The Quality of Mercy
Return to 1920s Appalachia in this thrilling fourth installment of The Stephen Robbins Chronicles, as Robbins and his former lover seek atonement for their past mistakes amid the threatening events surrounding them in the present.
In the autumn of 1924, Anna Ulmann arrives in Hot Springs, North Carolina, hoping to be reunited with her former lover, Stephen Robbins. In returning to Hot Springs, she is gambling on the power of forgiveness to somehow reknit the relationship they lost due to her betrayal in New York four years earlier.
However, Anna is not the only one from the war years who returns to Hot Springs. Four mysterious German men also arrive on the passenger train, including the enigmatic Siegfried Sonnach, Stephen’s former nemesis. The Germans claim they have come back for a reunion, but their true motives remain ambiguous.
When a series of appalling crimes begin to occur in Hot Springs, Stephen begins to wonder if this reunion is hiding something much darker. With a monster roaming the streets and Anna’s reappearance forcing him to confront difficult emotions, Stephen must discover if forgiveness is enough to overcome the effects of past mistakes and present violence. Ultimately, what is the true quality of mercy?
Content Warning: This book includes descriptions of sexual assault (off-page). Please read with care.
Want more Stephen Robbins? Read more of his story in A Short Time to Stay Here, My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black, and The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape.
We earn a commission for purchases made through the following links.
Book details
- Author
- Terry Roberts
- Imprint
- Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 272
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Series
- The Stephen Robbins Chronicles
- Subjects
- Fiction › Mystery & Detective › Historical
Fiction › Southern
Fiction › Noir - Topics
- Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape · My Mistress' Eyes Are Raven Black · A Short Time to Stay Here · Stephen Robbins · noir mystery · mystery novel · mysteries set in the 1920s · dark mystery
- ISBN-13
- 9798887982762 (Paperback)9798887982779 (Hardcover)
About the author
Terry Roberts is the author of seven celebrated novels: A Short Time to Stay Here (winner of the Willie Morris Prize for Southern Fiction and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction); That Bright Land (winner of the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award, the James Still Award for Writing About the Appalachian South and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction); The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival (Finalist for the 2019 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction); My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black (Finalist for the 2022 Best Paperback Original Novel by the International Thriller Writers Organization); The Sky Club (Finalist for the 2023 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award), The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape (Nominee of the 2025 Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award), and In the Fullness of Time (Shortlisted for Book of the Year by the Southern Literary Review ). Roberts is a lifelong teacher and educational reformer as well as an award-winning novelist. He is a native of the mountains of Western North Carolina—born and bred. His ancestors include six generations of mountain farmers, as well as the bootleggers and preachers who appear in his novels. He was raised close by his grandmother, Belva Anderson Roberts, who was born in 1888 and passed to him the magic of the past along with the grit and humor of mountain storytelling.