Blue Mercy
Illona Haus
Pocket, $6.99, 370 pages, ISBN: 0743458087
reviewed by Jim Brock

BLUE MERCY is a first novel, paperback original introducing Baltimore homicide detective Kay Delaney. Delaney has the prerequisite demons and, of course, becomes the target of the serial killer she is hunting (both of these are set-in-stone-must-be plot factors for the female heroine). Despite these paint by numbers elements and the fact the true killer was easily predictable, I really liked this book and see a good future for both Haus and Delaney.

BLUE MERCY has some good twists and turns, good characterizations, and good police believability. Good, good, and good add up to very good sometimes and BLUE MERCY is case in point.