The Mercy Chair

Wow.
Those of you who have read my previous reviews for M.W. Craven’s incredible Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw series (The Curator, Dead Ground and The Botanist), know how much I love these novels. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if there was a current series that I wish I could have written, this is probably it. I isuspect I’m not alone. Not just for the sales and acclaim, but also the sheer satisfaction of a job very well done.

This instalment is dark. Really dark. Yet as always, Craven balances the grim subject matter with humour. For those that love these characters, Poe is as taciturn as ever and Tilly still has no filter, resulting in the usual spit-out-your-tea moments as she innocently asks the questions that most of us avoid.

I’m not going to spoil the plot, suffice to say that it starts with a badger digging up a dead body and gets worse from then on. Of course, as much fun as it is to spend time with Tilly and Poe, it’s Craven’s clever, twisty and sophisticated plots that make this series so well regarded, both amongst readers and fellow writers. As with the previous in the series, The Botanist, Craven keeps the pace fast and nimble, averaging roughly three pages per chapter. This not only encourages you to read faster and for longer at night (‘just one more chapter before I turn the light out‘ is a far easier decision to make when a chapter is only three pages), but also heightens the sense of being on a rollercoaster. There are slower chapters, where Poe is introspective, but these are then followed by chapters where the revelations come thick and fast, and as always the balance is perfect.

Stylistically, this is a slight departure. As alluded to in the jacket blurb, Poe is actually telling this story to someone else. Don’t worry, the story is still told in the familiar and reliable third person as always, but by periodically having a chapter where Poe is recounting this story to another person, we gain a slightly different perspective. The use of foreshadowing increases the anticipation of what is to come in the next few chapters.

This was probably always going to be a recommended read, based on the others in the series, but really it is superb. You can read the book on its own if you are new to the characters, but this is a series that deserves to be read from the beginning. Tilly and Poe are wonderful odd couple, and it’s worth meeting them as they meet one another for the first time in The Puppet Show.
I heartily recommend.