I didn't know much about the series when I started the book except that there's a fair number of entries in it so far (at least eight( and that they are pretty cheap on Amazon Kindle.
As it turns out, judging from the first entry A Merciful Death, these books are a cross between murder-mystery, police-procedural and suspense thriller with a touch of romance and family drama thrown in for good measure. As with most genre works, especially detective novels, in my opinion the key factor in assessing the quality of the books is the complexity of the main character. Here that person is Mercy Kilpatrick, a FBI agent who left her small-town of Eagle's Nest, Oregon at the age of 18, estranged from her patriarchal family, who are anti-government, self-sufficient, doomsday "preppers" (people whose lives revolve around preparing for the end of civilization).
After a 15-year break, there are more murders in her hometown and Mercy is sent to investigate the deaths of three old male preppers who each had large stockpiles of guns and ammunition that have disappeared and the FBI is interested and concerned about determining what happened to these weapons. Back in Eagle's Nest for the first time since she she fed as a teenager, Mercy meets the new, hunky police chief Truman Daly whose uncle is one of the recent murder victims. The previous set of murders had been of young women close to Mercy's age and these events were related to why she had been forced to leave town. She hasn't had any contact with her family since then so there is a lot of family drama when she returns home, especially as an employee of the hated federal government.
Overall, I thought the first book in the series was quite effective as a thriller and as a story. Both Mercy and Truman are compelling characters and I enjoyed spending time with them. The secondary characters (her niece Kaylie and blind sister Rose) were also interesting. The plot was resolved a little too neatly but I suspect I'll be reading more of these books in the future.
Title: A Merciful Death.
Author: Kendra Elliott.
Paperback: 352 pages.
Publisher: Montlake Romance.
Date Published: January 17, 2017.
Date Read: February 5, 2019.
GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0).
OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).
PLOT: B+.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A-.
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