When I finished reading The Bitter Past (Porter Beck, #1) by Bruce Borgos, I wasn’t sure how Bruce Borgos planned to write another book in this series that would come close to topping The Bitter Past. I shouldn’t have worried. Not only did Shades of Mercy (Porter Beck, #2) meet my expectations, it surpassed them. Shades of Mercy was a fast paced police procedural mystery thriller that had me hooked from the very beginning. Bruce Borgos once again masterfully created compelling characters, some old friends from the first book and some new ones as well. Among the new characters was an English Lab, Sheriff Porter Beck’s trusty assistant that he nicknamed Bo, short for Frank Colombo. His team was now twelve strong. All twelve members of his team had the Sheriff’s back and were willing to do whatever was expected of them. That included fighting the fires that were raging throughout the county. Sheriff Porter Beck was ready and determined to tackle anything that affected his county. He went about doing it in his calm, patient and methodical manner. Sheriff Porter Beck rarely got flustered or lost his temper. He tended to rely on his army training and instincts. Sheriff Porter Beck found himself at a disadvantage at times. He was suffering from a degenerative disease of the retina that affected his sight at night and in darkened places. This condition was getting worse and Beck knew it.

Shades of Mercy centered around two crimes that hit a personal nerve with Sheriff Beck. Both crimes involved friends of his that he had known for years. One of those friends lost his life in a drug overdose. Porter Beck suspected that the fentanyl laced opioids that had killed his friend were being sold illegally. He was determined to discover who was behind this. Then on the Fourth of July, Beck learned that another friend suffered a loss. A military drone had been hijacked and programmed to make a direct hit on a very expensive prize bull on his friend Jesse’s ranch. Why would someone want to purposely kill and target a bull? That occurrence brought government officials to Lincoln Counry to investigate who could have hacked into military equipment and taken control of the drone. After sharing the information with his adoptive sister, Porter Beck was introduced to Mercy Vaughn, a hacker, who had been incarcerated at the juvenile detention center. With no computer accessible to Mercy, could she have had anything to do with the hacked drone? That was Sheriff Porter Beck’s job to find out.

Shades of Mercy (Porter Beck, #2) by Bruce Borgos was full of action, suspenseful scenes and had several twists and turns throughout. Bruce Borgos proved once again what a masterful storyteller he is. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The ending was unexpected yet so satisfying. I loved the hint about what might follow in the next book in this fabulous series. Shades of Mercy portrayed lots of secrets, lies and deceptions. It was about family, friendships, trust, death, drugs, spies, Cartel members and activities, hacking, grief, loyalty and the effects of dementia on the inflicted and the family of the individual. I enjoyed everything about this book and look forward to reading the next book in this series. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me to read Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos through Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I enjoyed this story! Porter Beck is slowly going blind, but still sheriff in Nevada. People are dying of drug overdoses and then suddenly a hacker is stealing weapons to go after an old friend of Porter’s that seems to be involved.

Lots of action and fascinating characters and while this is second in a series, it was a definite standalone. I look forward to more in this series!

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sheriff Porter Beck is back in the next book in the series and this book is even better than first. Excellent story line, character development and plot leads to an excellent finish in this thriller. I really enjoyed how the author can include regular dialogue and humor in the book even when they are thriller books. This gives the author so much depth as an author and really allows the authenticity of human beings to show through. I really enjoyed this book and I hope this is not the last we have seen from Porter Beck!

I enjoyed this police procedural/crime thriller, the second in the Porter Beck series. I read this as a standalone and was able to fully enjoy it without needing the backstory in the first novel.

Open western land, drug cartels, hackers and cybersecurity... this was a fast-paced thrill of a read.

There was solid character development (although I would've liked a bit more dimension to the female characters), but still offered plenty of action to keep me entertained.

Porter Beck is an objectively good man with strong morals, which I appreciate. It helped me know that no matter how crazy and tense things got, with him leading the charge there would be resolution.

And I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but can we pause and talk about how gorgeous this cover is?! I love it!

Despite the action and the enticing characters, I'm not sure I'll be seeking out the other novels in the series. Overall, it was good and enjoyable in the moment, but in hindsight I just feel kind of meh about it.

I had trouble with this one. I found it a bit too slow for my liking and I kept putting it down. I tried to power through but ultimately, I gave up and DNF.

When I originally selected to read this, I didn’t realize it was the second in the series. I think jumping out without reading the first put me behind, as I felt I was missing a significant amount of context and was trying to catch up with clues. For this reason, I had a hard time getting into the book as I was more focused on figuring out how everything fit together, than unraveling the mystery. I appreciate the depth of character in Beck, the interpersonal relationships, and the setting. The storyline is very extensive, and there are many interwoven points and twists and turns. It is pretty jam packed once it gets going and perhaps a bit chaotic. Overall an enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos is the second book in the Porter Beck series. I wish I had known that when I started, I would have read the first one before reading this.
I am a lover of police procedurals and mystery. This somewhat fits the bill, but it felt to drag a little and I found myself slogging through and overly excited to finish. Overall it was a decent read.

There is a new hero in the Nevada desert who is standing tall. In the second installment in the Porter Beck series, so much gets thrown into the mix - stolen drones, teen-age genius hackers, counterfeit drugs, old friends who have wandered off the straight and narrow path, some very bad and dangerous hombres, and that is just scraping the cream off the pudding. There is an interesting twist in this story which revolves around Beck’s diminished eyesight which sets up a scenario for failure before the story even lifts off. Being a superb tactician, Borgos neatly incorporates this malady at all the most strategic places in the story, making the reader aware of the effects of retinitis pigmentosa and the limitations of losing your night and peripheral vision. Not an optimal situation for a Sheriff. Nor is the dementia that Beck’s father is suffering from.

Then Special Agent Ed Maddox literally jumps out of a helicopter, landing at Porter Beck’s feet enticing him to take a ride to figure out what fell out of the sky and why. The what, the how and the why is going to power this story and it is a doozy with more nefarious and extraordinary situations, switchbacks, treachery and lots more. This is a fast moving, grip your seat thriller that keeps your heart rate elevated and brain engaged wondering what could possibly happen next. And next keeps happening.

Many thanks to Minotaur / St. Martin’s Press for a copy. I am wondering about the epilogue and where we will find Porter Beck in the next installment - pretty sneaky little hint dropped down the rabbit hole. Can’t wait to find out.

Shades of Mercy is the second book about Porter Beck by Bruce Borgos. In this book, Sheriff Beck is pulled into an investigation regarding a teenage hacker and drug and weapons trafficking.

This was a fast paced mystery that kept me reading. I hadn’t read the first book but still felt like I was able to follow and understand the plot. At times the extensive cast of characters was a little much to keep track of. Overall, a good, fast read.

4 Stars

I recently completed Shades of Mercy, Bruce Borgos's second book in the Porter Beck series. This book is as exceptional as the first, "The Bitter Past." You can read it as a stand-alone novel and easily follow along without getting lost.
The novel, a compelling police procedural and mystery, is situated in the high desert of Nevada and centers on the fentanyl crisis in Lincoln County, intertwined with a cyber intrusion leading to a military drone disrupting an event at the Double J Ranch.

The narrative follows Special Agent Ed Maddox as he grapples with the aftermath of the drone's actions. Concurrently, Sheriff Porter Beck's investigations bring him to a juvenile detention center, where he encounters Mercy Vaughn, a gifted 16-year-old hacker. The book adeptly captures the high desert's prevalent fire hazard and arid heat while portraying characters, especially Sheriff Porter Beck, as wise and intelligent, adding depth to the storyline.

"Shades of Mercy" is a fast-paced and intricate procedural with unforeseen twists and revelations. It balances intrigue and action and presents a noteworthy addition to the Beck Porter series. The book introduces Columbo, a clever and endearing canine companion. The incorporation of Columbo as Beck's new canine partner is especially fitting. Upon completing the book, I eagerly await the forthcoming installment in the Beck Porter Police Procedural series.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing the e-ARC in exchange for my candid evaluation. The opinions expressed therein are entirely my own.

Book two did not disappoint!

Beck is working with another type of feds to solve a mystery while he is also trying to solve a drug problem in his state. He never thought that the two of them would be connected.

Mercy is a very smart girl, maybe too smart for her own good. She can hack into almost anything and that puts a target on her back. Beck is doing everything he can to help her, but when she mystically goes missing, the only place he can turn to is the computerized programs that Mercy is most likely hacking into.

This book was full of twists, right to the very end! There is a happy ending, but I really hope there will be more to this series. Beck is a smart cop with military background that seems to always have a knack for saying just the right thing to get the other Feds going.

A clever blend of suspense, intrigue, and emotional depth, and a great addition to the series. The writing is vivid and atmospheric with twists and turns that kept me guessing.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bookish thoughts: This was the second installment in Bruce Borgos’s Porter Beck series. I enjoyed this one as it was a timely read about current technology and cyber attacks. The story was a fast paced suspense filled mystery that kept me turning the pages. I think I enjoyed this one slightly more than book one. Looking forward to reading more in the series!

I received an advanced electronic copy from publisher Minotaur books and Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book.

#smpinfluencer

The second book in the Porter Beck series, and I can easily say that I will continue to read these books as they come available.

Borgos has written another good police procedural, this time focusing on cyber-crime. Beck is working to outsmart the unknown perpetrators who can control top-secret military drones from the comfort of their laptop computers. How does a small-town sheriff beat the cyber-criminals? And how does he determine who is the good guy, when everyone around him seems to have some big secrets to hide?

I appreciate the banter that Borgos has given to Porter Beck. And the secondary characters help solidify this story and structure well. A strong addition to the series, and has set the stage for a whole series of books sure to please fans of small-town police drama.

Many thanks to Sara Beth Haring, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books via NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this release, in exchange for my honest review.

Back in the desert with the sheriff Porter Beck and his small staff. The story opens with him still dealing with his father who once was the sheriff when Porter was growing up. Now in the middle of a birthday party out at a ranch a Drone that was on a training flight from a nearby Air Force Base has just released a missile that blew something up on the man's ranch. The Drone of course was hacked but whom? And what was the purpose? When the Air Force sends out an investigator that man cannot get anything over on Beck because he was an Army investigator for years. Now the story takes you to find the hacker, who is supplying the illegal opioids in the area and all of these questions will be answered at the end. I liked all of the characters from Beck on Down and the story is also a very good book.

This is the first I have read in the Porter Beck series and it was quite enjoyable. Nice to have a suspense/thriller set in Nevada. I plan on reading the next book as Shades of Mercy kept me entertained throughout the book.

4 out of 5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

A 17th birthday party of Shiloah Roy is disrupted by a fireball in the sky, the explosion of a remotely piloted aircraft 92,000 feet above the Double J Ranch. The bizarre accident momentarily distracts Shiloah’s father, Jesse, from his attention to his daughter. Meanwhile, Sheriff Porter Beck is responding to a distress call at the Pioneer Hotel. Though Lincoln County features ranches and wide-open spaces, its proximity to Las Vegas brings problems like the fatal drug overdose of Beck’s closest friend, Cash Conrad, at the Pioneer. Soon, Special Agent Ed Maddox of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations arrives, seeking cooperation from Beck. The only casualty of the initial incident at the Double J is a bull, but later victims will include 30 dead steers. Because these crimes have a tech element, suspicion falls on Shiloah’s friend Mercy Vaughn, a brilliant 16-year-old hacker who’s currently in a juvenile detention facility. At the same time, he now has an opioid crisis on his hands. People are dying left and right from harmful, illegal drugs for pain that are being imported into his corner of Nevada. However, he also must figure out who had intercepted a remote-controlled aircraft being piloted by the U.S. government and shot a missile at a steer that his friend owned, which was worth a heck of a lot of money. the Feds are involved and are moving in on Beck’s territory as they assume that the hacker was using the mountains to get a good signal to the satellite controlling the plane. If that wasn’t enough, it would turn out that the whole hack job is tied to the Chinese government but was seemingly done by a young girl named Mercy. But how did she do it? She was serving time in a youth detention center in Beck’s jurisdiction, and there was no way she would have access to a computer. So, what happened? Will Beck find out? Mercy disappears while out working in a road crew. Where is Mercy? Will she be found?

The author has written a suspenseful and action-packed novel. It is the perfect blend of crime fiction and police procedural. I found myself engaged and attached to the characters in the novel. I can’t wait to read the next book.

This is book 2 of the Porter Beck series. Porter is now the Sheriff of the same small town his father was. Now, opioids have hit the small town and is causing a lot of deaths. A hacker has also managed to attack his childhood friend. Porter must try to stem the flow of drugs and find the hacker before more people die.

Porter Beck, sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, and his twelve person department cover a large area that's usually very quiet. Beck is 46 years old and losing his night vision from retinitis pigmentosa so he, and we, have to wonder how much longer he can do this job. A childhood friend—now an enormously successful rancher—is targeted by a military drone which has been hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. Beck's investigation leads him to teenager Mercy Vaughn and when Mercy disappears Beck understands that she's in danger and time is running out for all of them.

This is the second book in the Porter Beck series but I read it as a standalone and don't feel like I missed anything by not reading the first book. The characters are fleshed out and I especially loved Frank Columbo, Beck's dog, an English lab. The story is well written with much action and suspense. There are many plot lines to follow including some timely threads, like opiate overdoses, wildfires, computer hacking, etc., but there's also lots of violence and death (including a large number of cattle). The ending left lots to the imagination and many directions in which the series could go.

My thanks to Sara Beth Haring, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books via Netgalley for inviting me to read an advance copy of this excellent novel. I apologize for not getting it finished before the publication date. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: July 16, 2024

Wildly Divergent Storytelling From First Book In Series, Still Great. The Bitter Past, the first book in this series, was a dual timeline almost historical fiction/ spy thriller, and it worked beautifully - to summarize my review of that book. This time, we get a lot of solid character work and even more solid action pieces (particularly towards the end, but also an intriguing prologue to bring us into the tale), with plenty of "what the hell is going on here" in the middle. Whereas the first book looked to the past to tell its tale, this one actually reads as though it is bringing the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war into a tale set in rural Nevada. There's some innovative action sequences one would expect more in a Vin Diesel XXX movie or one of the GI Joe live action movies than in a tale of a small town Sheriff... even if this particular Sheriff *is* a highly trained former soldier. (And yes, this comes into play as well.) Borgos does well to show Beck's strengths *and* weaknesses, and it is the combination of both that make Beck feel like a fully "real" human rather than just another action hero.

Overall a solid tale more in the mystery/ action space than its predecessor, and yet it does its job of making the reader *need* the next book perfectly.

Very much recommended.