Reviewed by Larry

To date, this is the best story I have had the pleasure of reading here on SSC. Mercy is an old man's tale of courage and suspense that takes the reader through war-time Italy on a mission to rescue a precious religious artifact.

The author has chosen the perfect POV for this one. Originally, I thought perhaps it was a bit too convenient to tell this tale in this manner, but I realized that it may not be the tale that the old man tells that is so important, but the man himself.

The old man's voice throughout is consistent and convincing. He does a wonderful job of building suspense and not burying us in detail. He is admittedly a trickster as we learn from the chess game scene, and he admits to having been a youth of ill repute. In these vailed hints about the old man is where I found the story held it's charm, not withstanding the great yarn he tells. Bravo!