Have No Mercy

Bobby Ruble

Bedside Books

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams

David and Todd were friends, best friends, or so David thought. Quiet and studious, David came from a comfortable, loving background and had everything he ever wanted. Todd was different, he had no permanent home, in and out of foster homes from an early age, he was jealous of David and of everything that David had. Especially the money. Todd was very fond of money.

David catches Todd trying to steal from him and almost kills Todd.

Fast forward to a few years later. David has a very comfortable living as a psychiatrist, has married the beautiful Ann, not because he loves her, but because he thinks she'd be a suitable wife. He doesn't know what has become of Todd, but he cares very much. He is filled with rage over Todd's betrayal of their friendship and he wants revenge. Badly.

He gets his chance when he has a new patient, Rennie Laine, the wife of Matt Laine. But once, Matt had another name, Todd Reams...

I would class this a suspense rather than a mystery, because you know everyone's motives from the outset. The first few chapters are filling in background on the characters, which I felt went into too much detail for too much time. I would have preferred perhaps Todd and David meeting again years later, without us knowing what had happened betwen them yet, just knowing that something did.

The first few chapters seemed to be setting the scene where you were waiting for something to happen, and happen it did. Once the plot got going, it was a corkscrew of twists and turns, secrets, betrayals and murder. The pace moved faster after that and it felt as if you were being washed away by a raging current and hardly had time to take a breath.

The ending has an excellent twist and if you like suspense, you'll love this.

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