Marilyn's Mystery Reads

When Mercury Carter promises to deliver a package, you may be sure it will arrive.

The novel opens with a heart-pounding scene.  It’s a rainy night in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and the former postal inspector is on his way to deliver the package slated for arrival the next day.  As he rounds a curve in the road he sees a car almost cut in half by a utility pole, and there’s a woman, apparently unconscious, in the front seat.

Grabbing a crowbar from his car to force the driver’s side door open, Merc is momentarily relieved when a van stops.  The motorist gets out of his vehicle and demands that Merc get away from the damaged car, pointing a gun at him.  Carter uses the only weapon at his disposal, the crowbar, and flings it across the space separating them, breaking the man’s nose.

The man leaves, though not without threatening Merc, and Merc waits for the police to arrive to tell his story.  Although the officer is suspicious, he has no reason to hold him, so Carter goes to a nearly motel for the night and the woman is taken to a local hospital.  The next morning, checking the many pockets in his utility vest, he finds a small ruby ring and a business card with a phone number and the word Help written on the back of the card.

Merc calls the phone number on the card and asks to be connected to Jason Shulte; when a man answers he’s told there’s no one there by that name.  Carter goes on to say that he got the name and number, along with a small ring, from a woman involved in an accident.  The man is obviously distraught and emotional when he hears that, saying that the ring belongs to his daughter, and he invites Merc to his home so they can talk about the situation.

Visiting Valerie and Jim Watkins the next morning, Merc learns that the ring is Terri’s, whom they haven’t seen in eighteen months.  She’s addicted to drugs and wanted money from her parents, which they refused to give her.  She stormed out of the restaurant where the three were eating, and that was the last time they saw her.  They hire Carter to find her.

Then we meet Monica, her husband Randy, and Vickers, the man with whom she’s having an affair.  They’re looking for a laptop that belongs to another man, now deceased.  It’s part of a scheme that will bring them money, more money than they’ve ever had.  So they’ll do anything to find it.

There is a lot going on in The Delivery, including a number of subplots that tie together at the end, thanks to Merc.  Since he had been a postal inspector, he had completed the training that all other federal officers do when faced with an emergency.  Now he will have to use all his skills to help Valerie and Jim Watkins locate Terri and to foil the three people looking for the missing laptop.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins has created a terrific character in Mercury Carter.  Carter is warm, dependable, and capable of handing himself in any situation.  This is the second book in the series, and I’m looking forward to the third.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.