Paula Munier’s Mercy Carr mysteries are some of my favorites. Although The Night Woods is the sixth in the series, following my favorite, Home at Night, it can stand alone. It’s another complex story with literary themes woven into it. This time, Munier includes The Odyssey, perfect for soldiers returning for war who suffer from PTSD. Mercy and her search-and-rescue dog, Elvis, were two of those, but family and love helped restore their balance and lives.
Despite pleas from Mercy’s husband, Troy, and her mother, Mercy can’t sit idle although she’s eight months pregnant. She has to be outside, wandering their property and the woods. She has a new friend, a hermit and former classics professor, Homer Grant, and she ends up at his cabin, only to find a dead man with an ax in his chest. Homer’s missing, and so is his bloodhound, Argos. Together with Elvis, she tracks them down in the woods, and finds Homer injured and bleeding. Despite her condition, she finds a way to transport Homer so she can call for help. No one is pleased to see her out in the woods, but she insists on returning to the murder scene to examine it.
When Homer recovers enough to talk with Mercy, he reveals he was working on a new translation of The Odyssey with the dead man. Mercy cares about her new friend, and convinced he didn’t kill the victim, wants to prove his innocence to the police. But, before she can dive too far in, she’s called to another scene by her uncle who runs a security company. Artemis Park is an elite hunting ground for millionaires, and the president of the club is missing. Uncle Hugo wants Mercy’s opinion.
While she’s at the hunting resort, Troy and another game warden find a man’s naked body in Elbow Swamp. Does he have anything to do with the other incidents that are under investigation?
Add in a warming that comes in a blank envelope, a reminder of Mercy’s past as an MP in the army, and there are four different storylines to bring together, not counting the pregnancy one. Munier is a master at handling all the threads of a story, finding the common denominator in various incidents. This time, The Odyssey, a story of soldiers returning home from battle, runs throughout the book.
Paula Munier excels at character development, and introduces a teen, Tandie, in the story. She’s bright, kicked out of too many schools, and she comes to stay for a while with Mercy and Troy. Tandie proves to be a capable attendant for Mercy, a welcome addition to the story.
I’ll admit I was one of those readers who read The Odyssey and anticipated Cold Mountain when it was released in 1997. I quit early on when I was reading it. Cold Mountain was not for me. Munier’s mystery, her own story that includes The Odyssey and returning veterans is much more my type of book. Although Mercy gets in too much trouble for a woman who was supposed to stay close to home, she was an MP. She was military, and she’s too restless. She’s still on her own emotional journey home.
Paula Munier’s website is https://paulamunier.com/.
The Night Woods by Paula Munier. Minotaur Books, 2024. ISBN 9781250887917 (hardcover), 320p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley in order to review the book for a journal.
