Shades of Mercy takes on the opioid/fentanyl crisis, opening with the death of one of Porter Beck’s best friends from childhood. Like many people addicted to opioids, his friend was seriously hurt and traditional pain management failed him so he turned to trafficked opioids. Finding the source became even more urgent with another death the next day.

Meanwhile, someone took control of a remote missile drone and fired a missile that killed a prize bull belonging to a local rancher, the third in Beck’s high school best friend trio. Beck is astonished by the conspicuous wealth his friend has amassed and his suspicions are raised that he might be involved with the cartels smuggling drugs into his county.

The government enlists his local knowledge in trying to identify who might have been behind the hacking of that missile. These disparate threads come together with a big assortment of bad guys, over-zealous federal agents, and more than enough jeopardy to go around.

I preferred Shades of Mercy to the first novel in the series. The story moved faster. There were still a few improbable characters.The hacker is preternaturally clever, not just in hacking but in reading people. Beck now not only speaks Russian, but Korean and Chinese. The story would be stronger with more investigating and less just knowing.

Too much of Porter Beck feels like wish fulfillment. I know he has a disability, a eye disease. That impediment seems like an effort to make him less than perfect, but simply not knowing every thing would be more interesting.

I received an e-galley of Shades of Mercy from the publisher through NetGalley