Shades of Mercy

Sheriff Porter Beck is concerned about the rise in fatal overdoses in his county, but he can’t find the source of the drugs. One night, an armed, remotely flown military plane is hacked and fires a precision missile that targets and kills Jessie Roy’s prize bull. Roy’s vast, green, and much too well-equipped ranch is guarded by Mexican staff, and Beck is suspicious. Pursuing the plane hacking, Beck learns about Mercy, a teenager in the local prison who has been jailed for hacking into a bank. Could the computer whiz be guilty of the missile strike, even from behind bars? But why commandeer a plane to kill a bull? The plot thickens to include drugs and guns, a Mexican cartel, a Chinese spy, and a secret government agency, all vying for control over Mercy. Borgos continues the Porter Beck series with a complicated and convoluted plot that requires gun fights, explosions, and near-death experiences to solve the mystery. Note that is uses some racial and ethnic stereotypes in its portrayal of drug and gun trafficking. James Babson narrates well with a wide variety of voices and accents.