Rebecca Reviews ~ Fatal Frost (Defenders of Justice, 1) by Nancy Mehl

Paperback Edition, 304 pages

Published November 1st 2016 by Bethany House Publishers

Mercy Brennan followed in her father's footsteps in a law enforcement career, but she has no interest in any other connection to him. A U.S. Marshal in St. Louis, Missouri, she's assigned to a joint task force with the St. Louis PD that puts her back into contact with her father and in the sights of St. Louis's most powerful gang.

When the gang has reason to believe Mercy has possession of some highly sensitive and incriminating information, her boss assigns Mark St. Laurent--a Deputy U.S. Marshal and Mercy's ex-boyfriend--to get her out of town until they can guarantee her safety.

Initially unaware of the danger she's in and uncomfortable working with Mark, Mercy's frustration escalates when she discovers the extent her boss and Mark have been keeping her in the dark. It isn't until a freak ice storm hits, stranding them at a remote location and out of contact with the district office, that the full severity of their situation becomes clear. As the storm worsens, the forces of nature combine with a deadly enemy closing in to put their lives at imminent risk. Can they survive long enough for help to arrive--if help is even coming at all?

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Rebecca's Review

3 STARS

"I know you won't believe this, . . . . . .but I've loved you every day since you were born, even though I've done a terrible job of showing it."

Those were some of the last words that U. S. Marshall Mercy Brennan every heard her father utter, just before he was brutally murdered in the crosshairs of gang warfare. Did he know he was going to die and thus attempted to make amends for his years of silence and desertion? Mercy can only wonder. Abruptly assigned to a special task force following her father's death, Mercy also has to wonder why one of her partners is a man she tried to push away when he became too close.

Getting caught in an horrific ice storm while traveling with his team to a remote location has Deputy U. S. Marshall Mark St. Laurent a little more than worried. He feels sincere guilt over the fact that Mercy doesn't know the entirety of their mission, how her father's death has implicated her in criminal duplicity; but regardless of her involvement or not, Mercy is in extreme danger and Mark is determined to protect her. Arriving at the designated farm property, the weather turns out to be just one of many obstacles in apprehending the members of a dangerous drug cartel, whose tentacles reach deep into nearly every level of local government and law enforcement.

Enjoy this fast paced first installment in Nancy Mehl's "Defenders of Justice" series, complete with undercover heroes and traitors, tempered by inspiration and romance!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions are entirely my own.

Rebecca is a graduate of Bryan College with a degree in Christian Education and is currently serving at the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, North Carolina as the Director of Children's Ministry. With nearly 28 years of experience in her field, she has had many opportunities to use her love of reading and writing in creative ways across the generations. A wife, mother of four "nearly" grown children, and grandmother to four beautiful grandchildren, Rebecca has been able to return to her love of reading and more recently reviewing, with a renewed passion for the "beauty of story".

~Happy Reading~