This is one of my favorite kinds of books. The titular mailman is just someone who is trying to make a delivery, when he comes upon a couple in trouble. The woman is kidnapped and the mailman has to follow her around, dealing with bad guys and showing off all different kinds of skills, because he still needs to make his delivery.
I loved this story and I really hope there are more with this main character. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

He takes his delivery job VERY seriously

Rachel Stanfeld and her husband Glenn are preparing dinner in their Indiana kitchen one night, another almost-fight brewing in a marriage that has of late been strained. The cause of this particular argument is what to do about Abby - his daughter, her stepdaughter - whose grades have plummeted at the elite private school she's attending. Glenn thinks its a phase, Rachel thinks its a symptom of something more serious....and that Abby isn't the only one unhappy about something she's not sharing. Then four masked men walk in and the couples' problems increase exponentially. Rachel recognizes one of the men as someone who has been pestering her to give him a copy of a witness deposition she took recently. It was a fairly ordinary deposition in a case of alleged wrongful termination....nothing remotely dangerous, but as a lawyer Rachel can't release proprietary information to an unrelated party. Finn, the leader of the four man group, is not going to take no for an answer on the matter and has some additional questions for Rachel to answer that she swears she knows nothing about. He is on the verge of torturing Glenn when the doorbell rings. Persistently. At the door is an man who says he is a freelance courier there to make a delivery to Rachel, one that he has to deliver to her personally. Maybe her husband. Definitely not Finn. Mercury ("call me Merc") Carter doesn't look like a threat, he's slight of build and of average height, but is pleasantly causing Finn major problems. And he will be causing Finn many more in the hours ahead, because there is more to Merc than meets the eye, just as there is more to what's going on with Glenn, with Rachel, with Abby and now with Finn and his crew.
In the movie "Die Hard" the character of John McClane describes himself as, "Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the ass." That is exactly what Merc proves to be for Finn, his crew, and his bosses. Who he is, how he has the many skills he turns out to have, and why he is working as a one-man courier operation come out a bit at a time in this tale of people caught up in a bad situation in which they have little involvement and possess none of the information that the bad guys are after (or do they?). The reader doesn't know until the end whether Merc's arrival at Rachel's door is a happy little coincidence or if he knows more about what is going on then it appears. Like Lee Child's Jack Reacher, James Byrne's Dez Limerick and Mark Greaney's Grey Man, Merc should have no chance going up against the gang he is taking on as he pursues his noble goal of delivering the package he has been tasked with getting to Rachel (what is it? Another mystery.). But good things, and apparently dangerous things, can come in "shrimpy" packages. The suspense builds, no one is exactly what they seem, and everyone has at least one secret up their sleeve in this twisty thriller (4.5 stars, rounded up to 5) featuring an unlikely hero and other characters who are fleshed out as the story progresses. Readers of the authors I mentioned above should definitely check out The Mailman....and I suspect that this won't be his last delivery. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers/Mysterious Press for sharing an early copy of the book with me in exchange for my honest review.

The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins is MY book. And it should be yours as well. Mercury Carter was a federal agent who now has to make a buck. His job is a freelance courier, which is precisely what it means. He delivers letters and documents—anything you can send. As the book starts, his job is to provide a package to a lawyer, seemingly mundane as in this genre. The carrier realizes something has gone wrong. He enters the lawyer's home and discovers a group of men committing a crime. Carter tells these guys he's not leaving until he delivers the package and has never missed a delivery. Due to the delay, the attorney who is expecting the package ends up being kidnapped. And sure enough, Carter and the attorney's husband give chase; however, the news gets worse as the lawyer's daughter is also missing. Who wants to kidnap the lawyer and the lawyer's daughter? The book was extraordinarily engrossing and challenging to stop reading. The Mailman is a book with action, unpredictability, and well-written prose. I highly recommend this book.

Solid entry in the lone wolf with a mission genre. Mercury Carter is a courier, who will fight his way through anything to deliver his package. Carter’s client gets kidnapped before he can deliver the package and he mows through a criminal gang to get the signature. Felt a little bit like the author had a checklist of quirks and special abilities he wanted to check off for the protagonist and I never truly felt he was a full character, but the action chugged along and they had some fun twists. This isn’t the best of these kind of books, but if you read the new Reacher and the new Gatekeeper book and want to keep the train rolling this scratches the itch.

The Mailman: A Chilling Descent into the American Psyche

Andrew Welsh-Huggins' "The Mailman" isn't your typical thriller. It's a chilling exploration of the underbelly of American society, a descent into the paranoia and isolation that fester beneath the surface of everyday life.
The novel follows a seemingly ordinary mail carrier, a man who observes the lives of his community from his daily rounds. But beneath the veneer of normalcy, a disturbing transformation takes place. His observations become increasingly obsessive, his empathy replaced by a chilling detachment. He begins to see the flaws in his neighbors, their petty grievances, their hidden desires, and slowly, he starts to believe he has the power to "correct" these perceived imperfections.
Welsh-Huggins masterfully avoids easy answers. There are no clear villains or heroes, only shades of gray. The mail carrier's descent is gradual, insidious, a reflection of the societal pressures and anxieties that permeate American life. The novel explores themes of surveillance, privacy, and the erosion of trust in a chillingly realistic way.
"The Mailman" is a slow-burn that lingers long after the final page. It's a disturbingly relevant commentary on contemporary society, a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power and the fragility of the human psyche.
Recommended for: Readers who enjoy character-driven thrillers, social commentary, and unsettling explorations of the human condition.

Personally, I snapped up this book, and I will be watching for more from this imaginatively talented The Mailman: A Chilling Descent into the American Psyche
Andrew Welsh-Huggins' "The Mailman" isn't your typical thriller. It's a chilling exploration of the underbelly of American society, a descent into the paranoia and isolation that fester beneath the surface of everyday life.
The novel follows a seemingly ordinary mail carrier, a man who observes the lives of his community from his daily rounds. But beneath the veneer of normalcy, a disturbing transformation takes place. His observations become increasingly obsessive, his empathy replaced by a chilling detachment. He begins to see the flaws in his neighbors, their petty grievances, their hidden desires, and slowly, he starts to believe he has the power to "correct" these perceived imperfections.
Welsh-Huggins masterfully avoids easy answers. There are no clear villains or heroes, only shades of gray. The mail carrier's descent is gradual, insidious, a reflection of the societal pressures and anxieties that permeate American life. The novel explores themes of surveillance, privacy, and the erosion of trust in a chillingly realistic way.
"The Mailman" is a slow-burn that lingers long after the final page. It's a disturbingly relevant commentary on contemporary society, a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power and the fragility of the human psyche.
Recommended for: Readers who enjoy character-driven thrillers, social commentary, and unsettling explorations of the human condition.. It is rare these days to read such truly unique novel.

Mercury Carter is a deliveryman like no other. With his unique set of skills from his days as a federal agent, Carter turns a seemingly routine job into a relentless pursuit of justice when a delivery goes dangerously awry. What begins as a simple package handoff spirals into a tense, action-packed quest involving kidnappings, violent criminals, and a powerful crime syndicate.

Carter is a compelling protagonist—relentless, resourceful, and fiercely principled. Welsh-Huggins crafts a fast-paced narrative that never lets up, with vivid action sequences and a steadily building sense of danger. As Carter hunts the kidnappers across the Midwest, the stakes grow higher, uncovering a conspiracy that sets the stage for more adventures to come.

The Mailman delivers non-stop thrills and introduces a hero readers won’t soon forget. A gripping start to what promises to be an exciting series. This is a must-read for Jack Reacher fans.

Thank you Mysterious Press for providing the advance copy via NetGalley for my honest, voluntary review.

#TheMailman #NetGalley

The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins is an excellent, action-packed thriller and the first book in an entertaining new series featuring Mercury Carter, a highly-skilled freelance courier.

Mercury (Merc) Carter, a former postal inspection agent, is currently working as a mailman, a one-man delivery service. He takes great care to make sure his deliveries go directly to the intended recipient. When he arrives with a delivery at the Indianapolis home of married couple Rachel and Glenn Stanfield, he comes across a gang of violent criminals there, led by a man called Finn, who are about to torture the couple for information. Due to Merc's training as a federal agent, he is able to incapacitate the two goons sent out to eliminate him.

Finn and gang escape with Rachel as a hostage. Merc, with an injured Glenn in tow, takes off in pursuit of the men, so he can make his delivery to Rachel. Along the way he encounters numerous dangerous situations, which he skillfully handles, while uncovering a much broader conspiracy.

Once I started this well-written, high-octane, action-packed thriller it was quickly un-put-downable. This is a great choice for those who like intricate, fast-paced, intriguing thrillers where the clues followed are like a puzzle that must be solved. It is so satisfying to follow Merc's tenacity as he uncovers new clues and handles the numerous threats along the way.

Merc is an intelligent, determined, perceptive, and resourceful protagonist that never misses a delivery. He is an engaging character whose backstory is told in short segments as the present day action unfolds so readers are introduced to him while seeing his skills in action. Merc is comparable to Lee Child's Jack Reacher.

The Mailman introduces a new series full of action and I look forward to Mercury Carter's next delivery. Thanks to Penzler Publishers for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Thanks to Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Penzler Publishers, and NetGalley for access to the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I enjoyed this book. When I read, my mind often seeks out other stories I’ve read for comparison and this story gave me positive vibes like Human Target mixed with a little Jack Reacher. That’s a good thing.

The story involves Mercury Carter, who is an independent deliveryman as he seeks to deliver an important package to its recipient. In the process of his delivery, he interrupts a home invasion and demonstrates some of his many skills.

Well written and fast paced, this is an excellent action story and hopefully the start of a series. Recommended

This novel is a look at a day in the life of Mercury Carter, a federal agent turned freelance personal courier. Carter’s father was a mailman who died in the line of service, and now Carter also delivers things. You could say he also has a special set of skills, and they are needed when he sets out to deliver a package to an attorney named Rachel Stanfield.

When he arrives at her house, he immediately realizes something is wrong. There is a group of men there who seem to be in the middle of committing a crime, but he tells them he isn’t leaving until he delivers his package. He has never missed a delivery, and he isn’t going to start today. When the men abscond with Rachel, he and Rachel’s husband Glenn follow behind. Then they get word that Glenn’s daughter Abby is missing, which throws the delivery even further off track, adds another layer to the story.

The beginning of this book started off strong, but then towards the middle, things began to get a bit convoluted with too many storylines and ancillary characters. The ending was definitely good, but it did seem to drop a couple of those story lines, and gloss over what happened to some of the characters. Otherwise, this was an entertaining action/thriller book, and I thought “Merc” Carter was an intriguing character. It’s not my favorite thriller sub-genre, but if you like crime and action thrillers, this one is for you! 3.5 stars, rounded up.

(Thank you to Mysterious Press, Andrew Welsh-Huggins and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on January 28, 2025.)

I enjoy an occasional good thriller, one with characters to root for, and The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins definitely fits that definition. Mercury (Merc) Carter used to be a federal agent investigating and resolving mail fraud, and he has major skills from those days. Later, he left the agency to become a "freelance courier," in tribute to his father, a USPS mail carrier who met an untimely and unfortunate death.

Merc's self-imposed credo is to deliver whatever has been entrusted to him, in any way he can. And it seems he has met his biggest challenge when, in the process of making a delivery, he happens onto the home invasion and kidnapping of Rachel, a prominent defense attorney. With her injured husband in tow, Merc sets out to find Rachel and make the delivery, which involves encountering and dealing with a plethora of dangerous men with their own agendas and, ultimately, a much bigger objective. Along the way, there is another kidnapping, a lot of violence, and a look into the life of a very capable, clever, and creative man.

I was immediately engaged by the amazing Merc, and the supporting characters are equally well drawn and complex. The only one I find a little unbelievable is Rachel's 16-year-old stepdaughter, Abby, although she is fun to read about as well. Many of the scenes, and the plot itself, involve almost unbearable suspense, which keeps ratcheting upward throughout the book.

I understand that there have been a number of short stories about Merc, and the end of this book seems to promise more from him. I hope so.

My thanks to Penzler Publishers/Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

A witty thriller that breathes new life into the thrillerverse with a memorable character with distinctive quirks that help set him in his own path with gritty action and a twisty narrative that doesn’t let go of your attention until you’ve finished reading the final word.

Full review to be posted on https://bestthrillerbooks.com/kashif-hussain

A really good thriller. The pacing evokes Thomas Perry at his best, with an intriguing lead character and strong supporting ones. The villain may be a shade too arch for my taste, and the twists aren't particularly surprising, but this book is really about tempo and the ride. Extra points for the loving details about Rochester NY.

Clearly the opening bid for a series, and a series I'll be religiously following.

Mercury is tasked with delivering a package to a woman who’s been kidnapped by four dangerous and armed men. With the help of his uncle and her husband ,Mercury tries everything he can to find her in order to deliver this very important package.

-The mailman- is an action packed book that will have you on the edge of your seat wanting you to devour it. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A former postal inspection agent tracks a violent crew through the Midwest to rescue a kidnapped woman! Good book! This book had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, mystery, a great who done it and a few twists and turns. The story was interesting! I definitely recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!