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    No Mercy
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    No Mercy
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    No Mercy
    Ebook343 pages3 hours

    No Mercy

    By John Burley

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    No Mercy is a harrowing tale of suspense, brutal murder and the dark secrets that lie beneath the surface of a placid, tight-knit town.

    Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay this is a page-turning thriller.

    The peaceful town of Wintersville is a place safe from the crime and congestion of city life, where neighbours feel like family. It’s the perfect place to live.

    But when a teenager is discovered brutally murdered in the woods, it becomes clear that a psychopath is roaming the streets. Dr Ben Stevenson, the town’s medical examiner, and father of two young boys, becomes entangled in the hunt for the murderer, determined to keep his family safe.

    But as Ben uncovers the dark secrets of his seemingly quiet community, he confronts a truth that will haunt him forever and puts those he loves in serious danger.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJul 3, 2014
    ISBN9780007559497
    Unavailable
    No Mercy
    Author

    John Burley

    John Burley grew up in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. He worked as a paramedic and volunteer firefighter before attending medical school in Chicago and completing an Emergency Medicine residency program at University of Maryland Medical Center / Shock Trauma in Baltimore. He currently serves as an Emergency Department physician in northern California, where he lives with his wife, daughter, great dane, and english bulldog. No Mercy is his first novel.

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    Reviews for No Mercy

    3.5/5

    73 ratings24 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Book Description John Burley’s The Absence of Mercy is a harrowing tale of suspense involving a brutal murder and dark secrets that lie beneath the surface of a placid, tight-knit Midwestern town. When a brutally murdered teenager is discovered in the woods surrounding a small Ohio town, Dr. Ben Stevenson—the town’s medical examiner—must decide if he’s willing to put his family’s life in danger to uncover the truth. Finding himself pulled deeper into an investigation with devastating consequences, he discovers shocking information that will shatter his quiet community, and force him to confront a haunting truth. With its eerie portrait of suburban life and nerve-fraying plot twists, The Absence of Mercy is domestic drama at its best for fans of Harlan Coben, Laura Lippman, Jennifer McMahon, and Lisa Gardner. My Review This book is an excellent debut of a psychological thriller. Some of the descriptions of the murders and autopsies are disturbing and very real. The ending was a real shock and one I did not expect. I will be looking forward to reading his next book!
    • 3/5
      This book seems a little gothic. I loved the writing. It was intense. However, an ending would have been nice.
    • 3/5
      Wintersville a sleepy town in Ohio, a brutally murdered teenager is discovered. Ben Stevenson the towns medical examiner, father of two tries to find the killer whilst keeping his family safe.This book I found to be a very slightly below average thriller. The story itself was ok but was at times slow. There is lots of non important elements where I felt the author was perhaps trying to pad the story out.The story had a few flaws with what I felt was one big one. Without giving anything away to anybody who may enjoy this book, I felt that the one big lead was right infront of Ben the whole time. Ben being the expert should have seen it.I found myself skipping pages just to see who it was but by this time it didn't matter to me. The story was there but it was missing something to give it that pull. A very average read for me.
    • 4/5
      I love a good thriller and I definitely enjoyed The Absence of Mercy by John Burley. It reminds me a bit of Defending Jacob by William Landay; both begin with the murder of a teenager, and both deal with a father who is a central character in the investigation. In Absence of Mercy, Dr. Ben Stevenson is the local coroner; his wife is a doctor at the local hospital and his sons, Thomas and Joel, went to school with the victim. As more victims pile up in the city morgue, his family is drawn deeper into the mystery.The murder mystery itself kept me turning pages. The murders are fast and brutal, shocking to the quiet town of Winterville. Stevenson is worried about his family and their safety, and that clearly puts a strain on his marriage and family relationships. He argues with his wife, he is at odds with his son, and you have to wonder if the tension is caused by the strain of the case -- or if there is something more sinister going on. There are some clues, but they are fairly subtle and don't spoil the twists and turns ahead. When a victim survives an attack and is later befriended by Thomas, things begin to get more interesting.There are some good themes to play with here and Burley does a good job of keeping you guessing, without making the final solution come completely out of nowhere. I hate when that happens! I want to feel that if I went back, read a little more closely, thought more critically about some of the details, I would have guessed the killer well before the ending. I hate hidden paths to the truth that let only the author know what's going on, with no chance for the rest of us.Burley also takes a fairly common twist (I don't want to spoil it for you, so trust me, it's definitely something you've read before) and turns it on its head. Although I had an idea where he was heading, the twist took a turn I wasn't expecting at all. Definitely made me happy -- I love to be surprised by a clever ending.This one is a good choice for mystery lovers who like a few twists, but also don't like to get too far off the beaten path. I suspect that you'll be seeing this one day soon at your local movie theater -- I think I would be a terrific film, lots of cool characters to play with here. I would definitely buy a ticket.
    • 4/5
      A serial killer is murdering teenagers in the quit town of Wintersvillle, Ohio, The coroner, Dr. Ben Stevenson sees the grotesque ways the killer has mutilated his victims. Not only does he worry about his own two sons but his own sanity as the town becomes prey.A well written debut novel that not only has this reader thinking, it was filled with enough twists to keep me guessing also. I found the characters, especially Ben to be real and sympathized with him. The dialogue too was realistic and nothing about this book felt forced. Definitely a very good psychological thriller!
    • 1/5
      Sorry but this was not necessarily a thriller as much as a diabolical murder tale. The writing was disjointed and there was an editorial mistake in the first chapter which always puts me off. Gruesome story.
    • 4/5
      The story starts out with a brutal murder in a small town that has the medical examiner, Dr. Ben Stevenson and his family immersed in the mystery of who the killer is. This is a close knit community that is extremely concerned for their teenage children, including a curfew for Ben's oldest son Thomas. Another teenager is attacked but survives the horrific attack but is in a coma. She is a classmate of Thomas's and he devoted himself to bring her out of her coma and spends all his time in her recovery. Time goes on and Ben and the police are no closer to find out who the serial killer is, but he comes to some realizations that he finds hard to believe and puts all he believes in and loves at risk. The author is a physician himself so when reading about the medical aspects of the murders, the autopsies and other medical facts, it was very believable. A psychological thriller by a new author who I hope to read more of. I love a good mystery and this one pleased me immensely.
    • 3/5
      My computer is at the Dr, so I have to do this on my iPhone. It was difficult in the beginning to follow how the chapters shifted from on character to another. As a debut Novel, some were seamless and others were not. This was not my favorite read, but still held its own. Sorry this is late, I forgot that I hadn't done the review. Lack of effect of the novel on my mind.
    • 4/5
      Because I so enjoyed the narrative and literary tension in Defending Jacob, a friend recommended Absence of Mercy to me. There were definite parallels in the story line both of which center around comfortable professional families with a child who may be profoundly psychologically damaged and who may (or may not) be acting in a destructive manner which affects both the nuclear family and the community of which they are part. The parents, both physicians, have two children, a dog, a circle of friends and a home in a small community. There is a gruesome murder of a teenager, and then a violent attack on a classmate of the family's older child. It essentially boils down to "whodunit," but the family dynamics and the plot specifics make The Absence of Mercy a good read, with relatable characters and a briskly paced story that pulls you back to see "what happens next."
    • 4/5
      I received this book through the Early Review program. The novel started off strong for me, and I enjoyed the characters and plot until about a little past halfway. At that point my interest waned, but I read on to the end. The characters just seemed to lose their identity from early in the book. It was like the book just needed to be finished. I would much rather a book build slowly and then finish strong. With that said I will still look for future books by John Burley. I certainly am not a writer, but I think the author has a future.
    • 4/5
      Great book!1. written by MD2. suspense3. psycho serial killerAll three in one story -- love it! Love books by doctors since I was pre-med in college. I've read several books by Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, and Michael Palmer because I love the science/medicine aspect that they bring to their novels. This had a great mystery with a twist I wasn't expecting. The ending left things a little open to a follow-up, but even if there's no sequel, it's good enough.Definitely would read more from this author.
    • 3/5
      An Early Reviewer win.SPOILERS WITHIN REVIEWOn the whole I liked the book. It was a good story. But I had some problems with it. Some minor and some rather major.I felt the beginning was too much of an info dump. I frankly don't need to know exactly what turns need to be made on what streets to get somewhere. I find it distracting and it often feels like padding in a story to me. And it's sort of, "Yeah, yeah, you've been to this town, or at least looked at some maps. Great." Too much medspeak during the autopsy. I know the author is a doctor and that's all well and good, but the full description in very specific medical language could have been cut. Again, it was very distracting and almost felt like the author was showing he knew what he was talking about. There are other ways of doing that besides using technical language that can distract or even turn off the reader.The mental patients. God, this one really bothered me. Very one-dimensional almost to the point of caricature. I may not be bipolar psychotic, but I am bipolar. I've also spent time on a psych ward. And the guy who wouldn't talk because the sprinkler was really a microphone? Can we get an more cliche? But all of these are first novel problems that can be resolved with practice. And this was a good thriller. However, there's still the problem of the killer. I figured out who it was but not why he suddenly seemed to start killing out of the blue. But that's explained. And it's because his mother is FULL OF STUPID. She not only never tried to get her son help EVEN THOUGH SHE KNEW HE WAS A SOCIOPATH BUT SHE KEPT THE WHOLE THING A SECRET FROM HER HUSBAND. Seriously? That's something you would keep to yourself? It's bad enough when he was killing animals, but even after you knew he was tried to kill his brother (and it was brushed off as a fall instead)? Even after he started killing people in your small town? And then while on vacation with him and your other son, you get a call and realize police have figured it out, you leave with both sons for Mexico AND YOU THINK YOUR SOCIOPATH/PSYCHOPATH SON MIGHT NOT JUST TURN ON YOU? Just how stupid are you, lady? So yeah. I'm not completely sure I can recommend this book, even though the story was actually pretty good. Because everything having to do with the killer was just full of people being stupid. I'd be interested in seeing if he can resolve the stupid issue in a later book.
    • 4/5
      Dr Ben Stevenson thought he knew the people in the sleepy Ohio town where he and his wife chose to raise their two children. He was wrong. He thought he knew his wife and children. He was wrong. He thought he knew how far he would go to protect them. He was wrong. If you have a family that you have devoted your life to raising and protecting, this thriller will sneak up on you and hit you right where it hurts. If you think this sort of violence would never happen in your neighborhood, you're wrong. If you think you've seen or read it all, you haven't. If you haven't had a chill run down your spine lately, now's the time. If you are a bit put off by pedantic descriptions of extensive autopsy procedures in the early chapters, hang in there, the story gets better.
    • 3/5
      It is difficult to review this book without disclosing the person responsible for the horribly sadistic murders in a small Ohio town. It is possible to relate that the person's identity adds further levels of complexity and pain to this novel. The suspense doesn't conclude when the perpetrator is eventually tracked because the apprehension is thwarted by a family member. The moral dilemma of the sociopath's family becomes the focus and thought-provoking conclusion of this debut novel.
    • 4/5
      I was completely hooked from the first page of John Burley’s psychological suspense novel. The author immediately grabs your attention by describing a grotesque murder and mutilation of a boy in the woods of Wintersville, Ohio. The body is so brutally savaged that it's almost impossible for authorities to make an accurate identification once the dead boy is discovered. Given the lack of identity, panicked parents await their children’s return from school, Ben and Susan Stevenson among them. When sixteen-year-old Thomas arrives on the bus, their relief is only eased by the knowledge that Ben, the town medical examiner, will be doing the autopsy on the victim. Before long Ben and the police face the daunting task of finding a monster, calming a community, and facing the intruding microphones of eager reporters wanting a story. A long nightmare has begun, one that haunts Ben’s waking and sleeping hours, from his work as medical examiner to the home front where his fear has infected family harmony.

      The book is quite well-written for a debut novel and the author, a physician himself, knows the medical end of the story quite well. It could have used a better editor or proofreader but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. This book is a good choice for mystery lovers who like a few twists, but also don’t like to get too far off the beaten path. I will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author.
    • 1/5
      I could subtitle this review “I was so bored.” The premise was enchanting; the execution, not so much. Dr. Ben Stevenson, pathologist, is a small-town medical examiner, a very undemanding job until the first victim of a serial killer turns up, mutilated, and the second is a friend of his oldest son’s. The killer eventually begins taunting Stevenson, who fears for his family, yadda, yadda, yadda. You might think it is not easy to make a serial killer book boring. I knew I was in trouble when the first pages were from the point-of-view of Unknown Psychopathic Killer. This rarely bodes well in my experience. However, I gave the book the benefit of the doubt and soldiered on. After all, a small-town medical examiner is a favorite premise of mine, and the father struggling with his fears could be a fascinating psychological portrait.Could be.So, here’s where the book lost me. The crazily shifting point-of-view meant I never identified with any of the characters and I wasn’t invested in the outcome to begin with. Clunky foreshadowing and anvil-on-the-head hints meant that I was just waiting for the characters to finally catch up to me (sadly, I was not mistaken when I guessed the outcome early on). When they finally did catch up, the book dragged on for some time for no apparent reason, to an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. I didn’t even care that the ending was unsatisfying, because, thank the literature gods, the book was over! Source disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      No Mercy – Yes PleaseJohn Burley’s debut crime thriller, No Mercy, is yet another winner winner chicken dinner for AvonBooks the imprint of HarperCollins how do they do it? It would be easy to fill this up with all the clichés going, page turner, gripping, cilling as it all those and so much more. Burley uses all his experience as a medic in this novel plus he has a fondness for a few smart words too; hebetudinous and precipitation you can just use dullness and rain/snow we will let you. Dr Ben Stephenson is a pathologist and also the coroner for Jefferson County in Ohio, he is married to Susan also a physician in practice they have two sons, Thomas and Joel as well as Alex the Great their Great Dane. They live in small town America where you know everyone, where church and school are at the centre of the town activities and nothing really happens here unlike the local big city of Pittsburgh.Everything changes when there are two murders and an attempted murder of teenagers from the town. Something that affects the town badly as this is their soft underbelly and it has been left exposed by senseless murders that do not happen in small town America. Both the murders and the attempted murder are exceptional for the extreme nature and slashing of the body and the amputations that take place and this goes right to the psyche of the local population.Ben is central to the investigation as the local coroner and knows the depths that the murderer has stooped too. Whether he notices what is going on around him is a different matter as he is totally absorbed at looking for clues to give to the police. From here on in it would be easy to carry on about the plot but I would need to put spoiler alerts everywhere. Ben is our central character rather than the murderer and we are able to see the toll this investigation takes on him and his family.John Burley has the thriller reader wanting to get to the end so that we can find out who the killer is, is he or she local are they outsiders? You really want to find out and the best thing about Burley he does not telegraph who the murderer could be until his reveal and then hunt. This thriller grabs you by the throat and does not let you go until the end this is everything that you want from a crime thriller. The anticipation and excitement of the hunt the pace and feeling of desperation for the police as their searches seem to continue to no avail. This is a novel that you will easily get wrapped up in there is only one disappointing aspect, you have to finish eventually. Brilliant and stunning debut and a welcome addition to the crime thriller genre.In the UK this will be published as No Mercy
    • 4/5
      In the woods near the small town of Wintersville a body of a young man is found brutally murdered and mangled. That is followed by the equally destructive death of a young girl. The narrator in this book is the small town Medical Examiner Dr.Ben Stevenson who tries to help the police and FBI find out who or what is killing in their in protected and quiet community. This story is an exciting, suspenseful psychological thriller. For a first novel, the characters are amazingly well developed and I enjoyed the way that the characters came to life as the tension of the story builds. I would definitely recommend this book as it is one that you begin reading and keep gong as you can’t wait to see what is discovered next. Thank you to Librarything and Morrow Publishing for the opportunity to read this exciting book. I give it a full four stars.
    • 5/5
      The Absence of Mercy: A Novel by John Burley is a very intense suspenseful psychological thriller. It was so hard for me to put the book done and I was relieved when I had time to go back to the story. John Burley is incredibly talented in his development of characters. The story told by the town medical examiner Dr. Ben Stevenson. The setting is in Wintersville, Ohio, a small town where the usual quiet of no bad news was ripped to shreds by a serial killer. A teenager’s body was found in the woods, he was stabbed to death on the way home from school. The wounds were so savage and the victim had no chance of escaping death. Susan, Ben’s wife hears about the murder before him and asks him if he had spoken to Thomas this afternoon. He is late from coming home from school. Ben explains that Ben has a wresting meet that afternoon. Ben has trouble believing his wife’s news. Nothing gruesome like that ever happens in Wintersville. He finds out later that it is true is and he has to do the autopsy. His assistant, Nat is a young kid and is not bothered by dead bodies at all in fact he is fascinated by them.John Burley does an excellent job in setting up red herrings and also gets deep into Dr. Ben Stevenson’s thoughts and feelings. In fact after I realized who the serial killer was, I did not want it to be that person! But then I realized that it could only be that one. I loved how the author shaped the relationships between Ben and his wife, between Thomas and Joel and between Thomas and his girlfriend.I don’t usually feel that I would love to read a book again but this book is an exception! Now that I know who the killer is, I would like the different experience of re-reading that book with that knowledge.This is a gem of a thriller. I highly recommend it. I received this book from Library Thing but that in no way influenced my review. My thoughts and my feelings in it are my own.
    • 4/5
      In a keep-you-up-all-night book, we are introduced to a maniacal killer. This murderer bites his victims, stabs them repeatedly, cuts off body parts and then leaves them to die (if they aren’t already dead). Thus is the new world of the police, families and Coroner’s Office in Wintersville, OH. Dr. Ben Stevenson, coroner is handed the first victim – a boy – and is appalled by the damage a human being has done to him. They have no identity, only what he has on and no missing person reports at first. Since the boy is about the age of Ben’s oldest son, Thomas, Ben is shaken to the core. As is his wife, a doctor as well. She worries about Thomas and Joel, the youngest – more than Ben.The killings continue, then go silent until a pair of high-schoolers snowmobiling find the body that matches the frozen arm left on Ben’s door at his office.A book of nightmares, love and a very crude Morgue attendant. Who is behind the killings? Do they really want to know? Turns out, maybe not. The ending will shake all you believe in. A great tale very well written for a first novel. I’m sure there will be many, many more. Out in December.
    • 4/5
      John Burley makes his fiction debut with The Absence of Mercy.In the small Ohio town of Wintersville, Dr. Ben Stevenson wears two hats - that of the town doctor and when needed, that of the medical examiner.But rarely is he called to examine violent deaths - Wintersville is a place where the neighbours all know your name - and a lot of times, your business.Who then could be responsible for the frenzied attack on a local teenager that left him dead in a field? Suddenly, folks are locking their doors and keeping their kids close. That goes double for Ben. His older son was friends with the slain boy. Ben becomes more involved with the investigation, especially when another attack occurs - and the victim is found barely alive.Burley explores the reaction to such a crime through the townsfolk, most notably the teenagers in town and through Ben's eyes - both as a father and a coroner. This is a lot of the focus of the book, as there are not a lot of clues to follow. Instead, things ratchet up a notch when the killer's identity becomes known. While I was not overly surprised at this turn, it did raise some interesting questions. I was surprised at where Burley chose to take his story after that - it was a nice twist. I'm not sure if I liked the ending, but again it wasn't nice and tied up with a bow. I like that. And I liked this debut by John Burley - I would pick up his next book without hesitation.Burley's background is in medicine. This background certainly gives the medical scenes a ring of authenticity. But, after a few lengthy descriptions it also had me skipping further explanations - they were filled with too much 'technical' jargon.The title? "The same was true for the absence of mercy – not because mercy was something such individuals chose to withhold, but because it was a faculty they simply did not possess." Chilling.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this book.But if you do not like some gory murders do not read this one.
    • 3/5
      Wow! What a page-turner! This book had my crying by chapter 5. The story is chilling, gripping, and downright exciting. This is the first book from John Burley that I ever read, and it will certainly not be the last.
    • 3/5
      Three young adults have been killed in a town south of Pittsburgh. Ben Stevenson is a pathologist that works for the Allegheny County Coroner's Office. He has the gruesome job of examining the bodies and then to report the findings. He notes: "People never look carefully at what's directly in front of them." Readers can probably guess who the killer is early on or half way through as the author gives hints along the way. While it flows well and is easy to read, the plot was on the slow side for me.