Review of THE SPEED OF MERCY by Christy Ann Conlin (New Release)

 2.5 Stars

Christy Ann Conlin is a Canadian author I had not yet read, so I was interested in reading her new book.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed.  It is an odd book which I think needs revision.

The book alternates between two timelines:  2021 and 1980.  In post-pandemic 2021, Malmuria Grant-Patel (Mal), a podcaster, travels to rural Nova Scotia, to an area two people disparagingly describe as the “Georgia of the north.”  Her intention is not to visit her mother’s birthplace but to uncover what happened at Mercy Lake years earlier:  she is told “there was a link between a place called Mercy Lake in Nova Scotia and a group in New York that hid under a cloak of business, billions and blackmail – money and power providing an impenetrable shield for traditions, beliefs and rituals going back hundreds of years.  A company called Cineris International.  An old family named Jessome, in New York. . . . The woman was terrified.  What they did to her went way back.  There were others, lost in time.”  Mal tries to talk to Stella Sprague, the sole living survivor of a fire that burned down the Mercy Lake Lodge where this secret group used to meet.

Stella is now 54 years of age and living in a care home.  She suffers from memory loss and has been mute since a traumatic event 40 years earlier, an event she doesn’t remember but identifies as HA, the Horrific Affliction.  She reminisces back to 1980 when she and her father moved to Nova Scotia after her mother’s death.  Stella becomes friends with Cynthia, the daughter of her father’s best friend, Franklin Seabury, a wealthy businessman.  Stella learns things about her father’s family that she had not known, but she is also uneasy around Cynthia and her father.  It is obvious that the Horrific Affliction occurred soon after Stella’s arrival in Nova Scotia, but will she be able to remember what happened?

Events often require the reader to suspend disbelief.  For example, Mal learns about a cult at Mercy Lake because she casually uses the word mercy in an interview with a woman from Nova Scotia who “then dropped her story out of the blue”?   Two days after that conversation, Mal receives a threatening phone call warning her not to investigate when no one knows her intentions?  Mal has no difficulty finding Stella, but those who might feel threatened by Stella haven’t found her in 40 years?  Every woman Mal and Stella encounter is creative?   Why would one survivor with incriminating evidence not go to authorities but leave it with Stella whose memory is untrustworthy:  “we kept the memories for you, until you could hold them again”? 

And then there are the contradictions.  Stella turns over a postcard forty times, hoping it will jog her memory, that it “might break the spell, what she couldn’t remember” and then five sentences later we are told “Stella didn’t want to remember.”  We are told “Mal was not the sort who scared easily” but she seems frightened most of the time.  Mal “wanted to go home” but six sentences later, “Mal was not going home now.”  A character says, “”What you need to focus on is your own safety, Mal.  Right now we have to find Stella and Dianne, especially if some crazy person is following women around.’”  So what is Mal supposed to do?  A character is told, “’your father owes my dad money.  And now your grandfather’s debt is your father’s debt’” and she asks, “”What?  What do you mean they had to pay them back?  With what?’”  So often I was left shaking my head.

Vagueness is also an issue.  Mal discovers very little about Sodality.  When it is mentioned – described as a fellowship or a “weird men’s group” or a cult – very little real information is given.  That’s the same problem with the Offing Society.  And then there are unexplained events.  A woman drives “without the seat belt, surprised it didn’t work, that it was jammed, but not worrying about it.”  Is that supposed to suggest something about what happens?  Why does young Cynthia behave as she does, keeping secrets from Stella and keeping secrets for her?  What are we to make of Cynthia’s comment that “’my mother can sort of see the future, [my father] says.  That’s why he needs her to spend time with him.’”

The novel does touch on some important subjects.  For instance, if offers several examples of how women, especially older women, are dismissed.  The repeated message is that old women should not be underestimated.  The treatment of the people with mental health issues is examined; often those suffering are not seen as victims but blamed for their situations.

The book has potential, but as I said at the beginning, it needs revision.  When I received the digital galley I was informed that the book would be released on March 23.  Now I understand that it won’t be released until August 3.  I’m hoping that date change means that revision will be done. 

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.