Mercy Creek by M. E. Browning is a tense story about a girl who goes missing in a Colorado town. As detectives work to solve the case, things begin to get more and more complicated.

This is the second book in the Jo Wyatt Mystery Series. I had previously read the first book, Shadow Ridge, as part of a blog tour, so when book two was announced, I couldn’t wait to dive in! While you don’t necessarily have to read the first book in the series before this one, I would recommend doing so to get more information on each character.

When the investigation begins, Detective Jo Wyatt is faced with a lot…

Not only is she frustrated with the department not taking things as seriously as she thinks they should be, she also knows the parents of the missing child and they all have a tense history together. People are lying to her about their alibis. There’s a new chief in town that everyone is still adjusting to. And to top it all off, this new chief wants to promote Jo. However, it’s not in a way that the department usually follows; rather it’s a “quick win” that really just benefits him.

Even with all of that on her plate, Jo is able to keep a level head and dive fully into the investigation, determined to bring the girl home.

The start of this book shows readers a scene that will make us all imagine the worst. As the story plays out, my mind kept returning to that one scene. When everything is resolved at the end, I was shocked but also felt that the author did a great job dropping hints here and there to guide us to where we ended up.

Plenty of young children worried about monsters under the bed or creatures in the closet, but those fears diminished with age. What caused fear in older children tended to be threats that emerged from the shadows, and often had a name.

It was a comforting fairy tale that monsters were easy to recognize and lived in lands far away. In reality, they preyed much closer to home.

Jo Wyatt is a character that I definitely have my eye on. I loved seeing her really settle into herself in this book, and I can only imagine that things are going to get more interesting from here!