A MERCIFUL SECRET is the
third book in my Mercy
Kilpatrick series about an FBI agent who was raised in rural Oregon by
survivalists. In SECRET, Mercy is caught up in two related murder investigations
hundreds of miles apart. Here's an interview with my heroine:
How would you describe yourself?
Mercy Kilpatrick: I'm independent and strive to be prepared for
everything. Rational. Reliable.
You were raised 'off the grid' with your family. How did this influence the
person you have become?
Mercy: Being raised off the grid, taught me that I am the only person I
can rely on. People forget that grocery stores can run out of food, power can be
permanently cut off, and that when desperate, your most trusted neighbor will
turn their back on you. I never forget.
You left home in order to become an FBI agent. This had to be a pretty big
change for you. What made you want to join the government?
Mercy: I saw it as a challenge. I'd been raised to believe that
government constantly oversteps its bounds and that our population should never
trust it. I was taught that the world was black and white. When I left home, I
was determined to seek out the shades of gray. The FBI appealed to my sense of
justice and exercised my critical thinking skills.
You have returned to Eagle's Nest, Oregon. How would you describe your
homecoming?
Mercy: It wasn't supposed to be a homecoming. I was on bad terms with my
family when I left home at eighteen and hadn't spoken to anyone in fifteen
years. A case from my hometown landed in my lap and I had no choice. Reactions
from my four siblings was mixed. My mother seems pleased to have me back, but my
father still hasn't spoken to me. he good outweighed the bad which is why I
decided to stay.
While in Oregon you met police chief Truman Daly. How has he changed your
life?
Mercy: Truman…is stubborn, patient, and too damn honorable. He saw before
I did that we're a lot alike and claims he knew that we'd end up together. He's
made me a better person and puts up with all my weird quirks. I've known him for
four months and I can't imagine life without him now.
What plans do you have for the future?
Mercy: Currently I'm focused on being the best parent I can be to my
niece. Her mother was never a part of her life. Granted I'm not the motherly
type, but I was once a teenage girl and am aware of the problems teenagers can
face. Truman and I are doing well. It's too early to know what will happen
between us.
Mercy Kilpatrick
#3
A pair of ritual murders could expose Mercy Kilpatrick to something
terrifying: her own past…
Raised off the grid by survivalists, Mercy
Kilpatrick believed in no greater safeguard than the backwoods of Oregon.
Unforgiven by her father for abandoning the fold for the FBI, Mercy still holds
to her past convictions. They’re in her blood. They’re her secrets—as guarded as
her private survival retreat hidden away in the foothills.
In a cabin
near her hideaway, Mercy encounters a young girl whose grandmother is dying from
multiple knife wounds. Hundreds of miles away, a body is discovered slashed to
death in a similar way. The victims—a city judge and an old woman living in the
woods—couldn’t be more different. With the help of police chief Truman Daly,
Mercy must find the killer before the body count rises. Mercy knows that the
past has an edge on her. So does her family. How can she keep her secrets
now…when they’re the only things that can save her?
Romance Suspense
[Montlake Romance, On Sale: January 16, 2018, Trade
Size / e-Book, ISBN: 9781542047869 / ]
Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list
multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan
& McLane series and the Mercy Kilpatrick novels. Kendra is a three-time
winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers
finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader,
cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden,
and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific
Northwest with her husband and three daughters but looks forward to the day she
can live in flip-flops.
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