A powerful and memorable novel, The Mercy Seat takes us through the hours of the final day before Will Jones must take his seat - in the electric chair. Sentenced to death for a 'crime' of passion, the young black man awaits his sentence. The narrative progresses through a multitude of characters, each with their own deep feelings about the case and the imminent events. Elizabeth H Winthrop leaves the reader with a profound sense of injustice following this exploration of racism and capital punishment. Very much recommended.

This book is hard to read in places. It is a look at how bad racism and prejudice was. It is worth reading to find out the different ways people felt. I think I would have liked the book more if the chapters were longer and there was more of the history of the era written about as well.

This was difficult for me to read, but in a good way. This is a book that should be read by a lot of people. I enjoyed it a lot and it got me to ask a lot of questions

True eye opener to the horrid time of the Jim Crow era. Hard to read at times, but a captivating tale.

Normally I really enjoy books that are written by several different perspectives but The Mercy Seat just didn't grab me. It tells the story of a man who is travelling to an execution to deliver the chair and from the point of view of other people who will be affected by the education. I found the narrative a little too clunky to follow.

This book was very uncomfortable to read but then that means it did the job. It’s never going to be easy reading about such brutality against a young girl, the persecution of a man who may or may not be guilty, and the race relations and racism that creates.

The court cases, the prospect of being on death row and all the attitudes and opinions of the time are tough to take in - they are all true of course which makes it all the more heartbreaking. It’s heart wrenching on so many levels but I was left feeling that it never quite got to the crux of the issues. Maybe less characters ad longer chapters would have improved things and made it more gritty and engaging?
I also felt as if the majority of the opinions were white ones.

The story is not fast paced by any means despite being set across 24 hours. bIt’s as if the world slows down which it would in a case like this. I wanted to hear more of what Will had to say.

A novel to read and discuss however. Important issues and relevant for today.

This novel has huge potential to make a great literary release. But for me personally, it was missing some of the narratives. There are several great lines and I took many quotes from the novel. But overall the feeling of specific voices is lacking and, in a novel, based around racial tension and injustice, that is a great travesty.

The synopsis informs us that the novel surrounds the case of protagonist Willie Jones. Whom we are to believe is falsely accused of the rape of a white woman. The setting of Louisiana and the era of 1943 heighten the tension and civil unrest. There are moments during reading that I had to question is this 1943? Or 1843? As the era seemed much further in history than 1943, even for the deep south. I am guessing this was the intention within the writing style and therefore could let that slide.

Several characters are introduced into the plot and it seems to take many chapters before we meet Will. Lane, Dale and Ora are all introduced early on, although their significance to the plot and Will’s plight remains unknown. There are specific points of the narrative and dialogue that set the tone of 1940s deep south. The ‘whites only’ sign and the talk of Will’s alleged crime using racial slurs, this is far from an understanding or justice seeking era. An era where you will be openly judged by the colour of your skin, hardly screams equality and fairness, to me! But this is all within fitting of such a novel. It is vital that the author display the true attitudes and notions relative to the era. So, I continued to go with the novel, hoping I would finally hear Will’s narrative.

We learn that Will has been sentenced to the death penalty by electrocution, for the crime of rape. The death penalty is quite controversial in the novel, with some of the residents believing that it is unlawful and unjust. Additionally, some of the residents of the local area doubt the verdict. Alarmingly this includes the prosecutor’s own wife.

“what white man would ever be put to death for rape?” – Nell

When we finally meet Will, we meet a man alone in his cell. With nothing but his memories for company. He feels responsible for Grace’s death. As we learn she took her own life after the alleged rape. You do get a real sense of his loneliness and isolation. His acceptance of his impending death and his knowledge that nothing can bring him comfort.

‘He can find no comfort in religion’

‘He thinks of death, over and over again’

The introduction of Father Hannington, as Will’s only friend in the world; Is an informative piece of the puzzle. His internal thoughts make for a fascinating insight. The poverty, bigotry and fear of Louisiana is explored, and it does throw up some thought-provoking moments.

‘The south feels more foreign to him than his mission in Madagascar ever did’

The resident DA and prosecutor of Will’s case, Polly is introduced. This is when we learn that there is so much more to Will’s court case than meets the eye. That the sanctimony of law and justice has been infected by the attitudes of the local racist rednecks. It also dawns on the reader that a man like Will, never stood a chance of being granted any form of justice.

‘What kind of justice it is mob or legal when the end result is death’

The novel has an unusual ending. Which again offers up food for thought. The legal structure and death penalty remain the main focus of the novel. This is the point where I realised some of the faults with the novel and I couldn’t ignore them……

Here we have a novel that surrounds the possible wrongful conviction of an African American. Yet the focus seems almost entirely, on how the white people feel about that. Yes, it is important to provide a wide-range of narratives. But the African American points of view are sadly lacking. Will’s father Frank plays an integral part of the narrative, but it is still sadly not enough. Will barely gets any time on the pages and is not the central focus of the novel at all. I just felt that the novel needed more balance.

I am a huge fan of diverse literature and believe it plays an important part of generating debate. But to create honest, intelligent and open debate; you need a broad scope of diverse characters. I felt this novel had too much focus on the white characters and how they felt about inequality. Which made no room for Will’s voice and he is the central character directly affected by this raging inequality. Had the novel covered more of Will’s, his mothers and fathers POV. I have no doubt that it would have been a big 5* from me. But unfortunately, it fell well below my expectations.
To put it bluntly, there are simply better novels in the diverse genre than this. 3*

Set on a single day as a young black man aged just 18 waits to go to the electric chair for a crime he never committed, this is a kaleidoscopic narrative that rotates between a multitude of PoVs, some merely a page or two in length. It's this fragmentation, almost a cliche of contemporary fiction, which brought my rating down. Winthrop' s writing is marked by an admirable precision and clarity, empathy and lack of sensationalism, but the broken pieces of stories mean we're constantly being jostled out of one tale and into another.

There are undoubtedly some standout moments: Will' s consciousness, the final wordless meeting between him and his father - but Winthrop perhaps lets people off with more kindness and sympathy than was actually the case when it came to race in the southern US states in 1943: 3.5 stars.

The Mercy Seat is a very elegant piece of writing. Set in Louisiana, 1943, we visit a small town on the eve of the execution of Will Jones, an 18 year old black man convicted of raping a white girl in her own bedroom. The point of view flits back and forth between various people touched by the impending execution - Will himself, his father, the DA and his family, a couple who run the petrol station, a prison trustee helping to relocate Gruesome Gertie, Father Hannigan... Each character is really clearly delineated; each has his or her own story to tell.

And quite beautifully, the various characters' stories draw parallels with one another. We explore fathers and sons, grief, racism, kindness, religion and, ultimately, the death penalty. Unlike many similar death row novels, this one does not beat the reader over the head with the weight of the message. We see an imperfect society that struggles to live with itself, conflicted in its prejudice and its desire for decency. The novel is devoid of sensation. It is almost humdrum in the processes and tasks that have to be accomplished to bring the weight of the law to bear on the hapless Will Jones.

In very few pages, in short snippets, Elizabeth H Winthrop creates a convincing world that fits perfectly in 1943, but rings uncannily true of modern, landlocked, small-town America. Sure, there are no more Jim Crow laws but all it takes is a casual glance at CNN to see that the law does not operate equally for black and white; for rich and poor. While supreme court judges pontificate in Washington DC, the law is actually applied by sheriffs, DAs and governors appealing to the redneck vote. The Mercy Seat keeps the reader mentally shuttling from history to current day and back again. It is deeply unsettling, showing us us how little social attitudes have changed.

The pacing is fantastic; never too slow and never rushed. We cover an astonishing amount of ground in a 24 hour period but it is manageable and memorable. The reader doesn't need to concentrate to keep track of people because it all fall into place so effortlessly. The ending, just like the
death penalty itself, fails to provide any form of adequate resolution; it leaves the reader spiralling in thought and what-ifs.

The Mercy Seat is not the only death row novel, but it must be one of the classiest.

A beautifully written heart-breaking book
The plot is built round the premise that a black youth has raped a white girl, but the reader knows form the outset that this is not true and that the pair (of age) had a consensual relationship. The black youth has been convicted and is on death row.
The format of the book is set in simple, mini chapters voiced by an individual character. The whole evocative & vividly described story is set over just a couple of days and as the tale unfolds the reader discovers painful truths; Lane’s son is dead but he can’t bring himself to tell his wife; the prosecutor’s family is threatened thus he finds Will guilty; things that we the reader see but the characters they affect don’t. The use of language is incisive & striking, the reader can feel the heat, sense the despair. The deliberate misuse of the title persecutor (i.e. prosecutor) for example is brilliant; an easy mistake for a child, but that is exactly what he has turned into!
Stunning read.