Friday 56: The Absence of Mercy by John Burley

 Welcome to this week's Friday 56 - this Friday 56 comes from debut author John Burley's The Absence of Mercy.  John Burley was one of the panelists at ThrillerFest VIII's talk "Silent, Snappy or Soliloquy?: Dialogue in Fiction".   The Absence of Mercy comes out on Nov. 19, 2013 but I was fortunate enough to pick up a signed copy during ThrillerFest VIII.   I'll post a review closer to the book's release date but I can't resist giving the book a shout out.  I stayed up all night reading it. 

The Absence of Mercy by John Burley
ISBN-10: 0062227378 - Paperback $14.99
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (November 19, 2013), 352 pages.
Review copy courtesy of the author and publisher.

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader/
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog in the section below.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Here's my Friday 56 from The Absence of Mercy by John Burley.

The CO was old, erected at least eighty years ago, and had served as county post office for many distinguished decades before its eventual reassignment.  

The blurb:

Just west of the Ohio River, lays the peaceful town of Wintersville. Safe from the crime and congestion of city life, it is the perfect place to raise a family. . .  or so they thought.

Life as the town medical examiner is relatively unhurried for Dr. Ben Stevenson. With only a smattering of cases here and there -- car accident victims, death by natural causes -- he has plenty of time to spend with his loving wife and two sons.  That is until a teenager's body is discovered in the woods and Ben, as the only coroner in the area, is assigned to the case.  But as the increasingly animalistic attacks continue, the case challenges Ben in ways he never suspects.

With its eerie portrait of suburban life and nerve-fraying plot twists, this is psychological suspense at its best--an extraordinary debut that challenges as much as it thrills.

About the Author:

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 medical residency program at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.  He currently serves as an emergency medicine physician in Santa Cruz, California, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, Great Dane, and English bulldog.  This is his first novel.

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