Patty Pick for 4/30/15 is "this dark road to mercy" by Wiley Cash

I could not wait to read another book by Wiley Cash after reading his, "A Land More Kind than Home". So when it was my turn to pick a book for my book club to read, I picked "This Dark Road to Mercy", his second novel. This novel centers around two sisters instead 
of two brothers and we change our locale to Gastonia, NC. What this one has in common with Wiley Cash's' first book is well written characters who are involved in personal and criminal tragedies.
We meet Easter and Ruth Quillby as they struggle through a hardscrabble life that includes finding their mother dead of a drug overdose in their house. The overly mature Easter takes her sister's hand and marches down to the corner convenience store to call 911. They are placed in foster care together and give a guardian by the court, Brady Weller, who has his own ghosts. 
Easter and Ruth are making friends, and trying to stay together in the system, when 
someone knocks on their window they do not expect - their father, Wade. Wade abandoned them when Ruth was young and their mother has forbidden his name to 
be mentioned. Wade had a promising baseball career that he threw away with a wild pitch and a recovery that never healed. He had made a choice that will effect all their 
lives. 
Easter is a mature, smart 12-year-old who knows how to figure out things on her own. She has been doing this and taking care of her younger sister for a long time. As the three run away together, they have a lot of people looking for them. This includes a criminal without an ounce of compassion named Robert Pruitt. He has a personal stake in finding Wade and it's not a good one. As our reluctant father works to start a relationship back with his daughters, they all run from Pruitt.  
As this thrilling southern novel runs toward the end, you want the girls to have a future in a safe environment, but does that include their father?