Dead Mercy by Noelle Holten
Hugely confident … harrowing, visceral … recommended’ Ian Rankin on Dead Inside
A brutal murder…
When a burned body is found with its teeth missing, DC Maggie Jamieson discovers that the victim may be the husband of one of her probation colleagues.
A dark history…
As the body count rises, the team becomes increasingly baffled by how the victims could possibly be connected until a clue leads them to a historical case that was never prosecuted.
A terrible secret…
In order to catch the killer, Maggie must piece together what happened all those years ago before it’s too late.
Author Bio:
Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi agency setting. She has three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice – and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle’s hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as she can afford and sharing the booklove via her blog. Dead Inside – her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK is an international kindle bestseller and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson.
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Review
‘Dead Mercy’ is a gritty, dark tale that captured my attention and never let go! It deals with it's topics and themes in a powerful way, but shows great empathy with the victims of its story. This is now the 5th outing of the DI Maggie Jamieson book but you can read it as a standalone, but I highly recommend the whole series. It's one of the few crime series out there that shows the interdependency of various agencies like the police and the probation service. Plus, you know that aspect is going to be on point since Noelle worked for the probationary service for 18 years. This experience shines through as the whole plot has a sense of realism about it, nothing seemed too far-fetched or out there.
In ‘Dead Mercy’ Maggie is called out to the scene of a fire and starts to think that the deceased could in fact be the husband of one of the probation officers she usually works with. The body count starts to increase and the team is baffled about the reason for the killings, until Maggie stumbles upon a cold case that was never prosecuted. But why start the killings now?
Although the themes and topics of this book might be distressing to some it does need to be highlighted. Talking about it and reading books of this nature can help to remove the stigma and educate people on the topic. Noelle handles it in a very heartfelt way especially when it comes to the victims.
I feel as if Maggie is maturing with each book that we get and I'm adoring her flirting / not flirting with the evil that is the reporter we shall not name - I think that whole relationship would be reading gold! Plus, she hits some serious milestones with her family which had me cheering her on. As much as Maggie can be a lone wolf when it comes to her detecting she is starting to come round to being a team player. This is much more realistic portrayal of how the police work and I'm pleased to see her character development going in that direction.
Noelle has once again knocked it out the park with ‘Dead Mercy’ and I honestly can't wait for the next instalment! Bring it on!
