Author Jack Todd presents his new book Rain Falls Like Mercy on Saturday December 17 at 4:00 p.m. at Brome Lake Books, 264 Knowlton road in Knowlton, Lac Brome. This is a free event. A signed first edition makes a great gift. For information please call 450-242-2242.
Set against the sweeping backdrop of World War II, Rain Falls Like Mercy is a gripping depiction of a family and a country touched by the grand violence of war, the senseless violence of crime, and the intimate violence of the heart.
IN THE TRADITION OF TRUE CRIME narratives such as In Cold Blood, acclaimed author Jack Todd’s new novel grips the reader from the first page; and as it spans continents and generations of one family, its taut and shocking undercurrent of violence builds to a stunning crescendo. Todd’s first novel, Sun Going Down, which introduced the Paint family, won praise from reviewers and major authors such as Michael Korda and Michael Blake. His second novel, Come Again No More,recounted the Paints’ saga of triumph and tragedy through the Great Depression, inspiring the Ottawa Citizen to label Todd “a first-rate novelist with a tender heart.”
Rain Falls Like Mercy opens with the murder investigation of a young girl in Wyoming in mid- 1941. Tom Call, the young sheriff running the investigation, falls in love with Juanita, the wife of Eli Paint, whose son Leo and grandson Bobby Watson are on duty with the U.S. Navy. Almost overnight, the case is derailed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, disrupting the lives of all involved. Bobby mans an antiaircraft gun during the attack. Tom joins the U.S. Air Force and is deployed to England to fly bombers, still trying to pursue his murder investigation. His suspicion falls on Pardo Bury, the psychotic son of a wealthy rancher in Wyoming.
As Pardo and Tom make their ways to their inevitable and shattering confrontation, Rain Falls Like Mercy displays Todd’s uncanny ability to zero in on his characters’ emotional lives while simultaneously painting a sweeping picture of the historical events that shape their destinies.
After working for the Akron Beacon-Journal, Detroit Free Press and Miami Herald, Jack Todd left the U.S. during the Vietnam War and settles first in Vancouver, where he was a general assignment reporter for the Vancouver Sun. After stints with Radio-Canada International in Montreal and several years spent trying to write the Great American Novel, Todd joined the Gazette in 1986 as a copy editor on the sports desk and spent four years as city coumnist before moving to sports, where he has covered two World Cup soccer tournaments and five Olympic Games. Jack Todd is the author of The Taste of Metal, Sun Going Down, Come Again No More and Rain Falls Like Mercy.
Thank you,
Danny McAuley
Livres Lac Brome Inc.
Brome Lake Books
450 242-2242 / Fax 450 242-1368
blb@b2b2c.cawww.bromelakebooks.ca
