In Search of Mercy
A Mystery
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Shamus Award for Best First Novel
Dexter Bolzjak is an ex–hockey goalie who was abducted and tortured by perverted sports fans eight years ago. Now he's muddling along in a Pittsburgh warehouse when he meets an old, terminally ill drunk named Lou Kashon. Lou wants to see his lost love, the actress Mercy Carnahan, and offers Dexter a fortune to find her. Dexter embarks on the search, retracing Mercy's past online and on foot. Soon, Mercy begins to haunt Dexter, appearing in his dreams while flashbacks to his own traumatic experience plague his waking hours. Dexter persists and follows Mercy's trail to New York, where he finds a voyeuristic film of the actress recorded shortly before her disappearance. Once Dexter connects that film to its source, he finds himself trapped in the ultimate nightmare.
Michael Ayoob's first novel offers a captivating new PI and a provocative mystery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Winner of the Private Eye Writers of America Best First Private Eye Competition, Ayoob s outstanding debut introduces a flawed hero who transcends all the flawed hero clich s. Dexter Bolzjak found fame as a high school phenom in hockey-mad Pittsburgh until he had a meltdown during a game at the Pennsylvania state championship in 1993. Eight years after being abducted and brutally assaulted by deranged sports fans, the 25-year-old Bolzjak sorts warehouse produce and takes care of Job 1 maintaining his sanity. Then he meets an old drunk, Lou Kashon, who offers him big bucks to find a reclusive former movie star, Mercy Carnahan, who hasn t been seen since 1958. Whether describing the chaos of a hockey game, creating a backstory for Mercy, or detailing the film editing process, Ayoob shows a sure hand. Filled with vivid, violent images and characters who leap off the page into the reader s imagination, this impressive novel builds to a startlingly ambiguous ending.
