Mariah Stewart’s new novel Mercy Street is the first book in her "Mercy Street Foundation" series. The story centers on a shooting in a small Pennsylvania town: four high school seniors—three boys and a girl—enter a dilapidated park. The next morning, two of the boys are found shot, and the other two children have disappeared. When no other leads turn up, the police decide that the missing kids are probably responsible for the shootings. Desperate to find her grandson and prove his innocence, the accused boy’s grandmother (armed with some financial assistance from her parish priest, who happens to be best friends with a reclusive local bazillionaire) hires former detective Mallory Russo to discover what really happened in the park that night....

Mercy Street is Grade-A beach reading for romantic suspense fans. Stewart's novel features intriguing main characters, intense action scenes, and—while the primary mystery is neatly tied up by the book's end—enough tantalizing loose ends to fuel any number of sequels. (Plus, it’s not super-gory, making it a good choice for those of us whose stomachs aren’t up for any Silence of the Lambs-style hijinks.) Fans of J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas series should definitely check this novel out, as should anyone else in the market for a fast-paced, entertaining mystery featuring a quick-witted and complex female protagonist.

Labels: mysteries, Suspense