Genre: Mystery
Published: July 16, 2024
Pages: 344
In the usually quiet high desert of Nevada, Sheriff Porter Beck faces one of his greatest challenges—a series of unlikely, disturbing and increasingly deadly events of unknown origins.
Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, doing the same lawman's job his father once did now that he's returned home after decades away. With his twelve person department, they cover a large area that is usually very quiet, but not of late. One childhood friend is the latest to succumb to a new wave of particularly strong illegal opioids, another childhood friend—now an enormously successful rancher—is targeted by a military drone, hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. The hacker is apparently local—local enough to call out Beck by name—and that means they are Beck's problem.
Beck's investigation leads him to Mercy Vaughn, the one known hacker in the area. The problem is that she's a teenager, locked up with no computer access at the secure juvenile detention center. But there's something Mercy that doesn't sit quite right with Beck. But when Mercy disappears, Beck understands that she's in danger and time is running out for all of them.
Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, doing the same lawman's job his father once did now that he's returned home after decades away. With his twelve person department, they cover a large area that is usually very quiet, but not of late. One childhood friend is the latest to succumb to a new wave of particularly strong illegal opioids, another childhood friend—now an enormously successful rancher—is targeted by a military drone, hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. The hacker is apparently local—local enough to call out Beck by name—and that means they are Beck's problem.
Beck's investigation leads him to Mercy Vaughn, the one known hacker in the area. The problem is that she's a teenager, locked up with no computer access at the secure juvenile detention center. But there's something Mercy that doesn't sit quite right with Beck. But when Mercy disappears, Beck understands that she's in danger and time is running out for all of them.
I won a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program and also received an ebook version through Netgalley (before I'd noticed the notification about the win through Goodreads). Ultimately I borrowed the audiobook through my library. This is my honest review.
I probably would not have finished this book as quickly as I did if I'd been reading with my eyeballs. I've found that I really struggle to enjoy books with seemingly perfect male action heroes because I can't help thinking about the double-standard that would apply if the character were a woman. However, Porter Beck isn't actually perfect and his position and skills were reasonably explained and connected. Also, Brinley is a badass woman with some serious skills of her own. But it could have taken me a while to get to that part of the story.
Other highlights of the story included Mercy, the teenage hacker chick who would probably also be awesome at chess. She seems to be 300 steps ahead of everyone else, except she can't predict every wild card.
Overall I give Shades of Mercy 3.8375 out of 5 stars and would definitely read more from this author. - Katie
Bruce Borgos lives and writes from the Nevada desert where he works hard every day to prove his high school guidance counselor had good instincts when he said “You’ll never be an astronaut.” He has a lifelong obsession with words and stories and a fascination with how telephones work. When not writing, you can usually find him at the local wine store.
Visit his website at: https://www.bruceborgos.com/
or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BruceBorgos
or catch him on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/bruceborgos
