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I have been doing some thinking and I've come to the conclusion that I need to take a temporary break from book blogging. NOTE: Any tour stops that I've committed to will be honored. I have decided that I want to combine my love of books, blogging, knitting, movies digital photography and life in general into 1 blog so that I don't feel so overwhelmed. Right now I feel like my book blogging is a job, I already have one of those. My plan is to come back in the near future with a new blog and a new plan.

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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Mercy Kill by Lori Armstrong

Title: Mercy Kill
Author: Lori Armstrong
Series: Mercy Gunderson Mystery #2
Publication Date: January 11th 2011

Synopsis:

Former Black Ops army sniper Mercy Gunderson isn’t adjusting well to the laid-back rhythm of civilian life on her family’s ranch in South Dakota. To fill her time, Mercy accepts a temporary bartending gig at a local watering hole. Yet her attempts to settle in back home are tested when Titan Oil, a Canadian company proposing to run an underground pipeline through Eagle River County, sends Jason Hawley, Mercy’s former army buddy, to the area to convince ranchers to get behind the project.
 
While local business owners support the pipeline, Hawley’s presence riles the landowners, and Mercy is torn. After ugly threats and multiple altercations escalate tensions in the county, Mercy discovers Hawley’s brutally mutilated body in the bar parking lot. When it appears Sheriff Dawson cares more about campaigning for reelection than investigating the case, Mercy vows to find Jason Hawley’s killer—even if she has to run against Dawson for sheriff to ensure justice is served.

But Mercy soon learns her former military pal had plenty of secrets. Her search for the truth brings unwanted exposure to the county’s dark side and risks deadly repercussions for the entire community.

Review:

I put in a request for this book a LONG time ago through my library and I squealed and jumped and down like a little girl when it finally arrived for me to check out. Just like No Mercy this book was fan-freaking-tastic!

Now that Mercy is out of the Army, she is trying to ease back into civilian life on her families South Dakota ranch, which is NOT going well at all.  To stay busy and sober at least some of the time, she takes a job at a local bar, but her life is turned ass over head when her friend and former Army buddy Jason Hawley comes to town.  See Jason works for Titan Oil, who is a huge Canadian Oil Company), and he is there to try and convince the citizens of Eagle River County that the proposed pipeline that Titan Oil wants to run through their community and ranches is a good thing.  The citizen's aren't buying it.  The citizen's want nothing at all to do with Titan Oil OR Jason Hawley.

Thing's get even worse when Mercy finds Jason's brutally murdered body outside the bar that she works at.  From Mercy's point of view no seems all that interested in finding the person who killed Jason and that includes the sheriff.  That's when Mercy makes it her personal mission to find Jason's killer.  But the deeper Mercy gets into finding Jason's killer, the more dark secrets she uncovers about her little South Dakota town.

As with Mercy Kill, Armstrong paints an extremely descriptive picture that you feel like you are actually there with Mercy.  Right there in Eagle River.  Such vivid pictures.  I thought that the story was a fast paced, intense roller coaster of a ride.  One that I just could not put down.  I really enjoyed that Mercy as well as the other characters in this book were written in a way that made them seem just as hard and borderline unforgiving as the landscape they inhabit.


RATING:
5+/5

10 comments:

Vivien said...

I am loving this review. The last paragraph just makes me want to go out and read this series.

SiNn said...

I love how u paint the picture of ur thoughts its like reading a picture book awesome review deff have to read this as well

Deea said...

Ok, you convinced me with the last paragraph too. :) I'll try to check this book out ASAP!
xoxo

____ said...

Just as with the review for Mercy Kill, your vivid comments coupled with your raw enthusiasm is very convincing. Consider this book added to the list as well. Thanks for sharing!

MarjoleinBookBlog said...

Great review, going to check out the book!

Ricki said...

I don't think I could image going from being a Black Ops sniper (which I imagine is a pretty intense, action-packed job) to living in a small town in South Dakota.

Kulsuma said...

This too sounds really interesting. I wouldn't know the first thing about investigating a murder.

donnas said...

Sounds great. Thanks for sharing.

joyh82 said...

Very descriptive review, thanks for sharing and for the giveaway. Can't wait to start this series.

Christie said...

It's so great to hear the second book is just as good as the first one. I've been searching for some "I just can't put it down... one more page" books I am definitely adding these to my list!

Christie
swaggirl01 at gmail dot com