'The Mercy Chair' with M.W. Craven

Winner of the 2023 Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year returns to Verey Books with the next Washington Poe novel.

We’re delighted that Cumbrian author of international repute, M.W. Craven is back for a Words on Wednesday event to celebrate the launch of his new book ‘The Mercy Chair.’

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

This October, Washington Poe has a story to tell at Ullswater’s Bookshop for Curious Minds – and he needs you to listen.

You’ll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder . . .

He’ll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He’ll tell you how the man’s murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family.

And finally, he’ll tell you about the mercy chair. And why people would rather kill themselves than talk about it . . .

Poe hopes you’ve been paying attention. Because in this story, nothing is as it seems . .