A FATAL MERCY is set in the American War of Secession and its aftermath. Drayton FitzHenry is the son of a prominent South Carolina planter. He opposes secession but joins his brothers in the Confederate Army in defense of his state. During the war's decisive battle at Gettysburg, Drayton commits an act of mercy toward a Union officer which he later discovers probably caused the South to lose the battle. By his act of mercy, he is literally "the man who lost the Civil War."
Drayton wrestles with guilt and self-reproach for half a century until he travels to Gettysburg in 1913 when 50,000 Union and Confederate veterans returned to the battlefield for a time of national reconciliation.
A Fatal Mercy was Long-Listed for the 2017 British Bridport Prize for Fiction. The first chapter was a winner in the "Chapter One Contest" of the West Cork (Ireland) Literary Festival.
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"A Fatal Mercy is a gripping novel of conscience with all the grandeur of Gone with the Wind and all the gravitas of War and Peace."
-- Mary Morissy, Professor, novelist, winner of a Hennessy Award, Lannan Literary Foundation Award, and a member of the Aosdana, the association of Ireland's leading writers.
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Thomas Moore brings 25 years' experience in Washington, DC in national defense, foreign policy, and international trade to his writing of fiction. He is the author of two previous historical novels, The Hunt for Confederate Gold and No Villains, No Heroes. A graduate of The Citadel, he earned an MA in National Security Affairs from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He attended University College Cork, Ireland, where he earned an MA in History of the Irish Revolution and an MA in Creative Writing, both with First Class Honours. Thomas and his wife Rhonda live in Aiken, SC.