True love wins out in this fun crime thriller with a sci-fi twist.
When Sam Stanton’s partner Michelle and her family are murdered, his world is shattered. Despite being an extraterrestrial placed on Earth to protect its citizens from the burgeoning crime rates, he couldn’t protect the one woman who meant the world to him. Even worse, he was the reason she was targeted. Unable to bear the burden of life without her, Sam leaves Earth to spend time on the planet where he was born, among his own people.
The world still needs its hero, though, and the shadowy organization that Sam thought he had destroyed looks like it is returning more powerful than ever. So, despite misgivings, Sam returns to Earth. And returns to the job of Guardian.
Things on Earth are more desperate than ever, with crime lurking deep within the highest government agencies. When Sam meets Detective Leona Martin, the first woman since Michelle to influence his battered heart, he realizes that if he fails this time, he may once again lose the woman he loves.
When Mercy Died is the second book in the Extraterrestrial trilogy, exploring the grey areas of the US judicial system through a sci-fi lens. While it leans toward being an action novel with a dose of espionage, the romantic and familial plots are far more prevalent.
The foundation of When Mercy Died is gripping—an extraterrestrial from a utopian planet raised on Earth has to try to align its values to that of his home world. There’s so much scope for an in-depth analysis of how and why crime occurs. Instead of digging into this, When Mercy Dies takes a more superhero approach to the issue. Sam is stronger, faster, and more physically resilient than a typical human. As such, When Mercy Dies has the feeling of an action-packed superhero franchise with a hefty dose of family drama. Aside from his new love, Sam is surrounded by relatives, both blood and adopted. With his biological family visiting Earth and all the romantic drama his sister gets caught up in, navigating the cultural differences between his homeland and his adoptive planet becomes a central concern to the storyline.
The world and its inhabitants are built without much proof in the prose or dialogue. There’s a simplicity to it that sometimes feels slightly clumsy. The characters who dislike Sam are evil, and any who like him are good. Characters consistently say exactly what they’re thinking and develop deeply trusting or distrusting relationships in the first few minutes of meeting one another. Overall, the story feels like it pulls up short on nuance, depth of character exploration, and complexity of cultural and political ideas—important in a book like this.
Despite this, the family dynamics and interplanetary interactions are thought-provoking and often fun, and the revenge element of the story has incredibly satisfying moments, especially as closure to the grief Sam endures at the start of the novel.
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