Joanna Schaffhausen | NO MERCY
Plot (via Goodreads):
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.
Review:
Last year, The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen took me by surprise. It was terrifying, harrowing, gritty, and immersive to say the least. I fell in love with the characters, the story kept me entertained, and the ending left me both satisfied and yearning for more. Well, that day has finally come with the next installment of the Ellery Hathawy series. No Mercy is the perfect follow up to The Vanishing Season and a bridge to even more hopeful installments in this series that is unapologetic, dazzling, and emotionally charged.
I love sophomore novels. I'm always eager to see if the author is going to write a completely different novel or stick with the same formula from their debut. With Schaffhausen, I got the perfect storm of both. Reading this one brought me back to The Vanishing Season with the brilliant way these characters are written and the way that Schaffhausen weaves in between the police procedural aspect that I loved with the first novel and the personalities that goes into both Ellery Hathaway and my new book-crush Reed Markham. Not only do I love these characters together, but the hints of romance and tension that grows between them left me begging for a spark when usually I want my thrillers to be free of romance. The way that they interact and work together is both easy to read and yet gives you the feeling that you just set up two of your friends and you're hoping for a wedding in a few years.
Taking this journey hand-in-hand with both Ellery and Reed was such a great read. Schaffhausen brings in two incredible cases that our protagonists deal with and yet still showcases the scars left from The Vanishing Season in a way that is realistic and beautifully executed. Having this one take place in Boston, where I had lived for a year was such an amazing touch as Schaffhausen killed it with the imagery with this one. I loved how Boston was almost an additional character. While this one is a little bit slower paced, it's still a quick and entertaining read and I loved the way that the two cases were introduced, both being cold cases and not related to one another. It made the pages really fly by when you're helping solve two cases with two fantastic characters within 300 pages. I loved the ending that left me both complacent and anticipating more. The book hangover with this one was real...I need book three and I need it now.
Special thanks to Minotaur Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: 4.5/5
I love sophomore novels. I'm always eager to see if the author is going to write a completely different novel or stick with the same formula from their debut. With Schaffhausen, I got the perfect storm of both. Reading this one brought me back to The Vanishing Season with the brilliant way these characters are written and the way that Schaffhausen weaves in between the police procedural aspect that I loved with the first novel and the personalities that goes into both Ellery Hathaway and my new book-crush Reed Markham. Not only do I love these characters together, but the hints of romance and tension that grows between them left me begging for a spark when usually I want my thrillers to be free of romance. The way that they interact and work together is both easy to read and yet gives you the feeling that you just set up two of your friends and you're hoping for a wedding in a few years.
Taking this journey hand-in-hand with both Ellery and Reed was such a great read. Schaffhausen brings in two incredible cases that our protagonists deal with and yet still showcases the scars left from The Vanishing Season in a way that is realistic and beautifully executed. Having this one take place in Boston, where I had lived for a year was such an amazing touch as Schaffhausen killed it with the imagery with this one. I loved how Boston was almost an additional character. While this one is a little bit slower paced, it's still a quick and entertaining read and I loved the way that the two cases were introduced, both being cold cases and not related to one another. It made the pages really fly by when you're helping solve two cases with two fantastic characters within 300 pages. I loved the ending that left me both complacent and anticipating more. The book hangover with this one was real...I need book three and I need it now.
Special thanks to Minotaur Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: 4.5/5
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