DYING FOR MERCY
Mary Jane Clark
William Morrow
Suspense
ISBN: 9780061286117
Eliza Blake is the host of the morning television show “KEY to America.” She and her crew of investigative reporters are known for their curiosity and ability to uncover mysteries. Eliza has been invited to an exclusive and unusual party at the home of her wealthy and well-known friends Valentina and Innis Wheelock, who live in an upscale part of town called Tuxedo Park. The party is designed to celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Innis’s favorite saint.
Towards the end of the evening, Innis is found dead in the conservatory, the victim of an apparent suicide. But he didn’t just kill himself; he used a most gruesome method to end his life. He pierced his hands, his feet and his sides with a knife, in the same spots Jesus’ body was pierced during the crucifixion and in the same manner St. Francis of Assisi was marked, in a pattern known as stigmata.
Before killing himself, Innis has a conversation with Eliza. He tells her, “I’ve hurt many people, damaged them, ruined them along the way. Now it’s too late to take those things back.” When Eliza asks him what he means and why he’s telling her this, he answers, “You care about right and wrong. And, you’ll do what needs to be done.” Just a few hours later, Innis’s lifeless body is discovered. There’s apparently no murder to be solved as it is quite clear he committed suicide. But what was the reason? Why did he choose such an unusual method for doing so? And why did he tell Eliza that she would “do what needs to be done”?
Innis was a great lover of puzzles, and enjoyed creating and solving them. After his last visit to Rome, he had his house completely remodeled in a markedly Roman style, with fountains, porticos and an aviary added to enhance the Greek theme, and called it Pentimento. Hidden in various locations throughout the house are clues to the reason for his suicide. The first one is discovered after a close inspection of the death scene.
As Eliza and her friends solve the puzzles, they find secrets to Innis’s past that reveal more details about the tragedy. But while they are doing this, the story then becomes a murder mystery, as several people are killed by someone who is determined that the truth never be revealed.
DYING FOR MERCY is the third book by Mary Jane Clark to feature Eliza Blake as the lead character (the previous two are WHEN DAY BREAKS and IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT). She wisely chooses the historic setting of Tuxedo Park, New York, as the centerpiece for her latest thriller --- and she knows of what she writes: “I grew up not far from Tuxedo Park. As kids, we would drive by the entrance and I wondered what was behind the security walls. I knew there was wealth involved, but I didn’t know much else. Then, a few years ago, I was invited to speak at a luncheon at the Tuxedo Club. What I saw inside the park gates took my breath away.”
In Tuxedo Park the rich and famous live side by side with the not so rich and famous. Here you can find both ornate mansions and modest houses, a clubhouse (to which many of the not so rich and famous wish they belonged), a lake, and lonely countryside lanes. Clark uses this landscape very effectively in her telling of the story and in her characters’ unraveling of the clues.
DYING FOR MERCY is a well-researched and engrossing suspense thriller bound to make numerous appearances on bestseller lists. This was my first Eliza Blake novel, and I’m looking forward to more adventures featuring this smart, tough protagonist.
--- Reviewed by Christine M. Irvin
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