Book Title: THE MAILMAN
Character Name: Mercury Carter
Q: Thanks for sitting down with me. Let’s begin with your first name, Mercury. That’s a nickname, I assume?
A: Thanks for having me. No, in fact, that’s the name on my birth certificate. My father was a mail carrier who also happened to love the Greek and Roman myths. As a mailman, he liked the idea of naming his son after the messenger of the gods. My mom wasn’t crazy about the idea but changed her mind when, according to family lore, I arrived in record time. Most people call me Merc for short.
Q. Interesting. So, how would you describe your childhood?
A: I grew up in Rochester, New York, pretty much living and breathing baseball. I had dreams of playing professional ball but had to shelve that after breaking my ankle in high school.
Q: Sorry to hear that. In addition to a different first name, you have an unusual career. What can you tell us about your work?
A: In short, I am a freelance courier for a living. I deliver items for people, from precious family heirlooms to French Bulldog puppies, that they don’t want going through normal delivery channels. Occasionally, I also chaperone people from place to place.
Q: French Bulldogs?
A: You wouldn’t believe how expensive they are and what people will do to get one.
Q: Well, then. How did you get into that type of work?
A: Unfortunately, my life took a tragic turn while I was in college when my father was murdered on his delivery route in Rochester. After agents with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service solved my father’s killing, I was inspired to join the agency myself. I worked there for many years but had to retire after I was shot and seriously wounded by someone connected to my father’s murder. I started the freelance courier business out of necessity but it turns out I’m pretty good at it.
Q: My deepest condolences for your loss. I’m guessing that after all that violence in your life, a quiet job like freelance courier must have been appealing.
A: That’s exactly right. For example, on my most recent delivery, in Indianapolis, I had to save the recipient of a package from a cutthroat band of killers, then after they kidnapped her, chase her captors across the Midwest, hunting them down one by one before thwarting a catastrophic plot threatening hundreds of innocent lives. It was a nice break from what I used to do.
Q: Um, okay. So, what would you say are your top attributes as a freelance mailman?
A: Let’s see: I’m fast, reliable, and economical. Oh, and I’ve never missed a delivery and I’ll do almost anything to keep that streak alive. It’s usually not a good idea to get in my way.
Q: Roger that. Changing gears, can you tell us a little bit about your personal life?
A: Not much to say. I’m married to Tomeka, an accountant, and still live in Rochester, not that far from my mom and my uncle, my father’s brother, who helps me as a kind of dispatcher.
Q: Any children?
A: No children of my own, but Tomeka has two grown sons.
Q: Pets?
A: One dog and one cat. Oh, and a tortoise named Hermes that I inherited from my father.
Q: A tortoise? At least you always know where it is.
A: You’d be surprised. It escaped from the yard last year for three days.
Q: Hmm. Any hobbies?
A: I enjoy working out, doing yoga with Tomeka at the Y, and playing rec league baseball.
Q: Me too. I’m in our church softball league.
A: I said baseball. Softball is not baseball.
Q: Got it. So, if you’re from Rochester, you must like Genesee Beer?
A: The only alcohol I drink is sake aged at least ten years.
Q: Sake?
A: Long story.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
A: Let’s see. My father was from Toronto, so I’m a huge Blue Jays fan and catch as many home games a season as I can. I prefer tea to coffee and I drive a Chevy Suburban, which is handy for puppy crates and also weaponry. Did I mention it’s not a good idea to get in my way during a delivery?
Q: Yes, you did.
A: Great. I think that’s all, then.
Q: Wait, one other question.
A: Yes?
Q: I’m in Columbus, Ohio, and I’m trying to get my great-great-grandmother’s handwritten recipe for meatball soup from my aunt in Rapid City, South Dakota, without it being mailed. Is that something you could—
A: Not a problem. I’ll text you my rates.
Library Journal Mystery Pick of the Month
In a new thriller from the author of The End of the Road, a former postal inspection agent tracks a violent crew through the Midwest to rescue a kidnapped woman.
Mercury Carter is a deliveryman and he takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address that threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. That’s because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service, skills that make him particularly useful for delivering items in circumstances as dangerous as these.
After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals—but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. With Rachel’s husband Glenn in tow, Carter takes off in pursuit of the kidnapper and his quarry, hunting them across Indiana, up to Chicago, and into small-town Illinois. Along the way, he slowly picks off members of the crew and uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy and a powerful crime syndicate, all in service of his main objective: to hand the package over to Rachel. Carter has never missed a delivery and isn’t about to start now.
Introducing a new lone-wolf protagonist to rival Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Steve Hamilton’s Nick Mason, and Gregg Hurwitz’s Evan Smoak, The Mailman is a pulse-pounding series opener with captivating action and enough thrills to leave readers anxiously awaiting the next installment.
Mystery | Thriller Crime [Mysterious Press, On Sale: January 28, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9781613166109 / eISBN: 9781613166116]
Andrew Welsh-Huggins is an American journalist and author of both fiction and nonfiction books about crime. He graduated from Kenyon College. Welsh-Huggins is legal-affairs reporter for the Associated Press in Columbus, Ohio.
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