The Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description: The critically-acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller A Land More Kind Than Home returns with a resonant novel of love and atonement, blood and vengeance, involving two young sisters, a wayward father, and an enemy determined to see him pay for his sins

When their mother dies unexpectedly, twelve-year-old Easter and her six-year-old sister Ruby are shuffled into the foster care system in Gastonia, North Carolina, a town not far from the Appalachian mountains. But just as they settle into their new life, their errant father, Wade, an ex-minor league baseball player whom they haven't seen in years, suddenly appears and wants to spend more time with them. Unfortunately, Wade has signed away legal rights to his daughters, and the only way he can get Easter and Ruby back is to steal them away in the middle of 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.

My thoughts: I could summarize the story for you but that is not why I loved the book. It's the same reason I loved his first book. It's the way the author writes. I can't pinpoint it but I think he writes the way he thinks which is as natural to him as breathing. It's not contrived or pompous. It's an interesting story that is told through the perspective of a 12 year old girl named Easter, a cold blooded ex con named Pruitt, and a middle aged guardian ad lidem with personal regrets who takes a personal approach to keeping Easter and Ruby safe.

Each perspective is told with distinction and believability. When Easter is talking to the reader, I believe I am listening to a 12 year old girl's thoughts. Same with the other two but particularly Easter. The book was as easy to read and follow as watching a movie. The author does not try to impress by throwing in poetry or referring to Faust or Byron. He uses baseball and the Maguire/Sosa summer as the setting. The story tells itself by easily getting into the thoughts and observations of the characters. It simply flowed just right.