A lonesome highway. A hit and run. A coastal town in turmoil. Jon Sealy's The Merciful is a gripping courtroom drama that explores a cast of small-town characters surrounding a deadly incident in coastal South Carolina.

The low-country town of Overlook is a sleepy tourist and retirement community known for its golf courses and laid-back lifestyle. But when 19-year-old Samantha James is killed in a hit and run one night while riding her bicycle home from work, the town sets out to crucify the alleged culprit, Daniel Hayward. The headlines tell a compelling story, but everyone involved has a "story" about what happened: the media, the prosecutor, the defense attorney, Daniel, and Samantha's family.

As the book examines these myriad perspectives, The Merciful's stunning scope ranges from characters striving for a kind of American success that's just out of reach, to questions of data analytics, brain emulations, and the very survival of humanity. Ultimately, however, the novel is a morality play that asks tough questions about the nature of justice-and mercy. What do you do when one moment, one accident, one decision changes the course of life forever?

Jon Sealy, the critically acclaimed author of The Whiskey Baron, delivers a probing look at questions of justice and mercy in our era of competing narratives and online outrage.

Praise for The Merciful

"Sealy keeps the narrative running smoothly throughout...A thought-provoking volume about how a wrong choice can have huge repercussions." --Kirkus Reviews

"...a searing novel in which public judgments and personal reckonings spiral from a single moment." --Foreword Reviews

"The resulting power of "The Merciful" springs from Sealy's originalityof concept and seriousness of purpose, enhanced by echoes of an unusualand unexpected troika: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Aldous Huxley and ScottTurow." --Jay Strafford, The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

"Jon Sealy's The Merciful is atmospheric and filled with suspense...This is a magnificent novel."--Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World

"More subtly uncomfortable than a thriller, this is a provocative novel from a strong southern voice--no two readers will come away with the same conclusion." --Lydia Netzer, author of How to Tell Toledo From Ohio and Shine, Shine, Shine

"Jon Sealy's The Merciful is a smartly recursive thriller." --Matt Bell, author of Scrapper

"...an original and thoughtful novel with a hearty dash of mystery and suspense." --TarHeel Reader

"...a fascinating take on modern society and the role media, especially social media, plays in our perception of events." --Booksies Book Blog

"A novel that seeks to erase the hard won narrative of good vs evil, The Merciful by Jon Sealy is an epic undertaking." --Centered on Books