MERCY.

The seventh book read for my 2015 Take Control Of Your TBR Pile challenge.

MERCY by JODI PICOULT.

SOURCE: Ex-library stock.

BACK COVER BLURB: When Jamie Macdonald killed his wife, he knew he might face a life sentence. But what was life in a world without Maggie?

The case divides the small town of Wheelock. Jamie has confessed to pre-meditated murder - Murder One. For Police Chief Cameron Macdonald, there's no question this man should be arrested and tried.

But for Cameron's wife Allie, it's not so clear-cut. She loves her husband more than life itself. If he was suffering and asked for her help to die, she knows she would do anything for him. Now, for the first time in their marriage, she finds herself set against Cam, siding with Jamie and wondering if what he says is right: that in a relationship, there's always one who loves more.

FIRST SENTENCE {Prologue}: When she had packed all the artifacts that made up their personal history into liquor store boxes, the house became strictly a feminine place.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 230}: So it wasn't the things he was saying that morning that had affected her, but the way he looked when he said them. He had been staring at Allie as if he really did not like her.

MY THOUGHTS: Expecting to find Jodi Picoult at her thought provoking best, Mercy a real ethical dilemma of a read, I was bitterly disappointed to find that the premeditated murder/mercy killing aspect was very much a secondary consideration. The main aspect of the story revolving around 'clan chief' and head of police Cameron Macdonald and his relationship with the two women in his life, 'Stepford Wife' like wife Allie and the sinister newcomer Mia.

However putting aside that the book was other than I expected and reviewing it for what it was. 

With an implausible and inconsistent plot that jumped from one event to another and unremarkable characters I'm afraid it still fell well short of a novel that I enjoyed. For goodness sake even Cameron and Jamie's last name could not be agreed upon. Macdonald on the back cover, MacDonald in the book itself. Perhaps only a small, inconsequential detail but nevertheless one I'd expect to be got right.

An altogether odd read. I learnt more about flower arranging (and in particular what the various flowers symbolise), the art of bonsai and the world of Virtual Reality programming than I ever thought to. And having waded through some quite inexplicable and dated pseudo Scottish-laird nonsense, suffered through some cringe worthy love scenes that quite frankly even Mills & Boon would probably find embarrassing I'm left wondering why all the extraneous waffle and so little of the plight and subsequent court case (for what is a Jodi Picoult novel without a trial?) of a man accused of murdering his beloved wife.