A review by booknrrd
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop

4.0

A young black man is on death row for raping a white woman in the South in 1943. The Mercy Seat captures the voices of a variety of people connected in some way to what is happening: the prosecutor and his son, a couple that run a gas station nearby, the father of the convicted. Using short chapters she weaves together these voices into a moving look at racism and what serves as justice in the Jim Crow South.

I don't remember where I heard about this novel, but I'm glad I read it. It doesn't appear to have had a very big audience so far. If you like historical fiction, please consider reading it.