The Blue Ice vs The Mercy Chair: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Thriller
The Blue Ice
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Ten years after George Farnell's disappearance, two lines of poetry and a lump of mineral ore are found. It's enough to send mineral expert Bill Gansert to Norway. But word of his findings has leaked out and Gansert…
The Mercy Chair
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Mike W. Craven (born 1968) is an English crime writer. He is the author of the Washington Poe series and the DI Avison Fluke series. In 2019 his novel The Puppet Show won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award.
Side by side
The verdict
- Readers rate The Mercy Chair highest: The Mercy Chair 4.3 · The Blue Ice 3.8.
- The Blue Ice is the quickest read — about 4 hours vs 8 for The Mercy Chair.
- The Blue Ice has the widest readership — 449 ratings behind its score.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| The Blue Ice | The Mercy Chair | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.8 (449) | — |
| Hardcover | 4.0 (3) | 4.5 (13) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.5 (42) |
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Reception
| The Blue Ice | The Mercy Chair | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 449 | 42 |
| Editions | 30 | — |
| Film adaptations | 1 | — |
| Want to read | 179 | — |
| Reading it now | 59 | — |
| Written reviews | 31 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 46 | 2696 |
| Pages | 246 | 443 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: The Blue Ice or The Mercy Chair?
The Mercy Chair has the higher combined reader rating across sources (The Mercy Chair 4.3/5, The Blue Ice 3.8/5).
Which is shorter to read: The Blue Ice or The Mercy Chair?
The Blue Ice is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: The Blue Ice (246 pages, ≈ 4 h 33 m); The Mercy Chair (443 pages, ≈ 8 h 12 m).
Which is harder to read: The Blue Ice or The Mercy Chair?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — The Blue Ice: Challenging; The Mercy Chair: Moderate.