Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Mercury Carter is an independent mail carrier, like a delivery man from UPS or Amazon except that he works for himself.  It doesn’t sound as if that’s something that would put him in danger until he has to make a delivery to attorney Rachel Stanfield.  Merc’s motto is Rules are Rules, and thus begins the novel that changes lives.

Rachel and her husband Glenn are in the midst of an argument, although neither is quite certain what they’re fighting about, when their back door opens and four masked men enter their house.  A moment later the couple is sitting on their couch, with their hands zip tied behind their backs, guns pointing at them.

Glenn doesn’t know what the men are there for, but Rachel does.  The leader of the group, Finn, waylaid her two days earlier, demanding that she give him a document he wants.  She explains that she can’t do that legally, that it hasn’t been filed and thus she can’t release it, but Finn doesn’t care about the legalities.

Now in her home he tells her,”You have sixty seconds to produce the document or we’re going to remove your husband’s fingers,” pointing to a man holding a pair of pruning shears.  Even after Rachel gives Finn the document, he wants more.  He wants the address of a woman named Stella Wolford, but Rachel denies knowing anything about her or where she can be found.

Glenn offers the leader of the group money, millions he says, and Rachel looks at her husband in disbelief.  Finn is interested, and it’s obvious that his new plan is to get Glenn’s banking information and then kill the couple.  He herds them to the basement, and at that moment the doorbell rings.

It’s Merc Carter, with his delivery for Rachel, and he is politely insistent that it must be delivered into her hands only.  Finn is annoyed, saying Rachel isn’t home and he doesn’t know when she’ll return, but Merc doesn’t relent.  He agrees to wait in his car, but Finn is not pleased with that.  He tells Stone, one of his gang, to “go ahead and handle it,” and he attempts to do as he’s told and heads outside.

As Stone tries to force the mail carrier to leave his car, he receives a face full of Mace from Carter.  The next thing he knows, he’s zip tied and gagged.  He’s still able to answer Merc’s questions by nodding, and Merc learns that there are three other gang members in the house, that Rachel is still alive, and that her husband is with her.  Now the mailman is prepared.

Carter had been a member of the Postal Inspection Service, and its members carry guns and have the power to arrest suspects.  After a number of years in the PIS, two traumatic events changed the course of his life.  Now Merc is forced to use the skills he learned in the Service, skills he thought he’d never need again.

The MailMan is an exciting, outstanding novel which I hope is the first in a series.  Its plot will keep you turning pages, and all its characters are utterly believable, from Rachel and Glenn and Glenn’s daughter Abby to the unsavory Finn and the mystery man he’s working for.

You can read more about Andrew Welsh-Huggins at this website.

One Response to “THE MAILMAN by Andrew Welsh-Huggins: Book Review”