Friday, August 27, 2010

In Search of Mercy-Michael Ayoob

In Search of Mercy
Michael Ayoob
Minotaur, Oct 12 2010, $24.99
ISBN 9780312644925

In high school in 1993 in Pittsburgh, Dexter Bolzjak was a legend on ice until he suffered a meltdown in the Pennsylvania state championship. Soon afterward, irate hockey goon fans abducted him and beat the crap out of him. Eight years since his rise, fall and assault has left Dexter a shell of what he was as he sorts produce at a warehouse while trying to keep his sanity, which he recognizes as a full time job.

Aging alcoholic Lou Kashon offers Dexter a deal to make some real money if he locates his lost love, former movie star, Mercy Carnahan, who has not been seen in public since 1958. The cash is too good to pass up so without asking too many questions Dexter begins a search for the recluse.

The key to this strong amateur sleuth is the past of Dexter and Mercy, as the audience sees how they got to where they are today. Fast-paced and vividly descriptive especially the violence (you will feel the hip checks), In Search of mercy is an aptly titled thriller that readers who appreciate something radically different will fully enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

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