A review by nadinekc
The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth

5.0

This book takes over events at the end of [b:Sacred Hunger|239592|Sacred Hunger (Sacred Hunger #1)|Barry Unsworth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1423442893l/239592._SY75_.jpg|2781088], 14 years later. Although a few of the characters reappear, it's really the moral arc of the story that continues to be explored in a new setting. This moral arc may bend toward justice, but it's not a simple or straight path and in this book it centers on the complexities of mercy and rings true in the 21st century as much as the 18th. All the characters were great, but Jane Ashton was the most interesting to me - probably because she felt so Austen-like. Not like a copy, but like a person Elizabeth Bennet would love to talk to.