Customer Reviews

Without Mercy

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

 

 

On her beloved gran's farm near Ithaca, New York Brett McBride recovers from the illnesses that she caught while spending a year in Africa providing medical relief. She has spent the past year at home and away from the disasters and death she saw in Ethiopia. However, she still has not reconciled with her teenage daughter Amy, who lived with her dad while Brett played doctor overseas. Amy hates the farm and wants to go back to the total freedom she had with her dad.

While hunting on the property's woods, Brett spots the mangled remains of a murder victim. Brett calls the police. Her ex-husband heads up the investigation that soon points towards Brett, her family, and a hired hand as the prime suspects. However, the identity of the corpse leads to more mysteries that threaten to destroy the loving McBride clan.

WITHOUT MERCY is an exciting contemporary suspense with a pinch of romance that centers on the unraveling of ties that bond a family together. The cleverly designed story line focuses on the fully developed charcaters as they react to the murder especially who the victim is. The audience understands what motivates the cast notably Brett and Gran. Fans of Hoag and Johansen will enjoy Lois Gilbert's taut family thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Lois Gilbert's Without Mercy is a wonderful read! It is a fast-paced, action filled, suspenseful thriller. I couldn't put it down. Her characters are fully developed and richly drawn. Particularly poignant is Gilbert's portrayal of the lead character's (Brett) relationship with her teenage daughter. It reminded me of my own parenting tribulations and how difficult it is to be either a parent or a teenager. Without Mercy moves very quickly and has a wonderful mix of intrigue, romance, and humor. The excitement and uncertainty build with every page until a final astonishing climax. I can't wait to read Gilbert's next book!

This is a real page turner -- an absolutely riveting, compelling thriller, about family secrets, romance and murder.

This book came highly recommended, but I ended up sorry I'd used the time to read it. The beginning is excellent; the main character and her nearly-pathological needs are absolutely riveting. But as soon as the plot begins to move, the character retreats to normalcy and the magic dies. Then it's a very ordinary story of family problems and secrets, made even duller by lack of logic: WHY do they let this stranger do as he pleases? WHY does the main character, again and again, not ask the next question that anyone would ask? WHY did nobody hear a horse moving quickly through the empty forest; Why no hoofprints; why is everybody so dam*ed dumb that you'd shake them except that you don't like them enough to bother?

If this is a typical Gilbert novel, I'll pass on the rest.