Synopsis: What would you do for someone you love? Would you lie? Would you leave? Would you kill? These are just some of the questions confronting the characters in Mercy, which follows the path of two cousins driven to extremes by the power of love.

Cameron MacDonald has spent his life guided by duty. As the police chief of a small Massachusetts town that has been home to generations of his Scottish clan, he is bound to the town’s residents by blood and honor. Yet when his cousin Jamie arrives at the police station with the body of his wife and the bald confession that he’s killed her, Cam immediately places him under arrest.

The situation isn’t as clear to Cam’s wife, Allie. While she is devoted to her husband, she finds herself siding against Cam, seduced by the picture James paints of a man so in love with a woman that he’d grant all her wishes… even the one that meant taking her life.

Into this charged atmosphere drifts Mia, a new assistant at Allie’s floral shop, for whom Cam feels an instant and inexplicable attraction. While he aids the prosecution in preparing the case against Jamie, who killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy, Cam finds himself betraying his own wife.

Woven tight with passion and a fast-paced plot, Mercy explores some of today’s most highly charged emotional and ethical issues as it draws toward its stunning conclusion. When you love someone, where do you cross the line of moral obligation? And how can you commonly define love and devotion to begin with? Long after you have turned the last page, you’ll still be thinking about this rich novel, as well as questioning your own beliefs about love and loyalty.

Review: What a page turner!

Really, there was two sub plots happening throughout this book. You have Jamie MacDonald who has murdered his wife who was terminally ill. This raises so many issues when it comes to euthanasia, and was Jamie simply being humane and helping to end his wife’s pain? Or was he a cold blooded killer?

The other sub plot in this book was Cam cheating on his wife Allie with her own employee Mia. I felt probably closer to this plot in the book. I think if you’ve ever been cheated on or in some way emotionally betrayed you would have felt the anger I felt towards Cam and Mia. The fact that Jodi Picoult has developed these characters so perfectly to the point they evoke anger out of me means a job well done!

I can see why so many book clubs use Jodi Picoult books… there is always so many issues to discuss and consider after reading her books. This was such an emotional book for me, for a number of reasons. Such an amazing read.

Rating: 5 out of 5