Review – House of Mercy

Erin Healy blends a touch of magical fantasy with mystery in her new release, House of Mercy, where readers meet a young woman who’s blessed with the supernatural gift of healing. That gift and the 6,500 acre cattle ranch her family has worked for five generations is why Beth wants to become a vet and work the Blazing B ranch with her family. She couldn’t know she would put that dream, as well as her family in jeopardy by what she was about to do. 

Beth Borzoi rationalized her actions as she “tugged the faded leather saddle” from its resting place on the “heavy duty rack” in the tack room.  She wasn’t a thief and she wasn’t stealing. She was only putting the tarnished “silver-plated saddle” to better use even though the saddle wasn’t hers. She knew she should have asked her friend Jacob, but dismissed the thought with another. “She was saving an animal’s life.”

Before she could load the heavy saddle into her pickup she ran into Wally one of several men who lived at the ranch, “discarded men who needed the peace the Blazing B had to offer.”

She knew Wally suffered with anterograde amnesia from a stroke that affected his short-term memory. He was fit to work, just needed reminders to keep him in the “context of his new life.” She fixed her grip and balanced the saddle weight against her knee while she refreshed Wally’s memory of who she was and listened to what had gone missing this time. He told her he was digging in the “secret spot” to find his “lockbox,” the one the grey wolf had stolen. He must have “…dug it up and carried off the box in his teeth…then reburied it…” he finished sadly 

She knew grey wolves weren’t in the Colorado area and discarded Wally’s explanation not knowing she would soon sight something similar to what Wally described. Where she would question her own sanity and wonder even if the wolf were real why would he appear to her? Was her imagination playing tricks? Was she driven by guilt because of what she’d done?

Thus begins Erin’s new release, a story of secrets, conflict, pain, hope, loss and death set in the rugged landscape of Southern Colorado, where Beth seeks answers not easily found.

From Beth’s spirited ride on Kandinsky’s thoroughbred, “Java Java Go Joe” that brought death and destruction, to the lawsuit that could destroy all their dreams, to the massive and elusive grey wolf Beth isn’t quite sure she sees. To the death that divides Beth family and destroys trust, to her anticipated meeting with a grandparent that brings irrational anger instead of acceptance and love. Readers are in for a treat with this fast-paced, emotion laden, thought-provoking suspense that crosses supernatural boundaries.