Mercy

Marcia Trahan first watched true crime shows in private, embarrassed by how eagerly she followed one grisly story after another. It took years for her to see a link between that appetite and a run of invasive medical procedures that had left her feeling preyed upon. Her question drives the book: can the body distinguish a blade wielded by an attacker from one wielded by a surgeon?

The question pulls Trahan back through her physical response to lifesaving treatment and through the childhood events that first made her feel unsafe in her own body. Along the way she examines the recurring conventions of the true crime genre and why they hold such pull.

Part personal memoir and part cultural critique, the book looks at why true crime draws so many readers and how many people spend their lives anticipating harm.