Andrew Welsh-Huggins may have created the most unsuspecting super-agent of all time. Mercury "Merc" Carter, aka the Mailman, possesses all of the fighting prowess of Jack Reacher combined with the ability to use various technology to destroy any adversary who gets in his way.

In THE MAILMAN, Merc's original mission is not to save a married couple who are being subjected to a home invasion and torture session. He has a far simpler assignment, which is to deliver a package to attorney Rachel Stanfield. But Rachel has been kidnapped, while her husband, Glenn, is left behind to tag along with Merc.

"THE MAILMAN provides zero opportunity to catch your breath from start to finish, and Mercury Carter is one of the most confounding yet satisfying characters I have read in any thriller."

There is no time to breathe or place to hide during THE MAILMAN as this attack happens on the first page and continues to accelerate into wildly unpredictable places. The criminals, led by Finn, initially seem to want a deposition that Rachel had been a part of. This expands into needing information from her about a woman named Stella Wolford and an item mysteriously called 22/7. The truth behind all of this is left unknown for most of the book, but the revelations are well worth the wait.

There is another character whose safety is threatened: Rachel and Glenn’s daughter, Abby, who is away at college. Merc and Glenn try to get to her before Finn and his goons find her, even though Finn still has Rachel along for the ride with him. Abby initially has no clue what is going on and wants to know why her father and a courier has shown up at her school. She gets up to speed quickly and becomes a valuable ally to Merc in his mission to find Rachel and make his delivery to her.

Our freelance mailman stays one step ahead of Finn and those he works for by taking them down one at a time. There are some great chase scenes and plenty of action-packed violence to keep the narrative humming along. I had no doubt that Merc would succeed in his mission, but I still had no clue what was in the package that he was so determined to deliver.

The villains are into a lot of shady dealings that include lottery scams, but once all is revealed about 22/7, the true danger behind their plot is realized. And it’s a doozy! THE MAILMAN provides zero opportunity to catch your breath from start to finish, and Mercury Carter is one of the most confounding yet satisfying characters I have read in any thriller. As this is the start of a series, I look forward to his return.