2018 romantic mystery, third in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. One
snowy night, Mercy nearly runs over a child seeking help for her dying
grandmother. Who, it becomes clear, has been murdered.
This series seems to be getting into its stride. The first book
had a lot of setup to do with Mercy's background and prepper habits;
the second one seemed largely to forget about them except as
background detail. But here the survivalist ethos engages with the
plot and makes this a Mercy Kilpatrick story rather than a "generic
FBI agent in a small town" story, without taking over completely and
making it a "generic prepper" story.
There's also quite a bit about the way the town puts up with the local
witch (as long as she can supply love potions and relationship advice)
but doesn't like her, and a very slight edge into supernaturalism
clearly downplayed to keep the mainstream detective reader on board.
None of that's actually the primary plot, since it seems that that
grandmother and a retired judge were killed in the same way just a few
days apart. What do they have in common, and why kill them now?
Standard mystery story rules say that it must be someone we know
about, and that's quite a small set of people, but this part's still
an enjoyable backbone on which the other material, including
progression of the book-to-book development of Mercy's personal life,
can be hung.
For me, the best of the series so far, though book one's setup would
certainly be helpful in working out who's who.
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