Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Mercury  By  cover art

Mercury

By: Margot Livesey
Narrated by: Derek Perkins, Nicol Zanzarella
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

A taut emotional thriller about love, obsession, and the secrets that pull a family apart.

Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optician in suburban Boston, he rests assured that he and his wife, Viv, who works at the local stables, will live out quiet lives with their two children. Then Mercury - a gorgeous young racehorse - enters their lives, and everything changes.

Viv's friend, Hilary, has inherited Mercury from her brother after his mysterious death - he was riding Mercury late one afternoon, and the horse returned to the stables alone. When Hilary first brings Mercury to board at the stables, everyone there is struck by his beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv dreams of competing with Mercury, rebuilding the ambitions of grandeur that she held for herself before moving to the suburbs.

But her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred quickly escalates to obsession. By the time Donald understands the change that has come over Viv, it is too late to stop the impending fate that both their actions have wrought for them and their loved ones.

A beautifully crafted, riveting novel about the ways in which relationships can be disrupted and ultimately destroyed by obsession, secrets, and ever-escalating lies.

©2016 Margot Livesey (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"[Narrators] Perkins and Zanzarella deliver convincing performances as a violent act brings devastation in this convoluted drama, which is less about a horse than about the erosion of trust due to secrets, lies, and willful blindness. Intense listening." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Mercury

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    16
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent! Great narration.

Fast paced story about ordinary lives. I couldn't stop listening. If you enjoy Franzen novels you will love this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, strange ending

I don’t know what happened in the ending line, which is why it’s a 4 not a 5. Love Margot Livesey, though. I’ve read/listened to everything of hers. If you’re a fan don’t miss it, and maybe you will understand ending.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A Horse Is a Horse. Or is it?

A woman wrecks the lives of her children, her husband, her friends, her family, and herself all because she falls in love with a horse????
If this hadn’t been a book group pick, I would have returned it way before I got to the end.
Narrator for Donald— very good.
Narrator for Viv— overly dramatic.
The only thing this book has going for it is vocabulary. Excellent use of vocabulary.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!