Soon to be a TV series by Warner Brothers Television and Ellen Degeneres’s A Very Good Production.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 … 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…
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Love this first book in Kendra Elliot’s latest series. FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick is a fantastic character. I love her backstory of growing up as a prepper, and not quite being able to let go of that background even though her family has basically disowned her. It makes for a lot of conflict when she must return to Eagle’s Nest, the town where she grew up, and face her family members while investigating a murder that gets a little too close to home.
I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Mercy and Truman Daly, Eagle’s Nest’s police chief, and I look forward to seeing where book two takes us. I highly recommend this book!!
~ Heather Sunseri, Author of Exposed in Darkness
Mercy is an FBI agent from a family of preppers living in a remote town in Oregon. Mercy’s self-sufficient, strong, and a nature lover. She’s someone I would love to meet! Love this whole series!
the Mercy Kilpatrick series is easy to read. All the books are out now and if you dive in, be prepared to read through. Elliot has crafted the characters with exquisite detail, so that the things that happen in the last book are predicted in the first one. The two main characters are flawed but bold, good to each other, but still stumble, and the suspense is nail biting. Elliot has an amazing series on her hands and you should definitely read it!
Loved this book! I have to admit I’m scared to go to Eastern Oregon now, which means Ms. Elliot did an amazing job building her world! Fabulous RS!
I loved Mercy’s unique upbringing and how that’s come full circle in this book. The romance between Mercy and Truman is very realistic and just so well done.
I am so happy to have discovered Kendra Elliot and her Mercy Kilpatrick series. Mercy is STRONG, SMART, KICK BUTT, NO NONSENSE FEMALE lead who is a brilliant investigator and FBI Agent. I am already on my 5th Mercy Kilpatrick book. I only discovered Ms. Elliot in January 2019.
A MERCIFUL DEATH (Mercy Kilpatrick #1) by Kendra Elliot is the start of a new series that is a cross between romantic suspense and mystery/suspense. This type of series is always difficult to categorize for me, but it is similar to Melinda Leigh’s Morgan Dane series and/or Marie Force’s Fatal series which are must reads for me.
FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick grew up in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains. Until the age of eighteen, Mercy was raised in a family of preppers. After a falling out with her father that had him disowning her, Mercy left town to build her own life. Her lifetime of being prepared for disaster has stayed with her though and is a necessary part of her life even though she hides it from her colleagues.
When there are a series of elderly male preppers murdered in Mercy’s hometown. What would normally be a local case catches the FBI’s attention when the preppers large caches of weapons are also stolen. This raises the possibility of domestic terrorism. Her FBI supervisor sends her and her partner to work with the nearby Bend office and local law enforcement.
Eagle Nest Police Chief Truman Daly is the nephew of one of the murdered men. Raised in the community only on summer breaks, he is just starting to be accepted in a community that has its own ideas about the government and police. As Truman works with Mercy on the murders, he learns of her family ties to the community and begins to suspect, she did not completely leave her prepper life behind.
Mercy discovers that these current murders are eerily familiar to two unsolved murders in the town’s past. With her sister now involved, Mercy and Truman must capture a killer who has been free in their community for much too long before her sister suffers the same fate.
Mercy is a wonderfully unique and flawed character. I find her so interesting and want to know much more about her and her family. Truman has his own interesting history and I hope this budding romance continues. He has his work cut out for him with such an independent heroine who does not like to share her secrets. The plot was interesting and tied in well with the older cases, but this is also why I gave this book four stars instead of five. I found Mercy’s brother’s actions not believable. (No spoilers, so you will have to read it and see if you agree.) Overall, a good start to this series and I am looking forward to reading the next book.
I read the whole series it’s not bad it’s just they are all very predictable
This is the third series of novels that I am expounding on in suspense romance by this author. It doesn’t hurt that it is a Kindle Unlimited audio so I decided to listen to the story.
This was a good thriller and gave you an insight on the life of “Preparer Community” individuals. Unfortunately, Mercy did not stand out as a main character for me as this story is built around her. The story takes place in Oregon where several characters who have prepared for end of world, turn up dead and it is up to Mercy to find out the truth.
Some things in the novel just didn’t make sense for me. I had a hard time to continue to listen as it fell apart in some parts of the story. Some areas had too much informaion and others too little.
It was just an okay listen for me. Hoping the next in this series is a bit better as I have loved this authors books sense I’ve kinda got hooked on suspense romances.
I love a series. I started reading Kendra Elliot’s Merciful series and I’m hooked!
I am hooked on FBI agent Mercy and her grit and attitude on life. She left her family, put herself through college and became a top FBI agent. She has secrets that she can’t avoid as tries to solve three murders in her hometown. Mercy will deal with seeing family that let her leave and the new murders seem to bring back memories from the past….broken mirrors.
The information on preppers was very interesting….yes they can be weird, armed, and scary. But the fact that we are unprepared for major hardships with canned goods, batteries, etc is eye opener.
You meet Rose, Mercy’s blind sister, her brother Levi and the new sheriff Truman. Truman is smart, quiet, a secret in his past also, and intrigued by Mercy. Yes, it is a bit romantic and doesn’t take away from the murders at all. Solid plot that keeps you guessing and I read the book in one sitting.
Not a cozy, or scarily intense read but it delivers a good police procedural with a small town feel. Adding the ways of the people called preppers added interest to this book. Hope to read more by the author…..deserves 4 and1/2 stars
Kendra Elliott is one of my “go-to” authors for romantic suspense books. When I see her name on a new release I know I am going to get a first-rate gripping thriller which is well-written and maintains my interest throughout the story. A Merciful Secret which is book #3 in Kendra Elliott’s Mercy Kilpatrick series is an excellent example of this author’s fantastic writing skill set. This book has characters who are realistic and relatable to the reader. They have some character flaws, so not perfect unbelievable characters. In this book FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick once again must use her excellent thinking skills and brave and caring attitude to solve a case. Mercy’s love interest, Eagle’s Nest Police Chief Truman Daly stays true to character as well. He must use all his skills to help support Mercy in her endeavers.
The author expertly describes her action scenes so that the reader feels involved personally in all the action. This is a fast-moving thriller which keeps the reader guessing until the end and doesn’t let up so you keep turning the pages eagerly in anticipation of finding out who-done-it!
Hands down one of the best mysteries I’ve read in years! It’s got it all: plot twists, deep characters, romance, suspense! I would put this author in the same category as Patricia Cornwell.
I read the second book as well, and it was even better. Can’t wait for the 3rd!
Not sure how I found his book but man am I glad I did. The story completed captured my attention and the fact that the audiobook was included meant that I could read/listen almost nonstop. I didn’t want to put the book down when “adulting” got in my way!
Mercy is a compelling character with so many interesting elements of her personality. Truman is a great match to her personality. The character development and growth through the story arc is well done. The story arc is well paced and the tension and suspense is well managed and manipulated. The crisis moment was intense and the closure was both heartbreaking and cathartic.
The whole “preppers” lifestyle/philosophy was interesting and the explanation of all the steps taken was illuminating. I am anxious to start book two. Strongly recommend this series!
THIS REVIEW IS FOR BOTH THE AUDIOBOOK AND EBOOK VERSIONS
Thrilling story, great action scenes and some intense situations. Some content that could be a trigger for some. Also some emotional scenes. I enjoyed the story. The narration was perfect and lively. I recommend this book.
I was looking for a new mystery/suspense series and decided to give this one a chance. I have never read anything by this author before, and this sounded good. Mercy Kilpatrick, an FBI agent, is called in to investigate murders in Eagles Nest, Oregon. Eagles Nest just happens to be her hometown where she ran away from at age eighteen, some fifteen years ago. She hasn’t seen or spoken to her family since we quickly learn there is a mystery surrounding this occurrence.
Mercy soon notices that the murders she is investigating have an eerie connection to murders committed before she left home. She must get someone to believe that the broken mirrors at the crime scenes mean the same killer is back. She soon begins working with the local Sheriff, Truman Daly, whose uncle was one of the murder victims. They feel a strong attraction, but Mercy has secrets and can’t let herself get too close to anyone.
There was a lot to like about this book. I also learned about preppers, a term I had never heard of before. With that said, there was something a little off-putting about this book; I’m not sure what, but I think it was in the pacing. I listened to this via audiobook on Audible, and the narrator was Teri Schnaubelt, who did a respectable job. I gave it three stars because the story was still engaging, and I wanted to find out what happened. I am also interested in reading the next book.
Mercy Kilpatrick ran away from her home at 18 and was banished by her family but she never forgot her prepper upbringing and now she is back in her home town as an FBI agent searching for a murderer. Could it be the same murderer who was there when she was a teen? This one is full of lots of twists and turns and brings it all back to where everything began. Great start to this series!
Wow! I had no idea the direction this would take. There’s a lot of different stories within the story. I liked the ‘preppers’ part of the story and the explanations that came out with that. Mercy and Truman are wonderful characters. It’s a great story and very suspenseful. I was sad that not only the ‘bad guy’ ends up dying in the end.
Emotional, raw, complex, real and somewhat startling. Such an original plot with the dynamics of Prepers, that I knew very little about, and the keen writing skills kept this story moving at warp speed. I absolutely devoured it. I have a new favorite author and so very sorry I hadn’t found her sooner.
The characters in this book have the perfect blend of intrigue and mystery.