Lesa's Book Critiques: The Delivery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Delivery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Delivery: A Mercury Carter Thriller by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

 

Make sure you read Aubrey’s review of The Mail Man, the preceding book, here.

 

The Delivery (Mysterious Press, March 2026) by Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the second thriller about former U.S. Postal Inspection Service agent Mercury Carter. Carter is now a freelance courier, hand-transporting cargo too precious to entrust to the usual delivery mechanisms.

In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Carter is en route to Providence to deliver a vintage 1951 baseball card signed by Cleveland Indians/Boston Red Sox shortstop Lou Boudreau to 91-year-old Lenny Pellegrino, who had seen Boudreau play in person. Carter, also a baseball fan, was looking forward to making the delivery and meeting Pellegrino.

The pounding rain makes navigation precarious and Carter encounters a wrecked vehicle with an unresponsive driver, an obvious victim of hydroplaning and diminished visibility. He is attempting to extract the bloodied woman behind the wheel when another vehicle stops and its driver, a large man with a gun, demands that Carter get away from the accident victim. Carter declines and the first physical altercation of the book, and there are many, ensues.

Thus begins a complicated tale in which Carter takes on what he thinks will be a quick delivery in Pawtucket before he goes on to Providence, which turns out to be nothing of the sort. The quick side trip spirals into multiple encounters with an assortment of human rogues--traffickers, drug sellers, and IT fraudsters--each of whom is running a separate con while angling for a larger piece of the profits from the various scams underway with their colleagues. Double-crossing and backstabbing abound.

As expected, Carter’s quick wit and resourcefulness come into play again and again. It takes some time to sort through the assorted agendas of the multiple players and their schemes, I had to re-read sections of the narrative here and there to make sure I understood them, but Carter eventually works his way through a truly impressive quagmire of grift, larceny, and violence to the other side and a satisfying ending.

I am grateful for the early review copy of Mercury Carter’s latest adventure and recommend it unreservedly to thriller fans who will be pleased to make Mercury’s acquaintance.

 

·         Publisher: ‎The Mysterious Press

·         Publication date: ‎March 24, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎336 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1613167172

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1613167175

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Nv0ZtY 

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Andrew Welsh-Huggins is an accomplished author of 11 books who has been nominated for the Shamus, Derringer, and International Thriller Writers-awards. Welsh-Huggins is also the editor of Columbus Noir (Akashic Books, 2020), and his short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Tribune, among others. He’s written eight mysteries about Andy Hayes, a former Ohio State University quarterback turned private investigator. His nonfiction book No Winners Here Tonight (Ohio University Press, 2009) is the definitive history of the death penalty in Ohio. Hatred at Home: al-Qaida on Trial in the American Midwest (Swallow Press, 2011) documents a lengthy government investigation into terrorism that started in Columbus, Ohio.

The Mailman (Mysterious Press, January 28, 2025) launches a new thriller series with an original main character who takes the post office’s motto on the indefatigability of a mail carrier a step or two further. It wasn’t snow or rain that was interfering with independent courier Mercury Carter’s attempt to make a delivery to Rachel Stanfield, it was the full-blown home invasion that was in progress when he arrived. He makes short work of the thugs at the door of the Stanfield house; the remaining toughs flee this unexpected interference, taking Rachel with them. Carter follows them from Indianapolis into Illinois and points south, intent on completing the hand-off he was hired for. Each stop along the way involves a confrontation in which the kidnappers come off second best but not convincingly enough to make them leave Rachel behind.

Carter’s background as a postal inspection agent is a novel way to establish plausible law enforcement experience as well as knowledge of the mechanics of package delivery. Carter demonstrates creativity in problem solving. For instance when he needs a different vehicle because his is familiar to the kidnappers, he takes advantage of the labor shortage everywhere and signs on as pizza delivery guy just to access a different car for a short time. The pizza shop owner’s frustration when she realized her new driver lasted about an hour was palpable, understandable, and funny. All in all, Mercury Carter is an excellent contribution to the crime fiction hero pantheon. I am looking forward to the next installment of Carter’s adventures. Recommended.

Library Journal starred review and Library Journal Mystery Pick of the Month.

·         Publisher: ‎Mysterious Press (January 28, 2025)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎360 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1613166109

·         ISBN-13: ‎+978-1613166109

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3CgNwjN 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.