsteady life up to this point with an unreliable mother, inappropriate father figures, dirty housing and insufficient nourishment. My heart immediately opened up and made room for these two little girls. There are several characters involved in this storyline including their biological father Wade, who signed off on his parental rights years prior. I enjoyed all character perspectives and felt completely immersed into the plot from all angles. I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it. I look forward to reading more from this author!This was another Traveling Sister Read which involved lots of great discussion. We had varying thoughts on this gritty and touching story.

Twelve-year-old Easter Quilby and six-year-old Ruby Quilby have lived in a foster home in Gastonia, North Carolina since their mother died from a drug overdose. Their father, Wade Chesterfield - an unsuccessful former minor league baseball player - had unwillingly given up parental rights and longs to get his daughters back. So when Wade gets the chance he robs a gangster of money from an armored truck heist.Wade then sneaks his daughters out of the foster home, and runs off with them. The story is told from three points of view: Easter Quilby, a mature wry young lady who sees things as they are; Bobby Pruitt, a vengeful bouncer/hit man hired to get the money back; and Brady Weller, former cop and guardian ad litem for the girls who's determined to bring them home. In the background of the story is the 1998 rivalry between major league baseball players Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa, who are both trying to break the home run record. Mark McGuireSammy SosaOn the road, Wade hustles to evade Pruitt as he takes the girls around the country. Unfortunately Pruitt is hot on their heels and will stop at nothing - not even murder - to accomplish his mission. And Brady, struggling with his own demons, is chasing them all. Though suspenseful and dark, the story is also warm and touching. Good book.You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

This was another excellent Traveling Sister read with Brenda, Lindsay, and PorshaJo. The Sister's blog with reviews to this and others can be found here:https://twogirlslostinacouleereading....The story is narrated by 3 characters: Easter, Brady, and Pruitt. Easter and her sister Ruby are left wards of the state after their mother dies from a drug overdose. The girls quickly captured my heart. Wiley knocked it out of the ballpark with his characterization of Easter. She’s precocious and wise beyond her years and such a good caretaker and protector to Ruby. I loved her chapters. Wade is their deadbeat dad who abandoned the family years ago after giving up his parental rights. The girls are in an orphanage after their mother’s death until their wayward father whisks them away and goes on the run. He not only took the girls illegally but he's also on the run due to money he stole. Brady is the girls’ court appointed guardian, an ex-cop, who is looking for redemption from his past by rescuing the girls. The third narrator is Pruitt, the psycho hitman hired to find Wade and the money. Pruitt also has his own personal vendetta against Wade. The story is told against the backdrop of the 1998 baseball season when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire seek to break the home run record. I'm a Cardinals fan, enjoy an occasional baseball game and well remember that season, but it’s not my favorite thing to read about so I didn’t really connect with that aspect of the story. Although, parts of the story are located in St Louis, a city I love and am very familiar with so I did enjoy that.Wade is not a narrator but we learn his story through the other narrators. Cash was able to pull off a minor miracle by making Wade a sympathetic character. As I read, I found myself rooting for him. He really loved his daughters and wanted redemption from his past failures as a father. Their bond was strong and I loved reading about their relationship. He made many mistakes but wanted to change and do right by them. My take-away message was what looks like crappy uncaring parenting on paper doesn't mean there isn't a deep love for their children and a desire to be a good mother/father. But love alone isn’t enough. There are so many factors that can and do work against them. Wade didn't have the skills, made bad choices, and got caught up in a bad lifestyle. Although this sounds like a manhunt story, and it is, this isn't an edge-of-your seat thriller and reads more like a family drama. The story was often slow which frustrated me at first, but after finishing it and discussing it, I think it is a book to read thoughtfully by looking at the underlying messages within the story. The title of the book is perfect.I initially gave the book 3 stars but after letting it marinate for a few days and discussing it further with the group I bumped it up to 4 stars.Having just recently read and enjoyed The Last Ballad, Wiley Cash has quickly become for me an author to watch.

I'll get my rant out of the way: I totally hate(d) the cover and the title of this book. Sure, the photo's beautiful, but what's it trying to convey? Bleak rural America? Wiley Cash's North Carolina? The Great Depression? There ain't no telling. And that pseudo-poetic title, This Dark Road to Mercy, so wordy, unspecific, and unmemorable, I'll be forever doomed to refer to this as "Wiley Cash's Second Novel" as there's no way my peabrain's gonna cull that title from the recesses of my addled brain. Just, what were they thinking? It was like publisher HarperCollins and Cash intentionally made this as cover as vague as possible. Despite my remembering solid reviews of this and "Wiley Cash's Debut Novel" (equally unmemorable title and cover) I made some kind of subconscious decision to block Cash from my awareness, perceiving the covers and faux poetry as a blatant attempt to *ahem* cash in on fellow North Carolinian novelist Ron Rash's success. Yeah, that was some stinkin' thinkin' right there.Messrs.Cash and Rash, though both hail from and write about the Tar Heel State, and both accomplished novelists, couldn't be any more different. Where Rash relies heavily on poetics and a splash of almost-magical realism to paint his oft grim portraits, Cash (if this novel is an accurate indicator) seems to adhere to a much more straightforward method of storytelling, free from stylistic flourish. He seems to cotton to the idea that there's simply no substitute for sticking close to a great idea and letting his characters (via first-person narration) convey the tension and sense of place.In this (extremely lean 230 page) novel, set in Gastonia, NC (a largish suburb of Charlotte, kinda nothing resembling the front cover, really), Cash's three narrators (12 year-old Easter Quillby, Brady Weller {a court-appointed guardian ad litem for sisters Easter and Ruby after their mother died and left them wards of the state}, and Pruitt {a stop-at-nothing hitman with the sisters' good-for-nothing father Wade in his crosshairs}) weave an edge-of-your-seat, totally taut thriller that I (unlike its unmemorable title) am not likely to forget anytime soon.

Having just finished the author's first book, A Land More Kind Than Home, I had really high expectations for this one, but This Dark Road to Mercy fell a little short. While I did enjoy the story - especially told from Easter's point of view, I found my mind wandering through the other two points of view at times. I loved the two sisters, and was even fond of their father who had kidnapped them. I even shed a few tears at the end. Part of my disappointment in the book could have been that this was my first audiobook and I didn't really like the voice of one of the narrators (just to be fair). Like Cash's first book, he evokes all the senses with his descriptive writing. I look forward to more from him!3.75 stars

Sad, check.Family, check.Bad guys, check.Baseball, check.Good guys, check.Motherhood, check.Fatherhood, check.Foster home, check.Stolen money, check.Stole my heart, check.Great characters, check.Fantastic storyline, check.Read it and grateful I have because it might be the best book I'll read all year.