No Mercy by Lori Armstrong

Title: No Mercy
Author: Lori Armstrong
Series: Mercy Gunderson Mystery #1
Publication Date: January 12th 2010


Synopsis:

On medical leave from the Army, Mercy heads home to her family ranch after the recent death of her father, having been away for 20 years. It's her responsibility to decide whether to sell the ranch or not, and she gets little help from her sister and nephew. After a dead body is discovered on her land, Mercy butts heads with the sheriff, Mason Dawson.

When another body is discovered, Mercy starts her own investigation into the deaths. As she unearths buried secrets, her life--and the lives of family members--are put in jeopardy

Review:

I've had this book on my shelf FOREVER!  When I originally bought this book it was because of the blurb and the cover of the book....Anyone else ever do that?  I'm pissed at myself that this book sat on my TBR shelf for as long as it did...IT WAS FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!

The book itself is told from the point of view of our main character, Mercy Gunderson, a female Army sniper.  Who is home on leave due to the death of her father. It's up to Mercy to figure out what's going to happen to the family ranch...Is she gonna sell or is she gonna stay. When things start getting really dicey around town, when the body of a dead Native American boy is found on her ranch.  It seems that with Mercy coming home, death follows her in 3's.

That's when she starts butting heads with the Sheriff Mason Dawson.  She doesn't think he's doing his job, he says he is.  She doesn't trust him, he wishes she would.  You know the beginning of a beautiful "friends with benefits" relationship.

Then things turn personal and Mercy isn't just looking for answers, she's looking for revenge.  When Mercy decides that she's had enough of Sheriff Dawson NOT doing enough she launches her own investigation and finds out some shocking revelations.  The people she thought she could count on start turning on her.  Not all is as it seems.

I guess the thing that bothered me the most about the book was that the main part of the plot was figuring out the deaths of 3 Native American kids.  It bothered me but at the same time it made the story VERY strong.  Another thing that bothered me was the politics.  I kind of got the "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" feel during parts of the book, but then again, this mentality also helped to solidify the story.

The things that I really liked about the book were that it was definitely a page turner.  Once I started No Mercy I had to keep going and it ticked me off that I had to do other things, like work and laundry, instead of finishing this book.  I also really liked how Mercy was written.  Sure she's an Army sniper but she's also human and has feelings...so she's kind of written as a bad ass with feelings. The other characters were pretty great too...with the exception of Theo, who was written as the smarmy bastard that he ended up being.  Then there was the MINOR character who ended up playing a MAJOR role in how things ended up.

Overall, to say that I enjoyed No Mercy would be a vast understatement.  Immediately upon finishing No Mercy I started into book number 2 Mercy Kill.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an excellent mystery. 

RATING:

5+/5