One of the most enjoyable — and prevalent — tropes in crime fiction is what one might call, “the Jack Reacher variation,” aka the lone avenger/slayer of scum, if you will. This subgenre crosses with others, including westerns, PI novels. Various crime fiction authors deploy this trope, such as Thomas Perry (including Silence, The Boyfriend, and his latest, Pro Bono). And here is yet another entertaining variation – no doubt the start of a series – The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.
Mercury Carter is a “mailman” of sorts who appears one day out of the blue at the suburban Indiana home of a squabbling couple, the Stanfields: an attorney named Rachel and her husband Glen, and Glen’s teen daughter, Abby. Carter says he has a “package” (of indeterminant content) for Rachel.
There’s just one problem. Before Mercury arrives, a man named Finn and his gang of henchmen have shown up, to continue pressuring Rachel for the deposition of a past client Finn and his boys have a significant interest in obtaining. Mercury quickly ascertains the peril of the family he’s unexpectedly dropped in on, but Finn puts him off, saying Rachel isn’t home, and Carter tells him he’ll just wait outside in his SUV. Soon, one of the thugs is sent out by Finn to “handle it.”
Bad idea. As the man comes to SUV’s window, brandishing a gun, Carter makes his move: “Oh well, Carter thought. He depressed the power button, lowered the window, shouted “Boo,” squeezed his eyes shut, and emptied [a] canister of Mace in his hand into the man’s face.” And away we go. Before long, Carter has fought off some of Finn’s crew, but still, Rachel is kidnapped by Finn and his remaining enforcer. Carter must disarm a bomb strapped by Finn on a subdued Glen (a real idiot, it must be said) before it’s remotely detonated. Which he barely does.
The story then takes on another major aspect of the “lone wolf” genre: driving. Lots of driving – across states, cities and rural environs while Rachel is moved around the Midwest by Finn. Complicating matters, Abby is also kidnapped and held. As Carter and Glen search for Rachel, and soon, Abby as well, Carter has an ace in his pocket – his uncle in the police force, who can access databases and help identify the identity of various players along the way.
Mixed in with all the action, we learn Carter’s backstory – his father, employed by the Post Office, was killed in the line of his postal duties, and when Carter attempts to investigate, he’s stymied by a man in the PO who may be a crooked adversary.
Welsh-Huggins isn’t shy about populating his story with an expansive cast – and at times it feels overly expansive, but the novel hums along with numerous, superbly executed acts of derring-do by Carter. When our hero needs to dispatch Paddy, one of Finn’s associates, he gets creative, grabbing the end of a garden hose: “… draping a loop of hose around Paddy’s neck, and jerking back hard, like a man putting everything into starting a lawnmower. In the same moment, Carter used his right foot to kick Paddy’s knee out from under him and gave the hose just enough play to allow the heavy man to fall face first onto the brick walk with a grunt…twisting the hose once before pulling it back as he drove his weight onto Paddy’s shoulder blades.” He fights off the man’s struggles, and “…gave it a full two minutes, at the end of which he heard the click of Paddy’s hyoid bone fracturing and felt a shudder in Paddy’s legs.”
In another scene, reminiscent of a Hong Kong action flick where common objects take on a lethal element, Carter weaponizes a stainless steel clipboard as a man tries to slam a door on him: “Carter moved fast, gliding through the [door’s] opening and jabbing the clipboard’s short edge against the man’s windpipe jutting out above his white wifebeater…The man stumbled backward…hand’s rising to his throat, gagging for air that wouldn’t come. Carter pulled the door all the way open and brought the clipboard down hard onto Wifebeater’s head, stepping to the side as the man…dropped to the floor – huh-huh-huh-ing the entire time – and collapsed.”
While Carter isn’t quite a full-fledged vigilante that Jack Reacher is, he certainly has the requisite moves, and if he has to take out – permanently- a few criminals along the way, cest la vie – he’s on the side on Right! And that’s how we like our killing, righteous all the way!
The Mailman is an auspicious series debut. Mercury Carter is a terrific addition to the solitary, quick thinking, resourceful contemporary knight in white. Carter truly embodies that reassuring, though unofficial promise from your dedicated postal service: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” (Let’s add: bombs, guns, excessive driving, too!)
And what is that “delivery” Carter wants so badly to make to Rachel? Don’t hold your breath – it’s a full 344 pages until the reveal.
This reader eagerly awaits Welsh-Huggins’ dedicated courier’s next assignment.
Andrew, a son of the Finger Lakes and now longtime Ohio resident, is the Shamus, Derringer, and International Thriller Writers-award nominated author of 10 mystery novels and two nonfiction books, and editor of a short-story anthology
His latest novel, The Mailman, is a Library Journal pick of the month. Publishers Weekly said of the thriller: “With full-throttle pacing from start to finish, this will have Jack Reacher fans hoping Carter is back in action soon.”
