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Mercy
“A Newton takes their own life, or that of another.”
So says the curse of the Newtons.
As the river rises and rain lashes down, The Watering is filled with smoke. In the early hours, a charred corpse is found in the brew house. Mercy Newton is arrested and sent to Shrewsbury assizes.
But is she guilty?
Pieced together from historical records, the life of the nationally notorious Mercy Newton is presented for the first time. Lost to history, this real-life story of a family curse, a jealous daughter and a suspected murder has been forgotten for over 100 years.
Until now.
Praise for Mercy
"A relentlessly gritty true crime tale of inequality, hardship, co-dependency, deprivation and substance abuse in industrially rural 19th century England." - DJG Palmer, author of the Babanango trilogy
"Mercy vividly takes you into the extreme social inequality of the 19th century and makes compelling reading about the dire consequences on three generations of women." - Jay D. Waveney, author of Somersham Boy
"A strong and engrossing story that captures the period to perfection." - Mya Roberts, author of Song of the Sea
“A beautifully written tale, cleverly based around an interesting historical case; a fascinating glimpse into Bridgnorth past.” - Clive Gwilt, historian and author
“I was hooked from the very first line. Mercy is haunting, atmospheric, and beautifully written.” - Netgalley reviewer
“A tragic and poignant tale, perfect for gothic mystery readers.” - Netgalley reviewer
So says the curse of the Newtons.
As the river rises and rain lashes down, The Watering is filled with smoke. In the early hours, a charred corpse is found in the brew house. Mercy Newton is arrested and sent to Shrewsbury assizes.
But is she guilty?
Pieced together from historical records, the life of the nationally notorious Mercy Newton is presented for the first time. Lost to history, this real-life story of a family curse, a jealous daughter and a suspected murder has been forgotten for over 100 years.
Until now.
Praise for Mercy
"A relentlessly gritty true crime tale of inequality, hardship, co-dependency, deprivation and substance abuse in industrially rural 19th century England." - DJG Palmer, author of the Babanango trilogy
"Mercy vividly takes you into the extreme social inequality of the 19th century and makes compelling reading about the dire consequences on three generations of women." - Jay D. Waveney, author of Somersham Boy
"A strong and engrossing story that captures the period to perfection." - Mya Roberts, author of Song of the Sea
“A beautifully written tale, cleverly based around an interesting historical case; a fascinating glimpse into Bridgnorth past.” - Clive Gwilt, historian and author
“I was hooked from the very first line. Mercy is haunting, atmospheric, and beautifully written.” - Netgalley reviewer
“A tragic and poignant tale, perfect for gothic mystery readers.” - Netgalley reviewer
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 29, 2025
8 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 26, 2025
Emma Woodhouse's "Mercy" transforms exhaustive historical research into something more unsettling than conventional historical fiction—a "true story" that foregoes romanticism for the messy complexities of actual lives. The book is built on a foundation of extensive archival research into the 19th century. It offers an unflinching look at the structural violence of poverty, gender, and public judgment.
Set primarily in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, between 1823 and 1892, "Mercy" traces three generations of women—Anne Edwards, her daughter Mercy Newton, and granddaughter Maria Newton—whose lives are marred by cycles of addiction, violence, and social marginalization. But this is not a story of redemption in any conventional sense. Woodhouse explicitly resists the idea of a heroine; what she offers instead is a study of human resilience under conditions designed to crush it.
The book's historical specificity is one of its greatest strengths. From the impact of the Murder Act of 1751 to the public health panic surrounding cholera outbreaks, the legal and social textures of the era are operative forces shaping the characters' lives. The rare legal precedent of Mercy Newton allegedly becoming only the second person tried multiple times for murder under the British legal system—and possibly the first to endure three trials—becomes a narrative fulcrum, not only dramatizing the brittleness of Victorian justice but also exposing how class and gender shaped its outcomes.
The character arcs in "Mercy" are anything but tidy, and this distinguishes it from much historical fiction. Mercy Newton is portrayed neither as a victim nor a villain but as a woman whose survival instincts frequently place her at moral and legal crossroads. Her daughter Maria's trajectory—from hopeful escape to institutionalized demise—offers no consolatory arc, only a brutally honest meditation on what limited agency looks like when hemmed in by illness, shame, and the public's shifting sympathies.
Woodhouse's research is both visible and transparent. She names her sources, delineates where the historical record ends and where narrative inference begins, and, in doing so, builds trust rather than indulging in imaginative excess. Dialogue is shaped with historical fidelity, and her restraint in deploying dialect keeps the prose accessible while still evocative of time and place.
Though firmly historical, "Mercy" has contemporary resonance through its themes of familial trauma, public spectacle, institutional failure, and the ambiguous shape of justice, which are as current as they are historical. The novel engages with the long shadow cast by poverty and the intergenerational impact of addiction in ways that feel painfully familiar.
In the end, "Mercy" doesn't exonerate or condemn. Instead, it is a story about the messy, often invisible struggle of survival. It's a book that takes its subject seriously without lapsing into sentimentality. Woodhouse has written a work that doesn't romanticize the past but instead allows it to speak, in all its discomforting complexity, to the present.
This review is of an advance reader copy provided by NetGalley and Cranthorpe Millner Publishers.
Set primarily in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, between 1823 and 1892, "Mercy" traces three generations of women—Anne Edwards, her daughter Mercy Newton, and granddaughter Maria Newton—whose lives are marred by cycles of addiction, violence, and social marginalization. But this is not a story of redemption in any conventional sense. Woodhouse explicitly resists the idea of a heroine; what she offers instead is a study of human resilience under conditions designed to crush it.
The book's historical specificity is one of its greatest strengths. From the impact of the Murder Act of 1751 to the public health panic surrounding cholera outbreaks, the legal and social textures of the era are operative forces shaping the characters' lives. The rare legal precedent of Mercy Newton allegedly becoming only the second person tried multiple times for murder under the British legal system—and possibly the first to endure three trials—becomes a narrative fulcrum, not only dramatizing the brittleness of Victorian justice but also exposing how class and gender shaped its outcomes.
The character arcs in "Mercy" are anything but tidy, and this distinguishes it from much historical fiction. Mercy Newton is portrayed neither as a victim nor a villain but as a woman whose survival instincts frequently place her at moral and legal crossroads. Her daughter Maria's trajectory—from hopeful escape to institutionalized demise—offers no consolatory arc, only a brutally honest meditation on what limited agency looks like when hemmed in by illness, shame, and the public's shifting sympathies.
Woodhouse's research is both visible and transparent. She names her sources, delineates where the historical record ends and where narrative inference begins, and, in doing so, builds trust rather than indulging in imaginative excess. Dialogue is shaped with historical fidelity, and her restraint in deploying dialect keeps the prose accessible while still evocative of time and place.
Though firmly historical, "Mercy" has contemporary resonance through its themes of familial trauma, public spectacle, institutional failure, and the ambiguous shape of justice, which are as current as they are historical. The novel engages with the long shadow cast by poverty and the intergenerational impact of addiction in ways that feel painfully familiar.
In the end, "Mercy" doesn't exonerate or condemn. Instead, it is a story about the messy, often invisible struggle of survival. It's a book that takes its subject seriously without lapsing into sentimentality. Woodhouse has written a work that doesn't romanticize the past but instead allows it to speak, in all its discomforting complexity, to the present.
This review is of an advance reader copy provided by NetGalley and Cranthorpe Millner Publishers.
August 4, 2025
An engaging and atmospheric read that is both interesting to the reader and evokes a deeply reflective response. Based on true events, this story is well told and turns the pages almost without the will of the reader, whilst we follow the highs and lows (but mostly lows) of the various Newton family members. We are invited into the lives of three generations of the Newton women, and we follow the endless trials endured by them through the hardships they bear from others, but also their treatment of each other, which serves to create a range of emotions in the reader, particularly as we have to follow the trial of one of them too.
Throughout the telling of the story, which is presented from different narrative perspectives and through different time scales, readers are skilfully encouraged to feel sympathy for the lives these women live and the hardships they bear, which is managed effectively throughout - it’s hard to know who to believe and who to feel sympathy for… as we’re told from the beginning - there are no heroines in this story. But what we do have is a multitude of people who suffer, mostly women; a wealth of societal problems, which nobody seems disposed to help or take responsibility for; and an endless stream of suffering that leaves the reader with a sense of sorrow that lasts the whole way through the book.
Throughout the telling of the story, which is presented from different narrative perspectives and through different time scales, readers are skilfully encouraged to feel sympathy for the lives these women live and the hardships they bear, which is managed effectively throughout - it’s hard to know who to believe and who to feel sympathy for… as we’re told from the beginning - there are no heroines in this story. But what we do have is a multitude of people who suffer, mostly women; a wealth of societal problems, which nobody seems disposed to help or take responsibility for; and an endless stream of suffering that leaves the reader with a sense of sorrow that lasts the whole way through the book.
October 4, 2025
absolutely loved this story (based on real events) , gripping, rollercoaster of emotions- loved it!!!
November 23, 2025
Mercy by Emma Woodhouse was chosen as a read for my book club which meets in Bridgnorth so this was a highly significant choice by a local author. The life of Mercy Newton was almost wholly lived in Bridgnorth and the surrounding villages where she grew up in abject poverty with her mother Anne who brought her up as a single mother after the death of her husband and Mercy's father. Anne was Thomas Newton's second wife and any property he left went to the sons of his first marriage. Anne did however have £500 in a trust that provided her with a meagre monthly income in interest. The significance of the £500 in the life of Mercy cannot be underestimated for she blamed her mother for their destitution and knew that when her mother died £200 of the money would come directly to her and the rest would continue as an investment.
Over the years the anger and resentment Mercy felt towards her mother increased and witness statements and research by Emma Woodhouse show how repeatedly Mercy was known to verbally abuse her mother and wish her dead as well as occasions when, significantly, soused in gin, Anne Newton would actually catch garments on fire and had to be saved from burning. As a single mother herself Mercy wanted a better life for her daughter and moved to Bridgnorth to work as a housekeeper at the grander houses, with a better wage and potentially the prospect of marriage to an older man for whom she kept house.
On the evening of 4th December 1848 Anne Newton had again arrived at the Watering in Underhill Street which runs alongside the River Severn, the house where Mercy had most recently been employed, begging again for money. With a storm in full spate the river had burst its banks and flooded Underhill Street, when the maid at the Watering, woke to the smell of smoke in the bedroom, she rushed from the house to find help to remove her bedridden master, but when help arrived they discovered the fire had been contained to the kitchen and the deceased body of Anne Newton was lying outside on the steps of the brewhouse her clothing having been on fire. Mercy was arrested for her murder and taken to the Bridgnorth cells and later to Shrewsbury gaol to await trail at the next assises.
Meticulously researched, Emma Woodhouse has unearthed the records of a mystery that has long been forgotten. At one time Mercy Newton was notorious in the English press but her name has long since vanished even largely from local memory. Written in a style where the reader swaps between the that night in 1848 and what follows, and the events that occur in 1823 when Mercy is a child, Woodhouse cleverly reveals to the reader how events in a family and a family's reputation can influence someone's life and change the course of their future without their involvement. Mercy Newton is as much a victim of this as is her mother before her, as well as being born in the wrong social class and with no chance of escaping the drudgery of poverty without a highly unlikely advantageous marriage.
The guilt or innocence of Mercy and the circumstances of Anne's death that night are never truly revealed despite the multiple trials Mercy endured and the long months in between in Shrewsbury gaol, and the truth of what did happen that night has been lost in time with the passing of the only person who really knows, Mercy. But, there is so much more to this novel than the mystery of Anne's death. The overwhelming feeling I was left with was the unrelenting misery of working class life at that time. Literally a whole underclass of people living literally hand to mouth and not knowing where the next scrap of food was going to come from, leads to a desperation that can only be imagined today and I was left with the questions that if I were in Mercy's place on the 4th December 1848 what would I have done and if I were on the jury at her trial would I have found her guilty of murder?
Only the reader can decide.
Over the years the anger and resentment Mercy felt towards her mother increased and witness statements and research by Emma Woodhouse show how repeatedly Mercy was known to verbally abuse her mother and wish her dead as well as occasions when, significantly, soused in gin, Anne Newton would actually catch garments on fire and had to be saved from burning. As a single mother herself Mercy wanted a better life for her daughter and moved to Bridgnorth to work as a housekeeper at the grander houses, with a better wage and potentially the prospect of marriage to an older man for whom she kept house.
On the evening of 4th December 1848 Anne Newton had again arrived at the Watering in Underhill Street which runs alongside the River Severn, the house where Mercy had most recently been employed, begging again for money. With a storm in full spate the river had burst its banks and flooded Underhill Street, when the maid at the Watering, woke to the smell of smoke in the bedroom, she rushed from the house to find help to remove her bedridden master, but when help arrived they discovered the fire had been contained to the kitchen and the deceased body of Anne Newton was lying outside on the steps of the brewhouse her clothing having been on fire. Mercy was arrested for her murder and taken to the Bridgnorth cells and later to Shrewsbury gaol to await trail at the next assises.
Meticulously researched, Emma Woodhouse has unearthed the records of a mystery that has long been forgotten. At one time Mercy Newton was notorious in the English press but her name has long since vanished even largely from local memory. Written in a style where the reader swaps between the that night in 1848 and what follows, and the events that occur in 1823 when Mercy is a child, Woodhouse cleverly reveals to the reader how events in a family and a family's reputation can influence someone's life and change the course of their future without their involvement. Mercy Newton is as much a victim of this as is her mother before her, as well as being born in the wrong social class and with no chance of escaping the drudgery of poverty without a highly unlikely advantageous marriage.
The guilt or innocence of Mercy and the circumstances of Anne's death that night are never truly revealed despite the multiple trials Mercy endured and the long months in between in Shrewsbury gaol, and the truth of what did happen that night has been lost in time with the passing of the only person who really knows, Mercy. But, there is so much more to this novel than the mystery of Anne's death. The overwhelming feeling I was left with was the unrelenting misery of working class life at that time. Literally a whole underclass of people living literally hand to mouth and not knowing where the next scrap of food was going to come from, leads to a desperation that can only be imagined today and I was left with the questions that if I were in Mercy's place on the 4th December 1848 what would I have done and if I were on the jury at her trial would I have found her guilty of murder?
Only the reader can decide.
November 9, 2025
Well researched story that had me hooked from the first page - what story wouldn't when you have a personal link with the farm in question.
The story leads you through the life and trials of Mercy Newton and leaves the reader to make their own decision on her guilt. The story brings the town to life, and for myself, I was able to see the story in my mind as I have most of my life closely linked to Bridgnorth.
The story leads you through the life and trials of Mercy Newton and leaves the reader to make their own decision on her guilt. The story brings the town to life, and for myself, I was able to see the story in my mind as I have most of my life closely linked to Bridgnorth.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews