Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$6.78

Paperback
$9.95

Learn more

Read and Listen for Free

OR

Kindle Price:	$3.99
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $1.99

Audiobook Price: $19.91

Save: $17.92 (90%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Kendra Elliot

+ Follow

More books from this author

A Merciful Death (Mercy Kilpatrick Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Kendra Elliot (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 40,881 ratings

Book 1 of 6: Mercy Kilpatrick

Editors' pick Best Romance

See all formats and editions

FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land—and off the grid—in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy’s past.

Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle’s Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man’s latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout…

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In the debut of her new Mercy Kilpatrick series, Elliot crafts an eerily fascinating small town. An air of menace is palpable throughout the story, and the characters hide a wealth of secrets and twisted loyalties." —RT Book Reviews

"Elliot is a master of romantic suspense, and her latest sets a rural community of preppers (people preparing for disaster) in the sights of a killer. Elliot expertly interweaves the current murders with the damage that past crimes have done to Mercy and Truman's souls, and she lays out convincing tracks to a number of possible culprits in Eagle's Nest. Fascinating details about prepper lifestyle give extra flavor to this mystery, adding to its memorability." —Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review

About the Author

Kendra Elliot is the award-winning author of numerous books, including the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series. Kendra won the 2015 and 2014 Daphne du Maurier awards for Best Romantic Suspense, and she was an International Thriller Writers finalist for Best Paperback Original and a Romantic Times finalist for Best Romantic Suspense. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and three daughters but looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01EN506CO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Montlake Romance (January 17, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 17, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2633 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 353 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #6,884 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #57 in Mystery Romance
- #174 in Serial Killer Thrillers
- #193 in Women Sleuths (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 40,881 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Kendra Elliot

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Kendra Elliot has sold twelve million books, hit the Wall Street Journal top ten bestseller list more than a dozen times, and is a three time winner of the Daphne du Maurier award.

She is an International Thriller Writers' finalist and a Romantic Times finalist. She grew up in the lush Pacific Northwest but now spends most of her time on a warm beach wearing flip flops.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

40,881 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

linda p

good book

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2024

Verified Purchase

Very entertaining. Good story, suspense, family relationships, and love attraction. Good storytelling. Very enjoyable read. Ready for the next book

One person found this helpful

Helpful

erinaf

Solid start to a series

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this book - it wasn't perfect, but it put a different spin on the romantic suspense trope by setting the story in Oregon and saturating the story with survivalist/prepper culture which I found really interesting. Mercy is an FBI agent for the Portland office. When a series of murders of preppers are handed over to her to investigate as part of her domestic terrorism department, she's forced to return to Eagle's Nest, her hometown that she hasn't stepped foot in for over a decade. When elements of the murder strike a startling resemblance to crimes from her youth, the danger might be closer than Mercy expects. She teams up with the local police chief, Truman, whose uncle was also one of the victims, to try and get to the bottom of the murders.

I found the book easy to read and entertaining. The story had a couple of problems for me. Mercy's estrangement from her family was a frustrating point, particularly since it was only referred to, with little explanation, for a good chunk of the book with little breadcrumbs dropped here and there to give the backstory. I felt that the author still didn't fully explain the falling out with Mercy and her family with an appropriate amount of detail so overall it just made me dislike her family. The murders themselves were well portrayed with just the right amount of 'ick' but the who dunnit was a bit of let down with some of the investigation more fallen into than given a proper explanation and process to really draw in the reader. The perpetrator was also a bit of a fizzer and while there was closure, it's not a sunshine and rainbows ending and Mercy reuniting with her family didn't end all rosey.

I really like how the author revolved the story around survivalist culture (e.g. doomsdayers, militia and anti-government individuals and groups) and the sovereign citizen loons. It put a really fresh twist on the story and Mercy's background in the prepper life added to this. I really loved her character. I didn't find her a blubbering mess as a I saw mention of in a couple of other reviews - trust me, this would have been an immediate turn off for me as I hate a helpless victim for a lead. I thought the author did a great job of making her a strong FBI agent that had family issues going on and who tried to maintain a balance between how she was raised and who she had made herself become as she reconnected with her family. I also liked Truman, who becomes a love interest. He was a strong character that had his own past demons to deal with that led him to heading out to work in a small town. I would have liked a little more chemistry and build up with their relationship because all of a sudden they were interested in each other without there being much dialogue or background emotion to support this. Their character development just seemed a little isolated for them to be so attracted to each other. The story was told from both of their point of views with a few flashbacks thrown in for good measure.

Overall, I really liked and will definitely read the next book. It reminded me of the Morgan Dane series by Melinda Leigh. It could have done with extra detail to flesh out the story to make elements of the novel more poignant and it was predictable in parts but it was still a solid 4 stars for me.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Maura O. Bowen

relatable lead character

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2024

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed the lead character’s independence and how she developed from her childhood. I learned a lot about the subculture of the preppers. Great ending

One person found this helpful

Helpful

A mom

great

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

This was so good. I had started with the Columbia River novels before I realized that mercy had a whole backstory series! So happy. This was filled with great characters, and past and present trauma. Murders from past and present collide and it’s an awesome entertaining read

One person found this helpful

Helpful

SunRay05

First of a series winner

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2024

Verified Purchase

This book is a package made up of an interesting woman with past trauma, a return to past life in a lovely setting with lots of potential characters for future stories, a noticeable lack of "filler" paragraphs that occur in so many mystery series, and a believable ending, not an unbelievable twist but a believable conclusion. I enjoyed it and the style and the main characters so I'll be reading more.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Carolyn R.

I’m such a Mercy Kilpatrick and Truman Daly fan!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024

Verified Purchase

I have already read another series that included some of Mercy and Truman’s lives but I thoroughly enjoyed this book taking me back to where it all began. Normally that would’ve bothered me but something about this just felt right. They became new friends of mine who I was lucky to get to listen to them speak of their origin story much like I would in real life. To say I’m invested in these characters is putting it mildly. I’m completely in love with Kendra Elliot’s work and love every book thus far. On to the next in this series. Join me if you are looking for something wonderful to read.

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed the "prepper" aspects of this novel, which are very interesting. The characters are a good mix, and the story was pretty good. Enough so that I will try the next one in the series.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

FranJessca @ A Book Lovin Mama's Blog

Loved the first book to the Mercy Kilpatrick series!

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

A Merciful Death is the first book in Kendra Elliot’s new Mercy Kilpatrick series and it was definitely full of suspense, drama, and action, which made me not want to put it down.

Mercy Kilpatrick is a FBI special agent that is sent back to her hometown in Eagle’s Nest to determine if the killings that are happening there are leading up to a domestic terrorism event. Unfortunately, she never thought she would step back in Eagle’s Nest, especially when her family shunned her. When she starts looking around at the crime scenes, she notices details that are too familiar to an unsolved mystery that rocked Eagle’s Nest town so many years ago.

Kendra Elliot always manages to write some detailed in-depth characters with some very action-packed suspenseful storylines. Mercy Kilpatrick is what I would consider a character that is very secretive and down right kick-butt. I enjoyed getting to know her character in the first book (I heard she was in the Callahan & McLane series, but I have some catching up to do on some of Kendra’s books and I look forward to catching up this year) Mercy knows how to handle a crisis because of how she was brought up. Although once I got to meet her family in the story, I could understand why Mercy left. Mercy was raised in a family that prepared for the worst kind of fall out and they believed the woman was met to be home to tend to the garden, have children, and take care of their husband. Mercy though was not like that at all, which is why she became a FBI agent. I’m really glad she decided to follow her own path because she definitely became one strong woman.

The male character in the story, Truman Daly is just as fascinating as Mercy. He didn’t grow up in Eagle’s Nest, but he’s learning about the town. He is fascinated with Mercy, but he knows she is holding in secrets. When he finds out who Mercy is really, he is determine more than ever to win her over.

Kendra Elliot definitely didn’t make it easy for Mercy and Truman to find out what is happening in Eagle’s Nest. Secrets end up coming out of the blue and poor Mercy has to deal with her past all over again because of what is happening.

I don’t want to give anything away because this is really a great book. I look forward to the next book in the series and also I need to catch up on the other books Kendra has written in the last year or so. Let’s just say reading took a back burner last year, but I’m catching up on it this year.

I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it to Romantic Suspense readers out there. If you haven’t checked out any of Kendra Elliot’s books I definitely recommend you do. She’s one of my favorite Romantic Suspense authors and I tend to buy her books in paperback, so they can go in my bookcase with all my other favorite authors. 🙂

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

fantastic and unique

Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Can’t wait for the rest of the books in the series. The storyline was unlike any other book I’ve read and I love that. Interesting developments and characters, great book!

Maxine M

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

Kendra Elliot really is a fantastic author. It's the first series iv ever read that was centered around preper communities and I found it really interesting. I don't often see a woman as an FBI agent either. I really enjoyed that about the book. The writing was really good and engaging and the storyline drew you in from the very start. The characters are great and I especially loved Mercy and Truman. All in all it was a fantastic read and well deserving of the 5 stars.

Andrew Edward Earl

Kendra Elliot is the best

Reviewed in Germany on July 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

The storyline is great, full of believable characters. Fast paced, full of twists and turns. I can't recommend her highly enough.

One person found this helpful

Boopy

A merciful death

Reviewed in Australia on April 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

Excellent read. once again Kendra Elliott has sucked me into her unassuming characters, and a storyline with many twists and turns to keep reading late into the night. Can't wait for the next five books in this Mercy Kilpatrick series. Love your work!

SM

Extremely good

Reviewed in India on June 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

Everything is nice about this book. The way the story builds up and the pacing of the story is very good. No rushing. The thrill is definitely there. I loved reading it all through. Highly recommend.

OR

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

A Merciful Death (Mercy Kilpatrick Book 1) Kindle Edition

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos for this product

First Blush: A Merciful Death by Kendra Elliot

Videos for this product

A Merciful Death (Mercy Kilpatrick Book 1)

About the author

Kendra Elliot

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries