Review: ‘A Merciful Death’ by Kendra Elliot
A Merciful Death
by Kendra ElliotSeries: Mercy Kilpatrick #1
Published by Montlake Romance on January 17th 2017
SubGenres: Romantic Suspense
Format: Paperback
Pages: 342
Source: Purchased
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FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land—and off the grid—in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy’s past.
Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle’s Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man’s latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout…
A Merciful Death is the first book in Kendra Elliot’s new Mercy Kilpatrick series and it was definitely full of suspense, drama, and action, which made me not want to put it down.
Mercy Kilpatrick is a FBI special agent that is sent back to her hometown in Eagle’s Nest to determine if the killings that are happening there are leading up to a domestic terrorism event. Unfortunately, she never thought she would step back in Eagle’s Nest, especially when her family shunned her. When she starts looking around at the crime scenes, she notices details that are too familiar to an unsolved mystery that rocked Eagle’s Nest town so many years ago.
Kendra Elliot always manages to write some detailed in-depth characters with some very action-packed suspenseful storylines. Mercy Kilpatrick is what I would consider a character that is very secretive and down right kick-butt. I enjoyed getting to know her character in the first book (I heard she was in the Callahan & McLane series, but I have some catching up to do on some of Kendra’s books and I look forward to catching up this year) Mercy knows how to handle a crisis because of how she was brought up. Although once I got to meet her family in the story, I could understand why Mercy left. Mercy was raised in a family that prepared for the worst kind of fall out and they believed the woman was met to be home to tend to the garden, have children, and take care of their husband. Mercy though was not like that at all, which is why she became a FBI agent. I’m really glad she decided to follow her own path because she definitely became one strong woman.
The male character in the story, Truman Daly is just as fascinating as Mercy. He didn’t grow up in Eagle’s Nest, but he’s learning about the town. He is fascinated with Mercy, but he knows she is holding in secrets. When he finds out who Mercy is really, he is determine more than ever to win her over.
Kendra Elliot definitely didn’t make it easy for Mercy and Truman to find out what is happening in Eagle’s Nest. Secrets end up coming out of the blue and poor Mercy has to deal with her past all over again because of what is happening.
I don’t want to give anything away because this is really a great book. I look forward to the next book in the series and also I need to catch up on the other books Kendra has written in the last year or so. Let’s just say reading took a back burner last year, but I’m catching up on it this year.
I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it to Romantic Suspense readers out there. If you haven’t checked out any of Kendra Elliot’s books I definitely recommend you do. She’s one of my favorite Romantic Suspense authors and I tend to buy her books in paperback, so they can go in my bookcase with all my other favorite authors. 🙂
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About Kendra Elliot
An Amazon #1 selling author, Kendra Elliot has sold over 8 Million books and been on the WSJ best seller list eleven times.
She grew up in the lush Pacific Northwest and still lives there with her family and three cats. She's fascinated with forensics, refuses to eat anything green, and dreams of living every day in flip flops.
*New series!* THE LAST SISTER and THE SILENCE
The BONE SECRETS NOVELS: HIDDEN, CHILLED, BURIED, ALONE, KNOWN and VEILED (a novella).
The CALLAHAN & McLANE novels are a spin-off of the Bone Secrets books. VANISHED, BRIDGED, SPIRALED, and TARGETED.
The MERCY KILPATRICK series, a spin-off of the CALLAHAN & McLANE series, A MERCIFUL DEATH, A MERCIFUL TRUTH, A MERCIFUL SECRET, A MERCIFUL SILENCE, A MERCIFUL FATE, and A MERCIFUL PROMISE.
She also writes the Widow's Island and Rogue River novellas with Melinda Leigh.
2014 International Thriller Writers finalist, a three time Daphne Du Maurier winner, and a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice finalist.
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)
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