Mothers versus daughters: Orna Ross’s Blue Mercy is “a bookclub battle waiting to happen”.
“Ross has … ingeniously knitted a complex tale of betrayal, revenge, suspense, murder mystery — and surprise. This is no mass-produced chick-lit. Wild, gamey… John McGahern meets Maeve Binchy.” Irish Independent
Bestselling author Orna Ross is delighted to introduce readers to the print edition of her latest novel, Blue Mercy, a lyrical, gripping and heartbreakingly beautiful tale of love, loss and the ever-present possibility of redemption.
At the heart of this novel is the story of Mercy and Star, a mother and daughter whose fraught relationship cannot escape the weight of the past.
Mercy has devoted her life to protecting Star from neglect and cruelty, especially from the tyranny of her own father, Martin. Now she has written down what really happened on the fateful night of Christmas Eve, 1989 when her father died in questionable circumstances and she wants Star to read her account.
Was Martin’s death, as so many believe, an assisted suicide? Or something more sinister?
Or is Mercy, as she vehemently insists, innocent of all?
Moving between Ireland and California, Blue Mercy is a fascinating exploration of one of fiction’s most neglected relationships. “Fathers and sons are endlessly explored in fiction,” says Orna Ross, “but there are far too few books about mothers and daughters, and almost all of them are from the daughter’s perspective, coming-of-age or rebellion stores.”
Blue Mercy is something different, a murder mystery where the plot is secondary to the relationships. Full of emotional twists and surprises, (“breathtaking… and I mean literally — actual gasps will happen”, said one customer review), this is the perfect pick for book clubs — certain to generate much discussion, perhaps even dissension.
As it works towards its startling denouement, this thought-provoking novel will have readers re-examining their own mothers and daughters and appreciating them in new and unexpected ways.
ORNA ROSS (www.ornaross.com ) has worked in almost every possible role in publishing: editor and book doctor; lecturer and creative facilitator; even, for a while, as a literary agent. Through all that time, she was also, primarily, a writer; first a small-time author with a small press (Attic) then a bestseller with one of the largest (Penguin). In 2011, she became intrigued by the possibilities of self-publishing and, somewhat to her own surprise, was quickly convinced of its revolutionary commercial and creative potential. She now successfully publishes her own novels, poems and the Go Creative! non-fiction series and in 2012, founded the nonprofit Alliance of Independent Authors. Orna passionately believes in the healing and transformative power of the written word.
