A Tangled Mercy is a haunting, touching and extremely relevant novel. It's a mystery that explores racism, history, slavery and the importance of family. A lot of really tough issues are laid bare within its pages - I think everyone should read this.

The world building is impressive, and the characters are very detailed - they practically jump off the page. I could picture young Gabe perfectly, and got a bit attached to him - which lead to some pretty heart-stopping moments.

The story itself is fantastic. There are regular time jumps in the narrative, and they flowed really well together with no reader confusion. I was completely engrossed in the mystery, and actually got quite frustrated at times with it! But that wasn't the part that really hit me hard - Jordan-Lake chose to integrate the Charleston church shooting into the plot, and honoured the victims really well. To say this is an emotional book is an understatement.

Go read this.