The Delivery

 I raved about the first book in this series by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Mailman. I read that almost exactly one year ago, so now it was a treat to get an advanced copy of the second book, The Delivery. This clearly has a Lee Child vibe to it. The protagonist, Mercury Carter, has a unique ability to walk into dangerous trouble nearly anywhere he goes. Previously a Fed, he’s now a freelance delivery guy who is proud of the fact that he’s never missed a delivery despite the trouble that it might cause.

 

The plot is comically complicated. As Carter heads to make one delivery, he stumbles on new trouble, that leads to new trouble, that leads to more trouble. There are so many names to keep track of that I found myself getting lost in the matrix of people to whom he was making promises and those who were after him because he kept sticking his nose in other people’s business. Carter is a compelling figure alone, and he’s surrounded by a huge cast of people who are bent, one way or another. The cops, the Feds, multiple bad guys, weapons, drugs, and prostitution are all part of the story. I found The Delivery to be a fun read, so if you in the mood for an adventure, and not a serious murder mystery, then this book is for you.

The Mailman

This book was scheduled for publication on 1/28/25. As you'll read below, I loved it.

The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins is his first book reviewed in this blog, but it looks like he’s written at least 13 other crime novels. Given how impressed I was by his newest novel, I have a new author whose works I want to explore. The book is subtitled “A Mercury Carter Adventure.”

This is a plot-driven story and Welsh-Huggins drops us right into the middle of the action in Chapter 1. Rachel Stanfield is an attorney in Indianapolis. She and her husband are in the midst of an argument about Rachel’s stepdaughter, 15-year-old Abby, who is not taking care of business with regard to her schoolwork which has been plummeting. It was into that setting that four armed and masked men entered Rachel’s house. One man, Finn, pulled off his mask and demanded that Rachel provide him with material from one of her cases, something she had been refusing to do, and initially, she told Finn he had no right to the information. When Finn put a gun to Glenn’s head, she backed off and provided the data to him. But, Finn wanted to know more about one person, Stella Wolford and Finn did not accept that Rachel didn’t know her current whereabouts. As threats were made by Finn, there was an unexpected knock on the door. It was Mercury or Merc Carter, an unimpressive and slightly built man of average height. He said that he had a package for Rachel which only she could sign for. And so, the adventure began.

 

Through the locked front door, Merc described that he was running on a tight schedule and he was insistent that only Rachel could sign for the package. At the moment, Finn had Rachel and Glenn tied up in the basement.

 

I loved the plot, but I don’t want to give away any more of the story. Especially at the beginning, this story had the feel of a Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novel. The protagonist, Merc Carter, is just going about his business when crazy trouble finds him. In reality, I found this book more compelling and spell-binding than any of the late Reacher novels. The author deserves that compliment. The plot was not overly complex and the characters, especially Merc, were most compelling.

 

This book gets a 5/5 in the murder mystery-thriller genre. When I get a little time and get caught up on my reading queue I’m planning on jumping back into another Welsh-Huggins novel.