A Question of Mercy by Elizabeth Cox

Elizabeth Cox is one of the most well established of our regional fiction writers. She grew up in Chattanooga, and her extensive and prestigious teaching career concluded at the edge of the South Carolina Blue Ridge. The action in this novel begins when, a mentally disabled youth, Adam Finney, is found dead in the French Broad River in North Carolina. "Cox provides a searing look at the painful, dehumanizing treatments forced on people with mental disabilities at the time [1950s] and the limited support their families had . . . Cox resists the easy ending and fills her novel with emotional and moral conundrums."―Kirkus Reviews. "A Question of Mercy presents an unflinching view of mental-health treatment in 1950's America, but in Jess, the novel's heroine, Elizabeth Cox has created a character whose courage and humanity remind us that there are always individuals who will fight injustice. This superb novel further confirms that Cox is one of our most profound and gifted novelists."―Ron