Mercy by Emma Woodhouse is a beautifully written, chilling work of historical true-crime fiction based on real events. Set in mid-19th century rural England, it tells the story of Mercy Newton, arrested in 1848 after a man’s body is found in a brew house on her family’s property. The Newtons have long had a reputation for violence and misfortune, and Woodhouse expertly weaves fact and fiction to explore whether this is coincidence, bad luck, or something darker.

Told with rich historical detail and a precise sense of atmosphere, the novel shows the reader a harsh world of poverty, prejudice, and survival. Mercy is a compelling and complex heroine—vulnerable yet resilient—and the surrounding characters brings depth and humanity to this gritty tale. The themes of generational trauma, addiction, and social inequality are handled with both honesty and empathy.

This would make a great fall read!

No Happy Endings: ‘Mercy’ by Emma Woodhouse

‘A Newton takes their own life, or that of another.
So says the curse of the Newtons.’

If you have read some of my other blog posts, you may have realised that I am a bit of a sucker for historical fiction that is inspired by, based on, or closely follows real-life people, places and events. Mercy is one such story, narrating in fictional form the true-crime saga of a working-class English woman who, in the 1840s, was charged with murder.

Her case became the talk of folk in inns and on streets across the land. Did she commit the terrible crime she was accused of? Did she deserve to hang? Or was she a victim of the brutal environment in which she was raised and the inequality between rich and poor?

The notoriety of her name grew as not one, but two juries were unable to deliver a verdict. This was unheard of. It was up to a third and final jury to pass judgement on a woman accused of a most heinous crime imaginable. Would she be found guilty? And what would become of her young daughter, raised in the same harsh milieu as Mercy herself?

The other reason I was drawn to this story? The protagonist’s family name, which I share. While not believing for a moment that my name holds within it a curse as Mercy’s seems to have done (and honestly, given how events played out in her family you can understand how that idea came about), a novel centred around a cursed family name is always a little intriguing….

The author has used historical documents from the archives and old British newspaper reports to skillfully weave a story told from three main points of view: Mercy herself; her daughter Maria; and the local justice of the peace who prosecutes the initial murder case against Mercy. This gives rich detail of the events as they were reported at the time, while also painting a vivid backdrop of the grim environment in which they occurred.

And it is grim. There is little or nothing held back. The story opens with an earlier murder, this one perpetrated by another Newton, Mercy’s cousin John, who beats his pregnant wife to death one stormy evening. It sets the scene and as readers we know that despite an occasional glimmer of hope on the horizon, the future for Mercy and her family is, in reality, nothing but bleak.

For me this bleakness became a little too much and I found the novel hard going because of it, while still admiring the detail and story-telling skill involved. As a tale that paints a realistic picture of how things were for working-class folk in Victorian times, it’s to be commended. Just not an easy read. And don’t expect a happy ending in the usual sense, because for these people they were few and far between..

Mercy is published by Cranthorpe Millner Publishers in July 2025.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a review copy.

An engaging and atmospheric read that is both interesting to the reader and evokes a deeply reflective response. Based on true events, this story is well told and turns the pages almost without the will of the reader, whilst we follow the highs and lows (but mostly lows) of the various Newton family members. We are invited into the lives of three generations of the Newton women, and we follow the endless trials endured by them through the hardships they bear from others, but also their treatment of each other, which serves to create a range of emotions in the reader, particularly as we have to follow the trial of one of them too.
Throughout the telling of the story, which is presented from different narrative perspectives and through different time scales, readers are skilfully encouraged to feel sympathy for the lives these women live and the hardships they bear, which is managed effectively throughout - it’s hard to know who to believe and who to feel sympathy for… as we’re told from the beginning - there are no heroines in this story. But what we do have is a multitude of people who suffer, mostly women; a wealth of societal problems, which nobody seems disposed to help or take responsibility for; and an endless stream of suffering that leaves the reader with a sense of sorrow that lasts the whole way through the book.

Emma Woodhouse's "Mercy" transforms exhaustive historical research into something more unsettling than conventional historical fiction—a "true story" that foregoes romanticism for the messy complexities of actual lives. The book is built on a foundation of extensive archival research into the 19th century. It offers an unflinching look at the structural violence of poverty, gender, and public judgment.

Set primarily in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, between 1823 and 1892, "Mercy" traces three generations of women—Anne Edwards, her daughter Mercy Newton, and granddaughter Maria Newton—whose lives are marred by cycles of addiction, violence, and social marginalization. But this is not a story of redemption in any conventional sense. Woodhouse explicitly resists the idea of a heroine; what she offers instead is a study of human resilience under conditions designed to crush it.

The book's historical specificity is one of its greatest strengths. From the impact of the Murder Act of 1751 to the public health panic surrounding cholera outbreaks, the legal and social textures of the era are operative forces shaping the characters' lives. The rare legal precedent of Mercy Newton allegedly becoming only the second person tried multiple times for murder under the British legal system—and possibly the first to endure three trials—becomes a narrative fulcrum, not only dramatizing the brittleness of Victorian justice but also exposing how class and gender shaped its outcomes.

The character arcs in "Mercy" are anything but tidy, and this distinguishes it from much historical fiction. Mercy Newton is portrayed neither as a victim nor a villain but as a woman whose survival instincts frequently place her at moral and legal crossroads. Her daughter Maria's trajectory—from hopeful escape to institutionalized demise—offers no consolatory arc, only a brutally honest meditation on what limited agency looks like when hemmed in by illness, shame, and the public's shifting sympathies.

Woodhouse's research is both visible and transparent. She names her sources, delineates where the historical record ends and where narrative inference begins, and, in doing so, builds trust rather than indulging in imaginative excess. Dialogue is shaped with historical fidelity, and her restraint in deploying dialect keeps the prose accessible while still evocative of time and place.

Though firmly historical, "Mercy" has contemporary resonance through its themes of familial trauma, public spectacle, institutional failure, and the ambiguous shape of justice, which are as current as they are historical. The novel engages with the long shadow cast by poverty and the intergenerational impact of addiction in ways that feel painfully familiar.

In the end, "Mercy" doesn't exonerate or condemn. Instead, it is a story about the messy, often invisible struggle of survival. It's a book that takes its subject seriously without lapsing into sentimentality. Woodhouse has written a work that doesn't romanticize the past but instead allows it to speak, in all its discomforting complexity, to the present.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC opportunity!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I was hooked from the very first line. Mercy is haunting, atmospheric, and beautifully written—it pulls you into a world of rain-soaked fields, rising rivers, and smoke-filled nights. But what truly gave me chills was discovering that this story is inspired by real historical events. Emma Woodhouse masterfully brings to life the forgotten case of Mercy Newton, a woman at the center of a murder, a family curse, and a storm of suspicion.

Told with tenderness and tension in equal measure, Mercy blends fact and fiction to uncover the truth behind a story lost for over a century. It’s the kind of book that lingers with you long after you turn the last page.
I was hooked from the very first line. Mercy is haunting, atmospheric, and beautifully written—it pulls you into a world of rain-soaked fields, rising rivers, and smoke-filled nights. But what truly gave me chills was discovering that this story is inspired by real historical events. Emma Woodhouse masterfully brings to life the forgotten case of Mercy Newton, a woman at the center of a murder, a family curse, and a storm of suspicion.

Told with tenderness and tension in equal measure, Mercy blends fact and fiction to uncover the truth behind a story lost for over a century. It’s the kind of book that lingers with you long after you turn the last page.

This Victorian tale has everything.

Murder, a family curse and generations of drama

I loved this true crime read, it is a wonderful read and one that fans of this genre will love.

It is set in the 1800s and every page is filled with brilliant characters, family secrets and jealousy

Mercy is a woman who is tried not only once but twice for the murder of her mother and the trial and mercys life and background is told with relish

Its a fascinating insight into the time and societal issues surrounding the law and legal system. Its fabulous

Emma Woodhouse’ new novel is based on three generations of the Newton family in Bridgnorth, England, in the 1820s. John Newton’s violent murder of his wife, in 1823, perpetuates an accepted family curse: that the Newtons will always either kill themselves or someone else. The author opens this novel in a masterful way, paving the way for everything that happens, even though John’s crime and subsequent hanging don’t feature in the events. Primarily we walk through life with Mercy Newton, an abused child with an alcoholic mother, a young woman desperate to escape her circumstances. And for a while she does – hired on as housekeeper to a grounds man at the Whitmore’s Apley Estate. Years of love and affection follow before tragedy strikes and Mercy is once again alone in a harsh world with none of her problems solved; in fact, they have exponentially increased.
The story is related in 1848, by Thomas Whitmore, MP, who is on the prosecution team and believes Mercy to be guilty of the crimes with which she has been charged. I was hooked all the way through this suspenseful gothic fiction and loved the wide range of characters and the well-drawn 19th-century settings. Mercy, in particular, lives on the page, agreeable, disagreeable, misunderstood, kind and loving, heartless and cruel. Such wide discrepancies could spark credibility issues for readers, but I felt none. This was a fast read as I had to know what happened for Mercy to end up where she does. The tale is tragic and poignant and will be a satisfying read for gothic mystery readers.

"Existing is not enough. I want to live."
So are the imagined thoughts of a real woman - Mercy Newton.
But trying to live with her name becomes a curse that is stunningly explored by the author of this novel based on real lives and the town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire in the mid 1800s.
Often plots based around real testimony in court cases can limit the use of fiction to provide well developed characters but here Mercy, her mother Anne and her daughter Maria become pivotal not only to the curse of the Newtons from murder and suicide but to the problems of alcoholism - many that still trouble society today.
Mercy is the main character but I also felt the narration of Thomas Whitmore MP led us through the background and of course the highly unusual issue of someone being tried 3 times for the same murder - unknown before in British legal history.
The scenery and area was well described and the class divisions highlighted beyond stereotypes.
Overall I was immersed from start to finish and read in one sitting.
Have mercy.......well history says sometimes says it really does happen.

The true story of a woman tried for the same murder…three times!
Practical, level-headed Mercy is determined not to follow in the footsteps of her drunken mother. Mercy works hard and obtains a job as housekeeper to James. They fall in love and then Mercy falls pregnant, but her lover fears his family and…let’s just say things don’t go well for Mercy. Her only option is leaving her newborn daughter with her drunken mother so that she can find another live-in position and send money home. And that’s when the real trouble starts…
Reasons I love this book:
1) It is based in on real people and actual events. The author uncovered the story when reading historic newspaper articles. She painstakingly reconstructed their lives to give an account of how each character got where they did. Oh, and the true events stretch across three generations of family.
2) The story is so intriguing (and did I mention it’s a true story?) A woman who was tried for the same murder, not once, not twice, but three times! And the intrigue…in that the author doesn’t reveal who Mercy murdered until absolutely necessary.
3) The characters and world of the story are wonderfully and evocatively written. I loved every minute of the read because the characters were so real. The knitting together of the relationships between the characters was so skilful and so credible…it had me glued to the page.
4) It sheds light on times that are dead and gone (some would argue for the better.) When there was no welfare state, and people had to earn a living or starve. Against this setting there is nowhere for human nature to hide, and no matter how much they hate themselves for it, the survival decisions made are going to hurt someone.
This was a great book and that special thing, a true 5-star read.

Mercy focuses on Mercy Newton aka Mercy Milner and takes place in the 1800's, a time when moving up classes in society was a dream and women were subjected to acceptable physical abuses. The title and description drew me to this book but the character and her decisions kept me interested. Mercy lives a tough life where money and general comforts are hard to come by and her relationships are strained. This book was an interesting read but not a page turner, I enjoyed reading it slowly over a weeks time.

I will review this book on goodreads once the book is added. Thank you netgalley and cranthorpe millner publishers for this ARC>