This is a well-written, entertaining, fast paced, police procedural, mystery thriller. It has a likable and intelligent male protagonist, engaging secondary characters, a supportive canine, wit, a touch of humor, vividly described settings, murder, intrigue, suspense, secrets, action, twists and turns, and a satisfying conclusion. This is the second entry in Mr. Borgos' outstanding Porter Beck series, and it can be read and enjoyed as a stand alone.
Many thanks to St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books, Mr. Bruce Borgos, and NetGalley, from whom I received an advanced reader copy of this fantastic novel. This is my honest opinion.

A captivating mystery thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly trying to piece together the puzzle until the final reveal. Borgos masterfully weaves a complex and suspenseful narrative that left me guessing until the very end.

I enjoyed this book. It is a good read mixing police procedural with a spy thriller. I enjoy the spy element of this series the most. There was some character development with Beck from the first book, which was nice. I would say this book felt more plot driven than character driven, unlike the first book.

Because this was plot driven, the narrator swung between close third person, and a more wide angle omniscient narrator. Unfortunately that often occured within one paragraph and the head-hopping made me dizzy at time. Character knew things in scenes that it was impossible for them to know (like Mercy knowing about Cordero's previous injuries). I found that detracted from the story. This is partly me, and my preference for a character-driven story. As a result, I wasn't as invested in Beck, or the outcome this time.

That said, I enjoyed it enough to read a future installment and hope it goes back to a closer storyline for Beck himself.

If you like Westerns and you like thrillers, this is your novel and Porter Beck is your man. Sheriff Porter Beck, I should say, ex-Army, hometown boy, son of the long-time previous Sheriff. The action in this Nevada-based novel begins with an $80,000 breeding bull being blown up by a missile from an unknown source. The Air Force claims it's an accident, but Sheriff Beck can't quite buy that.

There’s another mystery. Who’s selling drugs with Fentynol, the stuff that killed a friend and others? A team of spooks from multiple agencies is putting pressure on Beck about the missile incident and Beck intends to solve both mysteries, but without any agency’s help.

And then there’s the sixteen-year-old girl who could code faster than you could speak, and who had a bone to pick with the drug and gun runners. Everybody wants her, but she's slippery and smart. Too damn smart.

I am practically a pacifist, and in general I hate violence. But I loved this novel. I love to see bad guys taken down. Not going to tell you any more, because I don't want to spoil it. But this is an all-nighter. You're going to want to read it.

The action starts at the beginning which made me continue reading it. Didn't know that it was the 2nd book in the series but it was a great read. It had everything in a good mystery that I look for. Page turner for sure.

3.75 stars

This second Porter Beck mystery was an action-packed page turner. Beck has an interesting special ops background but is currently a sheriff in rural Nevada. Weird stuff is going on - computer hackers have seized some government secret equipment and used it to destroy a prize bull on a ranch. Then an "automated" semi truck goes rogue and causes even more damage.

Somehow Beck connects this with a 16 year old girl in detention for outrageous computer crimes. And somehow several other alphabet government agencies with their own enforcers get involved. And the Chinese government. And the state cops. And a Mexican cartel. You get the idea -- it's nonstop shenanigans with a lot of weapons and craziness.

Beck is an interesting character. He is juggling a lot - he has a rare condition that makes him unable to see at night, an obvious hindrance. And his father, the former sheriff, is sliding into dementia. The supporting cast is also good. No stereotypes here. You'll have to stop and catch your breath after you turn the last page. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos is a superbly written thriller that is part police procedural and part international spy novel, and the author keeps you anxiously turning the pages to the very end.
The characters are relatable and interesting, the dialogue realistic and organic, and the setting of the Nevada desert and the fire-plagued surrounding brushland comes to life in Borgos' deft hands. The book, the second in a series, stands well on its own, and I never felt that I was in the dark about something important that happened previously.
I will definitely look forward to more thrillers in this series! Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #ShadesofMercy.

Porter Beck is the sheriff of a remote desert area in Nevada. He became sheriff after a decades long stint in the US Army, returning to where he grew up and taking the sheriff job his father had held. Beck is dealing with the death of a childhood friend, and also the death of the wife of the local grocer, both by opioids. While investigating how they got the drugs, he finds a super computer hacker who is only sixteen years old and that the government is involved with. Before the investigation is closed several people from more countries than the U.S. are involved, and some are also dead.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the copy of Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos. I liked how the story started, and while I liked how the hacker was a teenage girl, I was less than thrilled about how Beck describes her physical looks. I think these books aren’t for me because some of the content of the first book and this one made me really dislike Beck. At least he didn’t flirt with his adopted sister this time. Maybe I’m just exhausted by a MMC who’s a superhero, and I can see how other readers might love him but I think this is where we part ways. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

The second Porter Beck thriller is packed with action and has a really twisty plot.

Porter Beck is a sheriff in Nevada, in a country with more cacti than people, but big city problems are creeping in. One of his childhood friends has just died of a fentanyl overdose and others are in danger from that drug.

Also, when a prize bull on another childhood friend's ranch is hit with a missile which was snatched from the Air Force's control by an unknown hacker, his county is invaded by the alphabets - FBI, NSA, etc. as they are searching for the hacker.

Beck has received an email from the hacker asking him to be alert because they might need some help from him. Beck comes to believe that the hacker is a sixteen-year-old girl who is being held at a camp for juvenile offenders after a variety of computer crimes including stealing $80 million from a Federal Bank.

Learning this the friend who lost his bull is also involved with Mexican drug cartels adds another group who want something or someone from his county. And a Chinese spy trying to recover his sleeper agent who has gone AWOL adds more complexity.

I really enjoyed this thriller. I couldn't put it down.

This is the second book in this series, and this as with the last one, is full of action. Just when you catch your breath and think things are calming down, we are off and shots are fired.
Most of what happens here you will not see coming, and never even imagine that its possible, and never mind the age of one of the perpetrators!
You can read this alone, but this one is just as awesome as the first! Whom to trust? Don't get to comfortable and think you know the answers, I sure didn't.
The surprises and revelations go right to the final page!
I am hoping for a third book in this series!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher St. Martin's Press, and was not required to give a positive review.

Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos, has plenty of action, non-stop twists and turns, and enough suspense to keep the reader on the edge of their seat for the next decade. Mr. Borgos is a natural born storyteller, his unique style so vivid and full of life the reader is almost intimately close to the characters, Shades of Mercy is the first book I have read by Mr. Borgos, but it definitely won't be the last, I can't wait to see what else Mr. Borgos has in store for us.

Shades of Mercy (Porter Beck #2)
By Bruce Borgos

Porter Beck is so much more than just the sheriff of a remote Nevada area. His ability to learn a language almost as soon as he first hears it was useful to him in his past career. He knows all he needs to know about the way a person looks, sounds, and acts and can read them like a book. He never takes anyone at face value.

Someone hacks a military drone and uses it to blow up something that belongs to Beck's well off childhood rancher friend. No longer close, Beck knows something is up with his friend since he's spending way more money than he could make as a cattleman. Somehow he's able to water the Nevada desert, build a monstrosity of a house, own a plane, and buy and sell prize cattle. Also, Beck's friend is extremely chummy with suspicious men from Mexico, men who seem at home on the ranch and act more like a cartel than ranch workers. The remote ranch now is gated and requires the gate to be opened by a guard.

Then there is the hacker that Beck thinks took over the military drone and she is a teenager living in the local detention center. She may even be friends with the daughter of Beck's old friend. What is the connection here? What could this young woman have against a man she's probably never met before?

In my review for the first book in the series, I called it gruesome. This story upped the gruesome level, complete with characters vomiting when it all gets too much. The action is fast and often confusing for me since we sometimes see the same events through more than one set of eyes. So I had to pay attention when something was being described again, from a different POV. But that would at least allow me to better understand some of the things happening in this action packed book. My brain doesn't work fast enough for the warfare going on here. As usual, Beck throws himself into the action as does his sister, Brin. I think a mountain could fall on those two and they'd somehow crawl out to give things another go.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos 📚🔥 is a fantastic sequel that kept me hooked from start to finish. Sheriff Porter Beck, now back in the quiet high desert of Nevada, faces a series of unexpected and deadly events. The stakes are high with a wave of lethal opioids and a hacked military drone targeting his childhood friend.

What I loved about this book is the relentless action and the intricate plot twists. Beck’s investigation leads him to Mercy Vaughn, a young hacker with a mysterious past, and when she goes missing, the urgency skyrockets. Borgos does an incredible job of creating tension and suspense, making it impossible to put down. The characters are well-developed, and the pacing is perfect.

If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, this is a must-read! 🌟 #BookReview #ShadesOfMercy #BruceBorgos #Thriller #MustRead #Book2

Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos
Porter Beck, the sheriff, is having eye issues. His sight is dramatically diminished at night and getting worse. An old friend has an issue at his ranch which draws Porter and his sister Brinley into conflict with a hacker and unnamed government agencies.
Borgos does a great job portraying a dedicated man hanging on to his job despite major impairment. I enjoyed his characters and the quirks. The plot wasn’t Byzantine but is certainly was intricate.
I highly recommend the book and a twist at the end teases you with the possibility of more to come.

This book was my introduction to Porter Beck, and I love this character! He is a down-to-earth person that has skills despite his medical issues. He knows his community, and this is key in keeping crime at bay. Mercy is a teen that is over-the-top, but lives up to her savant reputation. She is both unlikable and likable. She is a key player that draws out both sides of the fight. This novel has a lot of backstory and a full cast of compelling players - even side characters are interesting. I like the little tidbits of information I learned about smuggling and hidden rooms. I found that this story took a moment to catch my interest, but I was hooked as soon as the chase was on. All the little dips and turns further hooked me. I read it in a day because it was so exciting! I look forward to other Porter Beck adventures!

***ARC received from Minotaur Books and NetGalley, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

Shades of Mercy if the follow up book to The Bitter Past, set a few months after the previous book. There are new and returning characters throughout the book and while I miss the back and forth of the current and past time lines, Shades of Mercy is still a solid mystery

This books starts of with quite the bang, a government drone has been hijacked by an unknown yet rather polite entity and targets nothing more than a prize steer. Its a rather interesting target to make for someone incredibly intelligent but it lays the ground work for an interesting mystery that encompasses many of the current problems facing current society.

I’m going to be honest, I think I liked Beck more in this book than I did in the previous book. There were a few aspects of his character in the prior book that I just didn’t really like but he is more level in this book. I like how he has to continue to struggle with his lose of his vision at night and how he is finding some interesting ways to compensate for it. It will be interesting to see how this progresses over the series. There are a few new secondary characters but I was happy that they brough back Brinley and we got to get a little more about her backstory. I figure eventually she make take more of a central role in a book, at least I hope so as she is my favorite character in the series.

I wasn’t really sure what I thought about Mercy, some of what she was able to do just felt a little too unrealistic at first. Yes the technology is real and completely possible but for a good chunk of the book is just doesn’t seem to make much sense. Thankfully the book does lay it out why it took the route that it did which was nice.

There is a lot going on in this book and while I know from the previous book that this author can weave these plot points together to make a cohesive story it still felt like it was going to be difficult. Again, he does a great job at making things that feel like just secondary background noise, like the fires that keep coming up throughout the book actually play a role in the main storyline. Sometimes its easy to wonder why this is included in the moment of the story but its meant to tell a full story and you need those random moments to carry the story to completion so things don’t just come out of the blue. It touches on a lot of real life struggles currently, which is an interesting departure from the previous book that that felt like a more old school thriller mystery.

Shades of Mercy is a great follow up in the series not suffering for a sophomore slump that can sometimes happen with the second book in a series. I’m really interested to see where it books with Beck.

Shades Of Mercy is the second in the Porter Beck thriller series. Porter Beck is the sheriff of Lincoln County in the desert of Nevada. His prior experience in army intelligence gives him all the skills he needs to take on an opiod crisis. He doesn't do it alone though. With the help of a great team with special skills, including his adopted sister, the Sheriff will investigate a childhood friend and a mysterious hacker of a military drone. It's also fire season. Could this investigation be any more dangerous?

Why yes, it could. Watching the Sheriff and his team investigate is so much fun. Porter Beck is very smart. It's nice reading about a character who always manages to find a way. He has a great personality and often uses humor. He's also very kind. I'd want him on my side any time.

There is never a dull moment. Serious topics are discussed but it never feels too dark or heavy. There are some imaginative and interesting scenes involving cattle. They're probably not for the faint of heart, but I didn't mind. I also found the talk about battling fires interesting, and I love how everything came together.

Just like the first book in the series, The Bitter Past, Shades Of Mercy feels different from a typical crime thriller. There is a sense of heart that makes this a joy to read. I absolutely love this series and can't wait for the next one! It's a perfect thriller for Summer.

Thank you to @minotaur_books for the chance to read! Shades.Of Mercy will be released July 16.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790542-shades-of-mercy

I am so sorry to say that I fell asleep reading this book every single time I picked it up. I am an avid reader and I just couldn’t not find it in me to enjoy or want to read this book at all. Maybe it’s just not my style of writing or the storyline I was unable to connect with, but I had to DNF this one.

Intense, dramatic, action-packed! My first Bruce Borgos book was a wonderfully developed, fast-paced story. Hoping there will be more!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.