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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
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English
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THE SPEED OF MERCY

Christy Ann Conlin

Stella Sprague is mute and has lived at the Jericho Care Centre her entire adult life. When a young woman on the trail of a cold case shows up asking questions, Stella's quiet life as she knows it is over, and she goes on the run with her wisecracking and protective older friend, Dianne. Stella may not be able to remember what happened in the summer of 1980 - the summer when as a thirteen-year-old she forged a pact with her best friend and uncovered a dark secret of murder, sex cults and secret societies - but it is becoming impossible to deny that someone else does.

The novel opens on the shores of Mercy Lake in rural Nova Scotia and is populated with unforgettable characters and a landscape both lush and harsh. It's told through alternating perspectives of Stella and Mal, a Californian wannabe podcast journalist whose family is from the region and is determined to break her first big story. We also see thirteen-year-old Stella during that fateful summer in 1980, as she and her former best friend draw closer to the secret that will change everything.
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Published 2021-03-01 by House of Anansi Press

Comments

Written with the intrigue of a thriller and executed with the mystical grace of poetry, The Speed of Mercy is a fierce and thoughtful novel about trauma, healing, and the tender covenant made between survivors. -- Quill & Quire

English audio rights to Recorded Books

The Speed of Mercy is a disturbing, elliptical, powerful mystery that becomes intoxicating as the pages turn. It is a lyrical meditation on betrayal and loss, the cruel forces of aging and confinement, and the quirkiness of memory as it recedes and rises like the salty Bay of Fundy waters that haunt this compelling novel. -- Lawrence Hill, bestselling and award-winning author of The Illegal and The Book of Negroes

Moving, funny, and propulsive. In prose both lyrical and sharp, compassionate and wise, Christy Ann Conlin delivers a page-turner with a fierce heart at its core. -- Mona Awad, acclaimed author of Bunny and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl