Jean Brashear: Mercy

Mercy

Jean Brashear

Silhouette Signature Sagas May 2005, $5.99

ISBN: 0373836503

Lucas Walker soon will be a free man after spending twenty years in Attica for murder and rape. He survived his incarceration only due to the MERCY letter sent to him two decades ago by the late Juliette Gerard, mother of both the man he was convicted of killing and the woman he allegedly raped. When Lucas learns that the rape victim Tansy Gerard is marrying Carlton Sanford, expected to be named Ambassador to England, he concludes he must warn her that she must never wed the man who framed him to take the fall for the homicide of her twin and the rape of her.

After being released, Lucas travels to New York City knowing he will not be welcomed by the Gerard family and risking making a prophet out of the guard who taunted him that he will be back. He secretly meets Tansy and tries to persuade her that he never harmed her or her sibling. Tansy wants to believe the man she loved, but the evidence is overwhelmingly contrary; besides which the manipulative Carlton sets in motion a scheme to return Lucas to prison with the key tossed away.

This tense romantic suspense works because the cast seems genuine although most seemingly carry the weight of the world on their shoulders yet the amazement of MERCY is that Jean Brasher never allows the plot to turn into a soap opera. The story line is fast-paced as Lucas has two objectives: to save Tansy from the monster and to bring back the smile and lan to his beloved that he still remembers when they were teenage lovers.

Harriet Klausner