Review – Fatal Frost

Back cover Copy:
Mercy Brennan followed in her father’s footsteps in a law enforcement career, but she has no interest in any other connection to him. A U.S. Marshal in St. Louis, Missouri, she’s assigned to a joint task force with the St. Louis PD that puts her back into contact with her father and in the sights of St. Louis’s most powerful gang.

When the gang has reason to believe Mercy has possession of some highly sensitive and incriminating information, her boss assigns Mark St. Laurent–a Deputy U.S. Marshal and Mercy’s ex-boyfriend–to get her out of town until they can guarantee her safety.

Initially unaware of the danger she’s in and uncomfortable working with Mark, Mercy’s frustration escalates when she discovers the extent her boss and Mark have been keeping her in the dark. It isn’t until a freak ice storm hits, stranding them at a remote location and out of contact with the district office, that the full severity of their situation becomes clear. As the storm worsens, the forces of nature combine with a deadly enemy closing in to put their lives at imminent risk. Can they survive long enough for help to arrive–if help is even coming at all?

My take:
With the release of Fatal Frost, Nancy Mehl has branched out in her romantic suspense writing to an area new to her. She says in the back of the book that she wanted to write about law enforcement and that is what she did in Fatal Frost. I love how her heart for law enforcement officers comes through as she shares the struggles officers face in today’s world. She does a stellar job of portraying the toll this career takes on an LEO’s personal life. Not only does she do a great job of it, but this is a very timely topic indeed, and I applaud Mehl for tackling it in Fatal Frost.

Mehl also seamlessly combines the heroine Mercy’s struggle to come to grips with her difficult childhood with her father and her breakup with the hero with her search for God. I love how the hero Mark wants to help her in this struggle and during his continued attempt to help her the reader sees his heart for God. Of course, Mercy wants nothing to do with his help and the conflict between them keeps the reader turning the page.

And the plot of a drug cartel wanting an item from the protagonist and she won’t give it to them could be very basic and uninteresting, but Mehl switches it up with a very creative and timely twist. I won’t mention the twist so I don’t spoil the reader’s enjoyment, but trust me when I say there is a refreshing aspect to the basic plot device that makes the reader think about the way smart phone recordings of police actions can be very dangerous indeed.