"So you got two hormonal teenage boys, a bloody murder, illegal doctorin', a business feud, a illegal immigrant situation, all of it circlin' around a relative you don't hardly even know, and tomorrow's your birthday. Well ain't you managed to step into a fine mess."
Thus Chrissy Shaw succinctly sums up A Bad Day for Mercy, the fourth book in Sophie Littlefield's Stella Hardesty series. Stella is back handling problems with her less-than-legal tactics and all the attitude and wit readers have come to expect, but this time she's dealing with family, namely her step-nephew. Pulling Stella out of Missouri enables Littlefield to introduce new characters who add a layer of complexity to an already divinely original member of the crime fiction world.
A Bad Day for Mercy speeds along at a nonstop pace. Littlefield brings the concept of the nesting Matryoshka dolls along with her new Russian characters: open up one event and find another mystery inside. The manner in which Littlefield places her mysteries one inside another makes figuring out the culprit a true challenge.
Littlefield has managed to keep this series fresh and original. New readers to the series will be able to enjoy A Bad Day for Mercy as much as the devoted series fan; just enough of Stella's background is explained for newcomers to understand her character without weighing down those who have been with the series from A Bad Day for Sorry. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts