The gangs all back: expectant parents, Mercy and Troy, and their adorable K9’s, Elvis and Susie Bear. Grandma Patience, the local veterinarian, is also back along with Mercy’s mom, Grace, who is still bugging the crap out of Mercy so much that she can barely stand being around her for very long. Amy and little Helena are back too, along with Brodie, who becomes a welcome addition to one of the storylines.

There’s a new addition to the cast, Tandie, the 16yr old daughter of Mercy’s cousin. Ed. Tandie has been expelled from school for the rest of the year and her mother has sent her to her father because she has decided it’s his turn to deal with their daughter. Single, working dad, Ed has convinced Mercy that if Tandie can stay with her and Troy, she can help when the baby comes, which is any day now. No worries, a very pregnant Mercy has no intention of letting this stop her from stumbling through the forest, with Elvis, where killer boars are loose, just so she can go play scrabble with a hermit. Good grief!!!

The book summary pretty much lays out all the different storylines of Mercy’s impending delivery date, Troy’s tracking of wild killer boars along with a missing hunter, Tandie’s arrival as well as Homer’s convalescing in Mercy and Troy’s home, along with his trusted companion, Argos, a bloodhound. Homer, a former Dartmouth literature professor, has spent 15yrs off-grid in the wilds of Vermont grieving the deaths of his wife and daughter. He was attacked and unconscious when Mercy and Elvis show up (to play scrabble), and his good friend, a Dartmouth professor and former colleague, lays dead.

There is a lot going on here, which keeps the story moving along at a really steady pace. The chapters transition well among all the different storylines and keep the flow of information coming at a pretty steady pace. Deep into the second half, the storylines begin to merge and there are some really intense scenes that had me up reading late because I could not go to sleep until I knew how it ended.

"Of all the soldiers, who came home to a place they could no longer recognize and could no longer navigate. A place they could no longer call home, no matter how hard they tried."

Mercy Carr

I mostly flipped back and forth between the book and the audiobook; I really like the narrator, Kathleen McInerney. She narrates another one of my fave series, so I enjoy her work. While I enjoyed the audiobook, I’m so glad I had the ebook too, for those nights that I needed a break from the other book I was reading, that was kind of boring me. The continuing character developed on the story’s MC’s as well as some of the ensemble characters was well done. The pacing was steady and the storyline very interesting. The writing was classic Munier, and I love the addition of doggies Argos and Monroe, making this installment a great addition to the series. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.2 that I’ll be rounding down to a 4star review. I want to thank NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #MacmillanAudio #TheNightWoods

To start off with the positives, this book is well written and the narrator (Kathleen McInerney) did a nice job with the audio. I just think this particular whodunit wasn’t for me at this stage of my life. I’ve been into graphic gory novels, which this is not. I felt like too much of the book was focused on events unrelated to the case. For those looking for a milder female protagonist whodunit involving heroic canines without gore or spicy content, this is for you! Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of The Night Woods by Paula Munier in exchange for an honest review.