How well do you really know someone? That’s a question posed more than once in this intriguing thriller by Kendra Elliot, fifth in the Mercy Kilpatrick series about an FBI agent in Bend, Oregon. Raised by a family of off-the-grid survivalists, Mercy’s instincts die hard, but when you’ve known someone for a decade or more as a pillar of the community, it’s unimaginable they could be involved in a major crime.
When an ancient skeleton is found in a crumbling shack, one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the FBI’s files suddenly comes to life again, and it lands right in Mercy’s lap. Chasing a trail 30 years cold leads down a lot of rabbit holes until a dead journalist makes her realize one of those threads she’s pulled must lead somewhere. Somewhere she could never have expected.
I make no bones that I love this series, and A Merciful Fate is a great addition. If you haven’t read the others, though, I would advise going back and starting at the beginning, because though the author does her best to give you an outline sketch of the major characters without infodumping, there’s been a lot of worldbuilding over the previous four books which will give you great insight into the mindset of all of them, particularly Mercy, Truman and Ollie (possibly my favourite character of all). Five stars for another great installment in the series!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.