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The Quality of Mercy
August 2025: Family Drama
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The Quality of Mercy - Faye Kellerman - 2.5 stars
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Just to add a note, there is indeed all kinds of family drama.
Since you rarely give 2 star ratings, this got my attention. You're a very patient reader. The book must be pretty bad for you to rate it so low. I wouldn't have liked 30 pages of "I love you," either.It's too bad. I've read more than a few of Kellerman's novels. I used to enjoy them.
Holly R W wrote: "Since you rarely give 2 star ratings, this got my attention. You're a very patient reader. The book must be pretty bad for you to rate it so low. I wouldn't have liked 30 pages of "I love you," eit..."There is something at the heart of this book that could have been good. I think Dr.Rodrigo Lopez story is of great interest and I understand why she tied it to Shakespeare because of the Merchant of Venice. I don't buy the love interest between Shakespeare and Lopez's daughter Rebecca.
It is almost a case of picking through and finding the bits of interest and that could be redeemed. I would have liked the Shakespeare mystery part in a whole separate book.
Kellerman had researched about Doctor Roderigo Lopez who had been Queen Elizabeth I's doctor and learned that Shakespearean scholars believe that Shylock of The Merchant of Venice was based on Lopez. It seemed to be an excellent choice. It wasn't.
We have a plot which links Lopez's daughter Rebecca to Shakespeare, an extraneous mystery in which Shakespeare attempts to find the murderer of his mentor and another with the Lopez family helping Spanish families escape the Inquisition.
Staunching the excitement were way to numerous love scenes (nothing remotely x-rated) in which declarations of love seem to be unending. I'm sure that well over 30 pages of "I love you" could have been edited out.
To put it all simply, this was not a good book.