Mercy - Softcover

'What could have been a competent, topical novel about a mercy killing becomes, in Picoult's hands, an inspired meditation on love... Picoult pays loving attention to her central characters, fashioning a sensitive exploration of the balance of love.' -- Publishers Weekly 'A quietly powerful book that examines the boundaries of love and loyalty, courage and forgiveness... Picoult writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships.' -- Boston Globe 'A graceful stylist, Picoult entertains her readers not only with feel-good storytelling and irresistible characters but with consideration of such serious moral dilemmas as euthanasia and forgiveness.' -- Booklist

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.