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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Review: No Mercy by Joanna Schaffhausen

Author:Joanna Schaffhausen
publisher: Minatour Books
Date of publication: January 2019

Police officer Ellery Hathaway is on involuntary leave from her job because she shot a murderer in cold blood and refuses to apologize for it. Forced into group therapy for victims of violent crime, Ellery immediately finds higher priorities than “getting in touch with her feelings.”

For one, she suspects a fellow group member may have helped to convict the wrong man for a deadly arson incident years ago. For another, Ellery finds herself in the desperate clutches of a woman who survived a brutal rape. He is still out there, this man with the Spider-Man-like ability to climb through bedroom windows, and his victim beseeches Ellery for help in capturing her attacker.
Ellery seeks advice from her friend, FBI profiler Reed Markham, who liberated her from a killer’s closet when she was a child. Reed remains drawn to this unpredictable woman, the one he rescued but couldn’t quite save. The trouble is, Reed is up for a potential big promotion, and his boss has just one condition for the new job—stay away from Ellery. Ellery ignores all the warnings. Instead, she starts digging around in everyone’s past but her own—a move that, at best, could put her out of work permanently, and at worst, could put her in the city morgue.
No Mercy is the followup book to The Vanishing Season.  Once again we follow Ellery and her FBI colleague Reed as they try to solve a serial rape case.  This one takes place in a different setting than the first.  When the book opens, Ellery has been living in Boston and has been attending group therapy in an effort to get her police job back.  There she stumbles on a couple of mysteries and enlists Reed to help her. I enjoyed this follow up.  Since there was more than one mystery to be solved, it had a steady pace and keep me engaged.  It can be read as a stand alone, however, you will be spoiled a bit for the first book if you read this one first.  

What I liked most about the book was the changing and growing friendship between Ellery and Reed.  They are no longer "the victim and the rescuer", but finally equals.  There is a hint that there could be more, but I'm not sure how I feel about their relationship going any further than friendship.  The book ends on a semi-cliffhanger that potentially sets things up for a next book.  I hope there will  be further adventures with these two characters and I look forward to reading it.


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