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Mercy Gunderson has recently retired from Special Forces in the army. She is back in South Dakota, part owner of a huge ranch since her father died. But she is at loose ends. Temporarily working in a bar, she stumbles over the body of her former army buddy outside the bar late one night. She is having an affair with the sheriff, but she is convinced he is not doing enough to find out what happened so she accepts the request of his opponents to campaign against him and snoops around herself to find the murderer. As one can imagine this makes the situation very awkward. To add to the confusion, the dead man had been working for an oil company that wants to build a pipeline across South Dakota. There is a great deal of opposition to this and the supposition is that someone against the pipeline had a good motive to kill him. As we learn more of his life, we must also consider that this may have been a mercy kill since he was dying of cancer. Mercy is a well-drawn character. She is restless, edgy, unsure of what she wants out of life. She loves her family but cannot live with them and has set up camp in a cabin on the property. She thinks nothing of burning up an empty house to prevent her sister and her family from moving in. She worships her father, wants to be like him, but really does not know him as well as she thinks. The other characters are fairly one-dimensional. We never get to know any of them very well. Of course, we are seeing them all through Mercy's eyes and she does not want to get close to anyone. The sheriff is a rather shadowy figure, alternately ordering Mercy around and sneaking into her bed at night. The federal agent is handsome, tight-lipped, and unwilling to share any information. Her family is alternatively disapproving and loving. The setting is fascinating. Armstrong lives in South Dakota and knows the area well. The countryside is fairly desolate with many different kinds of animals roaming through it. In fact the book opens with Mercy confronting a mountain lion, starving, desperate. Mercy has it in her sights, but decides to spare her. Later she thinks it might have been more merciful to put her out of her misery. This is really the high desert, populated by cattle, dotted with little "one horse" towns. Listening to this book, it was easy to get a perception of vastness and a wild country where it was often kill or be killed. Living side-by-side with these animals and with the whites are Indians. There is a large reservation nearby and many people of full or part-Indian blood are in the mix of heroes and villains. Mercy's perception of the land and of her life owes quite a bit to Indian influence. The story was twisting and turning and often rather convoluted. It did not always hold my interest as there were many byways and side tracks not serving the main story. This can be intriguing and serve to divert attention from the murderer, but it can also just be disconcerting. Perhaps the fact that this was an audio book made it a bit more confusing because the listener has trouble going back and checking on facts or information. Nevertheless it was captivating and enjoyable to listen to. It takes place in a part of the country that is not often the setting for crime novels. The protagonist is extremely interesting to visit and learn to know. § Sally Fellows is a retired history teacher with a M.A. in history and an avid reader of mysteries.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, February 2011
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