MCAvoy is in the US to help with a murder/assault case and to find his brother in law. He's working with NYPD Detective Ronny Alto = a good character. I'd not read the earlier books so felt a bit lost in spots but quickly found my feet each time because of the writing. A good fast paced read.

Solid police procedural. Makes me want to read the rest.

Published by Penguin Random House / Blue Rider Press on February 7, 2017

Irish priests have always been popular characters in fiction. Father Jimmy Whelan, a priest in Galway who was raised in the Bronx, figures prominently in the latest Aector McAvoy novel. Where there are priests there are sinners, and several of those appear in Cruel Mercy, perhaps including Father Whelan. An undeniable sinner is known as the Penitent, although he fancies himself to have been transformed from sinner to redeemer. Any reasonable deity would think otherwise.

Sergeant McAvoy travels to New York because Brishen Ayres, dubbed the Miracle Man by the press, survived being shot in the head, although he is in a coma. Ayres, a boxing coach, brought a young man to America from Ireland to explore the lad’s prospects for a professional boxing career. The boxer is killed in the assault that Ayres survives. Additional mayhem ensues during the incident that takes the boxer’s life.

McAvoy’s boss, Trish Pharaoh, sends McAvoy to investigate, in part because of McAvoy’s family connection to a Traveler who apparently followed the boxer (also a Traveler) to New York. The concern is that the Travelers are involved in a family feud and that Ayres was caught in the middle, although McAvoy isn’t so sure.

In addition to the Travelers, the priest, and the Penitent, a Mafia enforcer named Claudio, a few other Mafia members, and a group of Chechen criminals join the cast in Cruel Mercy. McAvoy, of course, is caught in the middle of all of them. Most creepy fictional villains are too contrived to be anything but ridiculous, but David Mark invents a couple of creepy villains in Cruel Mercy who seem chillingly real.

The plot weaves layers of complexity without becoming muddy. Cruel Mercy isn’t for readers with a short attention span (plenty of modern thriller writers cater to that audience), but for those readers who persevere, the surprising payoff is rewarding. There are no loose ends in this carefully woven story.

Given the novel’s religious characters, it isn’t surprising to learn that the nature of sin and absolution are among the novel’s themes. The novel asks whether confession and forgiveness of sins are seen as a “get out of Hell free” card by people who only repent until the time comes to sin again. Characters have different ideas about how and whether their actions will affect their afterlives, but the best model is McAvoy, who doesn’t know what to believe and isn’t particularly religious, preferring to live as honestly and helpfully as he can because it is the right thing to do, not because he expects to be rewarded for his efforts after death.

Cruel Mercy is just as enjoyable as other entries in the McAvoy series. McAvoy’s fundamental decency makes him sympathetic but he never becomes sanctimonious. It is such a pleasure to spend time with him that I’m surprised the McAvoy series doesn’t have more followers.

RECOMMENDED

Scottish Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy travels to New York City to try to track down his missing brother in law who may have been involved in the shooting of 2 of his friends who were visiting the city. The crime is exacerbating pre-existing conflict between 2 clans of Travelers in Ireland and thus stressing out McAvoy's Traveler wife. The investigation leads McAvoy to the underground boxing scene, Russian and Italian mobs and NYC police who give McAvoy a suspiciously free reign to practice unauthorized police work.

"Wonders whether he can see God's face, and whether it is as glorious as the one that he carved from the baby boy as he lay in a dead girls arms and suckled upon a brown breast, inches from her unbeating heart." That sentence, which appears early in the book, will mean nothing to you if you have not read this book. Unfortunately, I've read the book and nothing clarified that sentence until almost the end. That is my major problem with this book, the author tries too hard to keep the reader in the dark. From a confusing beginning, the book never becomes easy to follow. Some chapters are set in 1970s and 1980s. You keep getting flashes of the story without any framework for joining them together. There are brief chapters inside the head of a hospital patient and also in the head of a Penitent who visits him. There's a chapter about a priest's visit to a mental hospital where children are kept in hideous conditions. Everything is eventually explained, but it's complicated. Nevertheless, I liked this book and it is probably my favorite one of the three books that I've read from this series. I liked the New York setting and I think the story became more interesting by having McAvoy out of his element.

As in the author's other books, there are acts of ghoulish violence. After reading several of these books, I'm beginning to think the author might be slightly disturbed. I'm a little worried about an author who can think up, and revel in, the sort of violence portrayed in these books.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

another very good entry in the McAvoy series by David Mark. I have read and enjoyed them all, but this one takes a detour from the usual Hull UK stomping grounds as Aector goes to NYC to track down some missing Irishmen including his brother in law. I really enjoyed this one as lots of good storylines involving a mob hitman, a tortured priest, bare knuckle boxing, and the east coast Mafia. we don't see most of the usual supporting cast but boss Trish makes several great Skype appearances as she checks in on Aectors progress. Mark does some great writing here as the plot is revealed and propelled over timelines from the 70's to current. a good mystery, some good action and I love that Aector is a good cop in the gentle giant way that is not too common among series leads. one of the best in the series, 4 + stars.
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

This was a well crafted mystery with puzzles and red herrings galore. Hull DS McAvoy is asked by his wife Roisin to find her brother Valentine Teague. Valentine went to New York to fight as a boxer with another Irishman, Shay Helden. Shay and his trainer Brishen were attacked and Valentine is missing. Shay is dead and Brishen is in a coma. The Teagues and Heldens are rival Traveler families in Ireland and the Heldens believe Valentine killed Shay.
Some of the players in this novel, besides the above:
Claudio--a mob hit man
Father Whelan--who lived in New York city for many years and became a mob confessor
"The Penitent"--mob lawyer Molony, who is Father Whelan's friend from seminary days.
Ronnie Alto--NYC cop assigned to the Shay Helden murder
Trish Pharaoh--McAvoy's boss, who helps him via Skype
Paulie Pugliesca--NYC mob boss
Two quotes:
Prayer--"He pictures prayers as urgent, skittish things, specters born behind locked teeth."
"His prayers are opaque, unfathomable things, vague requests for forgiveness, for strength--food for the poor and peace for the troubled."
An easy four stars for this book, number 6 in the DS McAvoy series. I recommend that you read them in order. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ebook.

This was the first book that I have ever read by David Mark but it will NOT be my last. Holy cow!! I was hooked from the first page! This story was so terrifyingly accurate and plausible that it gave me nightmares! And that is great storytelling at its best. I look forward to more from Mr. Mark

David Mark deserves much more attention in the US than he seems to get. To this reader, he is in the top tier of crime writers from across the pond - right up there with Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Mark Billingham, and I am constantly recommending his books to lovers of gritty, carefully plotted, suspenseful, and exceedingly well written crime fiction. That recommendation comes with a caution though. Mark writes so realistically and convincingly about murder and violence that these books are not for the faint of heart, but Mark leavens that darkness with brilliant moments of wit and humor. (I challenge readers not to laugh out loud when they read McAvoy’s comments about reindeer visiting sick children in the hospital at Christmas!) With so many crime authors striving to create unusual or striking characters, David Marks’ creation of McAvoy is pure genius. His great hulking appearance can be very intimidating to those who don’t know him, but that masks a sensitive, kind, dedicated, and humble man who believes he is nothing without his family. As his boss Trish Pharaoh says of him “You are the only man I’ve ever met who deserves to be thought of in entirely glowing terms, and I say this as somebody who spends a good portion of every day wanting to kick you in the teeth for being so f….ing wholesome.”

“In “Cruel Mercy” McAvoy steps aside from his policing job in the U.K. to travel to New York City to find his wife’s brother, who is suspected of murdering an Irish boxer and seriously wounding his legendary coach. Even on his home turf McAvoy feels incredibly awkward and uncomfortable around everyone except his boss and his family, so New York is bewildering, distressing, and overwhelming to him. Sustained by phone calls with his wife Roison and advice and direction from his boss Trish Pharoah, McAvoy begins searching for his brother-in-law and investigating the shootings he is a suspect in. Soon, McAvoy is drawn into a world of Russian and Italian-American mafia activities. An integral part of the story is a well-meaning Catholic priest, his efforts to do good and the compromises that requires, particularly with the mafia. This Catholic influence is also seen in two of the creepiest and most disturbed characters I’ve encountered in some time, both of whom are seeking absolution in very twisted and hideous manners. “Cruel Mercy” is a complex book to which I had to pay close attention as I followed all the various strands of the story. Yet that close attention is amply rewarded with an exceptional work of crime fiction that I’m still contemplating weeks later.

My review was posted on Goodreads on 2/8/17.

This is the third book by David Mark that I have read. I went back and checked some of my past reviews and I found one thing in common. He likes to start off his books coming out of left field. You start reading and you have absolutely no idea what in the heck you are reading about. This I can truthfully say. Because this is the third book and the third time this has happened. Ha!

So, I will alert you that you should read the first part, put it in a file in the back of your mind, because it will be explained to you later on in the book. Then there will be a little light bulb over your head and you will say Aha, that's what that was.

At first I was like, what in the heck is this Pentinent dude or thing - that will be explained.

I think DS McAvoy is one of the most bumbling detectives out there. He's so big that every one is scared of him. Little do they know, he's probably just as scared. There are some pretty good laughs in this one. It's also pretty gory, creepy, full of mobsters, lots of killing, boxers, perverts, and weirdos. It will definitely keep you on your toes trying to figure out what happened to the three boxers that came to the U.S. from Ireland. One of which is related to McAvoy's wife and is the reason he is there, looking for him.

Poor McAvoy does end up in the wrong places at the wrong time sometimes as well as those boxers. This was a great book and I am glad that I got the chance to read it.

Thanks to Penguin Group for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.