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Dying for Mercy by Mary Jane Clark — book cover

Dying for Mercy

by Mary Jane Clark
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Overview

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, co-host of KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends' newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza's host is found dead—a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose sins of the past involving some of the town's most revered citizens.

Determined to find the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues discover that Pentimento holds the key. The glorious mansion is actually a giant "puzzle house", filled with ingenious clues that lead them, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.

As Pentimento gives up its secrets it becomes clear that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe. But just when she unearths one final surprise, Eliza comes face to face with a murderer who believes that some puzzles should never be solved.

Synopsis

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, co-host of KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends' newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza's host is found dead a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose sins of the past involving some of the town's most revered citizens.

Determined to find the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues discover that Pentimento holds the key. The glorious mansion is actually a giant "puzzle house", filled with ingenious clues that lead them, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.

As Pentimento gives up its secrets it becomes clear that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe. But just when she unearths one final surprise, Eliza comes face to face with a murderer who believes that some puzzles should never be solved.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Clark's smooth third Eliza Blake puzzler (after It Only Takes a Moment), the KEY to AmericaTV host is looking forward to attending a party to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi at Ennis and Valentina Wheelock's newly renovated villa in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Soon after Ennis's suicide by stigmata in the villa's greenhouse puts an end to the party, someone begins killing anyone who knows too much about the Wheelocks' connection to a 20-year-old cold case involving an abandoned convertible and its missing owner, landscaper Martin O'Shaughnessy. Each murder mimics "aspects of the Passion of Jesus Christ." As Eliza and her three KEY co-workers, who have dubbed themselves the Sunrise Suspense Society, swing into action, Eliza must fight to avoid becoming headline news herself as the killer's next victim. Those curious about Tuxedo Park will appreciate the well-researched portrait of the real-life exclusive community. (Aug.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author, Mary Jane Clark

Mary Jane Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including When Day Breaks and It Only Takes a Moment. A former writer and producer at CBS News in New York City, she knows intimately the world of which she writes. The daughter of an FBI agent and mother of two, she lives in New Jersey and Florida.

Reviews

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Editorials

Associated Press Staff

Clark’s latest rivals Christie’s best. Her short, to-the-point chapters, lucid prose, numerous suspects and faceless murderer’s creepy monologues keep the suspense at its chilliest level — and move the story forward at a brisk clip. One of Clark’s — and the genre’s — best.

Booklist

As always, Clark gives the reader a strong trail of red herrings. This is another satisfying look at the behind-the-scenes world of television network news tied around an intriguing puzzle

Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Clark's smooth third Eliza Blake puzzler (after It Only Takes a Moment), the KEY to AmericaTV host is looking forward to attending a party to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi at Ennis and Valentina Wheelock's newly renovated villa in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Soon after Ennis's suicide by stigmata in the villa's greenhouse puts an end to the party, someone begins killing anyone who knows too much about the Wheelocks' connection to a 20-year-old cold case involving an abandoned convertible and its missing owner, landscaper Martin O'Shaughnessy. Each murder mimics "aspects of the Passion of Jesus Christ." As Eliza and her three KEY co-workers, who have dubbed themselves the Sunrise Suspense Society, swing into action, Eliza must fight to avoid becoming headline news herself as the killer's next victim. Those curious about Tuxedo Park will appreciate the well-researched portrait of the real-life exclusive community. (Aug.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Reviews

A penitential suicide opens the door to wholesale homicide in an exclusive suburban enclave. Innis Wheelock, the brains behind wife Valentina's political ascent to the governorship of New York and the ambassadorship to Italy, has always felt guilty about something. As a party dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi winds down in their Tuxedo Park mansion, he does something about it, stabbing himself in the hands, feet and left side in the pattern of Christ's stigmata. But his ritual death is only the first of his posthumous messages. A lesser man might have placed in his safe-deposit box a confession of the conspiracy stretching back over 20 years to an apparently victimless car crash. But Innis, who really liked puzzles, has left behind a series of teasing clues to the secret he took to his grave. As luck would have it, someone else seems bent on scattering those clues through an equally ritualized series of murders designed to keep the secret a secret. Is that someone Innis's best friend Fitzroy Heavener, political operative Peter Nordstrut, Tuxedo Park police chief Clay Vitalli or (horrors!) all of them? And will TV morning-show host Eliza Blake, still fearful in the aftermath of her daughter's kidnapping (It Only Takes a Moment, 2008, etc.), put the clues together in time to save herself from the killer?Clark lavishes all the pointless ingenuity of Who Killed the Robins Family? on a transparent mystery, except there's no cash prize for beating Eliza to the solution. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh/William Morris Agency

Associated Press

Clark’s latest rivals Christie’s best. Her short, to-the-point chapters, lucid prose, numerous suspects and faceless murderer’s creepy monologues keep the suspense at its chilliest level — and move the story forward at a brisk clip. One of Clark’s — and the genre’s — best.

Book Details

Published
August 1, 2010
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
400
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780061286124

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