Customer Reviews

Merciless - A Novel Of Suspense

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Merciless is a cops-chase-serial-killer story with maybe a few-too-many too-closely-related killings. A psychopath is killing women as part of a misguided marketing effort while a creative man of the cloth is showing pedophiles how angels are made.

I don't know that it is as thrilling or chilling as the cover suggests, but it is the epidome of the genre and very finishable.

There are enough potential bad guys and overlapping "clues" that the ultimate baddy isn't painfully obvious. The hero and heroin are neither implausibly good nor impossibly bad. The writing flows on sufficient foreshadowing and allusion with refreshing twisties of wry wit.

I read the 2008 Ballentine Mass Market paperback version and their liberal use of typos is an annoying distraction. The TrueStew we are initially introduced to, turns out to be TrueSew...little things like that dribbled throughout the book...make a little reader go grrr.

Last, the ending was good enought that it didn't make me want to reach out and slap the semi-colons out of the author. I cannot stand a lame ending...and for me to think an ending lame, it must be woefully so.

So...read it.

I love books set in Philadelphia (being that it's my home town) and he always nails it! I can never find a hitch or glitch in the research. This is not as good as the Rosary Girls, but I thought better than the Skin Gods. Do read them all in order, some things won't make sense otherwise

Wow!! Alls I can say is wow!!. This is another fantastic installment to the Bryne and Balzanno series. The plot is sort of complex, only because there are about 4 plots going on at the same time. Usually, I don't like it when authors do that, but Montanari does a wonderful job and devotes the proper amount of time to each plot.

The main plot is about a killer that picks his victims very carefully. They have to meet the killers needs, and not everyone can be his victim. The crafty killer is following a set of rules and has to follow certain guidelines for his victims. What is the killers guidelines? Well, you'll have to read it to find out. If you told you here, it would be a major spoiler, and I don't want to take away the surprise. I'll just say.....it was interesting. One other plot line I'll mention is that a man blames Bryne for the death of his wife, and then targets Bryne, and plans to make him pay.

Montanari has a wonderful writing style that will keep the reader hooked to the very last page. We can't help but want to spend time with Bryne and Balaznno. The characters have a lot of depth, all of them, even the killer. There are a lot of wonderful plot twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing. This book has one draw back, If you start it, I can promise you that you'll lose sleep because you'll want to know what happens next. I kept on say, "Just one more chapter.....just one more chapter...." This is that good.

If you've read the first two books in the series, then you know what a powerful writer Montanari is. If you haven't, then start the series. I can promise you, you won't be sorry. I know I wasn't. I can't wait to start the next installment.

Loved this book - but it made me homesick! I grew up near some of the areas in the book, and it was fun to see the names of places I knew ( and knew how to pronounce). I'll definitely look for more by the author!

I have read books by this author before and they never fail to keep me interested from beginning to end. Great book with interesting characters. Keeps you guessing.

Montanari is not yet in the same league with, say Michael Connelly and others, but he writes a darn good, riveting police thriller. Philly is a great town for police procedurals, with its gothic buildings, its parks, its rivers and its fabled police department. Montanari creatively adds to the mix an Amish detective, a woman detective who is also a professional boxer, and a whole lot of info about fairy tales which is absolutely fascinating. He stirs it all up with accurate and authentic details of Philadelphia and ends up with a very well done novel. This is my first Montanari book, but won't be my last.

I keep thinking that Richard Montanari's books cannot get any better. And every year or so, I am proven wrong yet again. With each new novel, Montanari keeps taking his readers further and further into the nether reaches of the criminal mind. MERCILESS is no exception.

Montanari's latest work again features Philadelphia police homicide detective Kevin Byrne, who is on the trail of a bizarre serial murderer with the seeming ability to strike and disappear at will, leaving his victims in a chilling, frightening and somehow familiar tableau. Byrne's partner, Jessica Balzano, is by his side, but the focus is primarily on Byrne and his job as opposed to his quietly turbulent domestic situation that --- although not altogether absent --- is kept in the background. Suspects abound, of course, and part of the enjoyment of this wild ride is trying to sort out the innocent from the oh-so-very guilty.

At the same time a vigilante is quietly going about a dark and very deadly business on the streets of Philadelphia --- an avenger whose path will cross with that of Byrne and Balzano before the tale set forth here is done. Montanari introduces a new character as well, a police detective named Joshua Bontrager, who is --- by way of his background --- unique and possibly original in the annals of detective fiction. Bontrager's presence provides more than a bit of lagniappe to the proceedings, but the star ultimately is the author himself, whose fine eye for detail and uncanny narrative ability cause the 400-plus pages of the book to fly by with the speed of a 10-page short story.

If Montanari's name is not on your must-read list of thriller authors, it will be once you begin digging into MERCILESS. Montanari is riveting, addicting and never disappoints as he continues to raise his own bar, novel after novel, and surpass it.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Having read all six of Richard Montanari's books I am convinced that he is incapable of writing a bad book. That being said, however, Merciless does not measure up to the other two books in the series featuring Homicide Detectives Byrne and Balzano. While Montanari's writing style and characters will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next, I found that the plot wasn't as engrossing, and the twists and turns weren't as surprising, as I've come to expect from a Montanari thriller -- and particularly from The Rosary Girls and The Skin Gods. You will not be sorry if you read Merciless -- it is a good book. As a matter of fact, you'll probably consider it to be a very good book if it is the first book by Montanari that you've read. My slight disappointment with Merciless is based primarily on the basis of comparison and that I've come to expect more from this very talented author.

I am new to Montanari's work. This particular book was suspenseful and well written with alot of supporting details to help readers visualize everything from the decor of a ramshackled hovel to the emotions of a distraught and grieving widower. I actually found myself cheating by skimming quickly over many pages just so I could find out who the perpetrator was. I look forward to reading more books by this author!

While I do appreciate that this author has a different style than most, I felt as if I was "reading" a TV show, on where the script if very choppy and edgy.

I do like the serial killer he developed.