Mercy

Mercy (1996) is a novel by Jodi Picoult. Cameron MacDonald, a police chief in a small town, arrests his cousin for killing his wife, who was dying of cancer, on her request. The story follows the arrest and subsequent trial. The book explores themes of power dynamics in romantic relationships, the weight of familial duty, and mercy and the law.

Jodi Picoult is a prolific author and a New York Times bestseller. Her list of awards and accolades includes the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction and the Sarah Josepha Hale Award (Taylor, James. “Jodi Picoult: Biographical Sketch.” Jodi Picoult). Mercy was among the selections of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club and named one of the top seven novels of 1996 by Glamour magazine (Taylor, James. “Mercy.” Jodi Picoult).

This guide is based on the Hodder & Stoughton Kindle edition.

Content Warning: This book contains mentions and descriptions of euthanasia.

Plot Summary

Wheelock is a town in Massachusetts where the descendants of the MacDonald clan from Carrymuir, Scotland, were relocated by their chief, Cameron MacDonald, in the 1700s. In 1995, his descendant, Cameron “Cam” MacDonald, is the police chief—a position traditionally filled by the head of the clan. A man, James “Jamie” MacDonald, who claims to be Cam’s cousin, arrives at the police station and confesses to killing his wife, Maggie. On the same day, a woman named Mia Townsend arrives in Wheelock and asks Cam’s wife, Allie, who owns a flower shop, for a job as an assistant. Mia demonstrates considerable skill with bonsai to secure the job.

Cam arrests Jamie, who killed Maggie on her request, as she was dying of cancer. He came to Wheelock to carry out the act so he could confess to Cam, as he knew that his clan’s head would take care of him. The coroner examines Maggie’s body and confirms that she died of asphyxiation and that her body carries signs of radiation treatment for cancer, as well as a mastectomy scar. Allie invites Mia to stay with the MacDonalds, and when Cam meets her, he feels unsettled by his inexplicable attraction to her.

Angus, Cam’s uncle, visits Cam after having dreamed of his ancestors, urging Cam to do right by his family. Cam secretly hired Graham MacPhee, a lawyer in Wheelock, to defend Jamie, even as Cam himself prepares to help the prosecution. Drawn to Jamie and Maggie’s story, Allie visits Jamie in jail. While Allie is away visiting Jamie, Cam comes home to find Mia looking through his things. The two kiss but agree not to tell Allie.

Allie attends the magistrate hearing, and the case is moved to a grand jury. Allie bails Jamie out and arranges for him to stay with Angus until the trial begins, which angers Cam. Graham begins working on Jamie’s case and decides to go with an insanity plea. Jamie asks Allie for her help in speaking to prospective witnesses back in Cummington where he and Maggie lived, and Allie agrees, widening the growing rift between her and Cam.

Allie meets with Jamie and Maggie’s neighbors; Maggie’s best friend, Pauline; and Maggie’s doctor, all of whom confirm how in love the couple was, Jamie’s devotion to Maggie, Maggie’s suffering from cancer, and Maggie’s insistence that she didn’t want to live as she was. Pauline reveals that she knew of Maggie’s plans to ask Jamie to kill her; no one is surprised or upset that Jamie ended Maggie’s suffering. While Allie is away working on the case, Cam and Mia begin an affair and fall in love. Torn by guilt, Cam tells Mia he cannot continue, and Mia leaves town briefly. However, unable to let her go, Cam tracks her down using a private investigator and asks her to come back; when she does, the two reignite their affair.

The grand jury indicts Jamie, and preparations for the trial begin. Audra Campbell, the prosecutor, files a pre-trial motion asking that the terms “mercy” and “mercy killing” not be used throughout the trial, and the judge grants it. Allie gets busier helping Graham with the case, and the distance between her and Cam widens. Tensions between the couple escalate right before she is due to leave for a weekend in Cummington, but Allie procures a childhood picture of Jamie and Cam together at Carrymuir as a gift for Cam. An enraged Cam breaks it, and Allie uncharacteristically retaliates, giving voice to how overlooked she has felt throughout her marriage.

While Allie is away for the weekend, Mia stays over, and Cam’s mother, Ellen, walks in on them having sex. She is furious and disappointed but decides that Cam must tell Allie the truth himself. Cam and Mia carry on their affair, going away for a weekend together, and Cam decides that he will leave Allie, but Mia realizes that she cannot make Cam leave his family. The two return to town, but before Cam has a chance to talk to Allie or Mia, Allie finds pictures of him and Mia together; hurt and furious, she disposes of everything Cam owns in a garage sale while he is at work. Mia leaves town, leaving nothing but a bonsai tree for Cam.

The trial begins, and the prosecution and defense both bring in a host of witnesses. The former makes the case that, irrespective of context, Jamie broke the law by killing his wife. The latter posits that Jamie’s deep love for Maggie caused him immense stress over her suffering, which led to a psychotic break in which he killed her, hoping to relieve her pain.

Over the course of the trial, Allie and Cam continue to contend with issues in their marriage. Allie decides that she still loves Cam but doesn’t trust him; she doesn’t want a divorce. Meanwhile, Cam makes peace with the fact that he will love Mia forever but will not leave Allie. Jamie, who has been tormented by Maggie’s absence since her death, comes face-to-face with her ghost, which appears at peace.

The jury eventually acquits Jamie, who is relieved and overjoyed to have a life ahead of him once again. Allie and Cam return home, and without the trial as a buffer between them, they begin to think about how their life and marriage will look going forward. The book ends ambiguously, with the couple beginning a conversation about themselves. Interspersed throughout the book are flashbacks to Jamie and Maggie’s marriage and her struggle with cancer, as well as her absolute surety that she didn’t want to live in suffering. The book also includes notes from an unnamed writer to a lover who has left, reflecting on the lover’s absence and the writer’s continuing feelings of love.